Rethink Retirement

Rethink Retirement is a fresh, compassionate, and thought-provoking reexamination of one of life’s most misunderstood transitions. While our culture portrays retirement as an escape into leisure and freedom, the reality for many is far more complex. Losing professional identity, routines, community, and purpose can be jarring, even destabilizing. Dr. Andrea “Andi” Simon—corporate anthropologist, award-winning author, and expert in culture change—invites readers to see retirement not as an ending, but as a profound opportunity for reinvention. Drawing on anthropology, neuroscience, and more than a hundred interviews, Simon explores how cultural myths shape expectations about aging and work. She reveals why so many people feel lost when the familiar structure of employment disappears—and how they can create new rhythms, relationships, and sources of meaning. Through rich personal stories, including her husband Andrew’s journey after selling his company, readers witness the diverse ways people reshape their identity and purpose in later life. This book offers a roadmap for personal transformation, covering identity shifts, rebuilding social connections, creating structure, renewing purpose, and redefining contribution. Simon provides reflective exercises, readiness profiles, and practical tools to help readers design a fulfilling and intentional next stage. Whether preparing for retirement, navigating it now, or supporting a partner or parent through the transition, readers will find empathy, insight, and possibility on every page. Rethink Retirement reframes aging as growth, contribution, and reinvention. It is a powerful invitation to craft a life not defined by what you leave behind—but by what you are ready to become.