The book was a para-dox to me. I felt deceived by its title, What Color is Your Parachute? For Retirement, yet I couldn’t put it down.

I read it over the course of a lakeside vacation, when I should have been fishing, fixing the dock, swimming or just plain relaxing with a cold beverage. Instead, I kept going back to this book by Richard Bolles and John Nelson, and I made my wife endure more discussion about our personal retirement plans than ever before, prompted by questions the authors raised.

First to the deception, or should I call it “marketing licence”? The book is advertised as being written by Bolles and Nelson. My sense, however, is Bolles’ contribution was minimal. It’s not that Nelson isn’t a qualified and credible writer; it’s just that I have long been a fan of Bolles’ original megaseller, What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers, which sold almost 10 million copies. I just expected a little more of the same insight and advice as in the original.

That’s not to say the two publications are not related. They are and, in fact, this rendition borrows liberally from the concepts of Bolles’ earlier work and builds on them. So, despite my initial negative thoughts, I probably paused more often in my reading to reflect on the real message being delivered in this book than I have with any other book in some time.

So, what is the message? Well, much of it we have heard before. Start planning early. Get your life in order. Define what retirement will mean to you. Calculate how much wealth you will need to finance the lifestyle you desire. What makes this book different, however, is the process taken to reach your conclusions.

The authors are big on models, so we have the “three boxes of life” model (from Bolles’ earlier book of the same name), as well as the “retirement well-being” model, the “five pillars of retirement financial security” model, the “three levels of retirement happiness” model and others. Let’s walk through a few that I found most useful.

The three boxes of life model is built on the concept that we pass through three life stages from birth to death, each of which can be represented by our time in that box. It begins with the education box, followed by the work box and ends with the retirement box.

There are also parallel descriptions of the three boxes, in that education equates to development, work to productivity and retirement to leisure.

The problem with such a traditional line of thinking is the entire definition of retirement has changed. Fewer people are fully retiring to lives of complete leisure. In fact, their retirement box might include further development (continuing to gain knowledge), productivity (second or third careers) and leisure.

The decision required is how much of each of the three elements you want in your retirement. Some people will place the emphasis on leisure, while others anticipate “retiring” to a different and more pleasurable part-time or even full-time career. Others may seek more knowledge and take formal studies in an area that has long interested them.

I liken this process to asset allocation, configuring a portfolio after retirement so that it best meets my income and peace-of-mind objectives. As I progress in my retirement, my asset allocation may change to reflect my thinking and situation at that time. Similarly, I may choose to change the weighting among the time I spend in each of development, productivity and leisure.

Another model I enjoyed thinking about was the three levels of retirement happiness, particularly pertaining to relationships. The notion is similar to the previous one. We need relationships of varying intensity in our lives. Some are pleasant, some engaging and some are meaningful. Balancing them appropriately contributes to happiness.

By completing these and additional exercises for the various models, everything coalesces into the “ideal retirement” model, which brings them all together onto one sheet of paper, highlighting your most important conclusions about state of mind, lifestyle, health, finances, and so on.

Despite its outward complexity, the process is a deceptively simple way to clarify your thinking and align your needs, wants and ambitions. Further, it would make an excellent tool for advisors who want to get the retirement-planning conversation started with clients.

@page_break@Despite my initial misgivings, this is a book I will read many times. IE