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Even when you are “retired,” you may find that you like working for money – perhaps as a part-time activity, perhaps starting your own business, or in some other fashion. Or you may need to continue working, at least a little, to pay your bills. How do you determine whether you need to continue (or resume) working? How do you decide if you want to? And if you do need or want to work, what are your options and how do you bring them to fruition? That’s what the references on this page will tell you.

Work relates to other areas of Purpose:

• Getting started with purposeful activity, because the large-scale issues dealt with as part of “Getting started” lay the groundwork for deciding what kind of work situation might be right for you.
• Volunteering, because the main difference between Work and Volunteering is whether you get paid, and sometimes this difference also disappears – for example, when a volunteer job leads to a paid position with the organization or a chance to offer a service on a consulting basis.
• Civic activity and your legacy, because you may feel freer in the second half of your life to do work that also serves a civic purpose, or that can be part of your legacy to those who survive you. And because your work may enable financial contributions to causes that matter to you.

Work relates to other areas besides Purpose:

• Spirit, because in most religious and philosophical traditions, work is an opportunity to demonstrate virtue as well as to create a product or service that is of use to others. And because our beliefs about what life means may influence the kind of work we prefer to do when our primary career is over.
• Love, because investing our time in paid work affects the people we care about, both positively, by helping us provide for them, and negatively, because it constrains the amount and quality of time we can spend with them.
• Avocation, because we need to balance our work with leisure and rest. And because paid activities can involve situations and activities that we enjoy, or that make use of knowledge and skills we have gained in our spare time.
• Security, because the proceeds of paid work will enhance your financial security; and because entrepreneurial activities (if you choose to pursue them) may increase your financial risks and expenses.
• Health, because work is dependent on, and also can enhance, your physical and mental vitality.

Work Sub-Topics and Resources

• Affording retirement: Can you afford to retire when you want to? If not, when will retirement be feasible?
• Need to work after retirement: Do you financially need to find some other paid employment after retirement?
• Desire for work: Do you want to work after retirement, whether or not you have a financial need for it?
• Dealing with layoffs and early retirement offers: What are your options, and what makes sense for you?
• Type of work: What kind of work best suits you and your preferred schedule: more of the same, or something new?
• Self-employment: Is starting your own business, or buying into an existing business, right for you?
• Your current work situation: If you have a job now, does it need to be improved, and if so, what’s the best way to go about it?
• Job hunting: How do you a find a new job?
• Buying into a business: How do you go about finding a business you can buy out or buy into, and how do you manage the process?
• Starting a new business: How do you start a new business of your own?
• Business succession: If you already own a business and are ready to retire, what are your options for finding new owners or managers?
• Business liquidation: If you own a business of your own and are looking to liquidate it, how do you go about it?
• Family farms: What options are available if you own a family farm (or want one)?

• Affording retirement: Can you afford to retire when you want to? If not, when will retirement be feasible?

There are many free retirement calculators available out there, oodles of books and worksheets that give you easy calculations you can do, and plenty of rules of thumb. These are worse than worthless: they are dangerous. They might work for you if you are lucky, but there is an excellent chance that they will either exaggerate what great shape you are in financially, or what a big crisis you are heading into. Most people, when they first retire, are looking at two or three decades of life expectancy, and increasingly people are living to age 100 and even beyond. All kinds of things will happen in that amount of time, and neither simple calculators nor simple worksheets nor simple rules of thumb take those things into account.

There are situations that you can be pretty confident will occur or will change in the future, others that you can reasonably anticipate might happen, and still others that you simply cannot foresee. Some good things will happen, and some bad things will happen. In addition, the timing of when you can afford to retire will depend on other decisions that you make before retiring, while you are going through the retirement process, and after retirement. Only a very smart computer model can help you deal with both the complexity and the uncertainty of all this.

Simple models are fine if you are fifteen, twenty, or more years away from retirement, but they should rarely be relied on by people within ten years of retirement, and the closer you get to retirement, the more dangerous such reliance becomes. Remember that after you retire, you will probably not be able to go back to your old job, and depending on your health and your other circumstances, you may be limited indeed in what kind of gainful employment you can find – eventually you probably will not be able to get any at all. So if you make a mistake, you may have few or no good options to help you recover financially. It is important, therefore, to make this decision based on the best available analysis you can get.

Perhaps surprisingly, the best tools are ones you can get on your own, and they are significantly better than what most professional planners use. That’s because professional financial people mostly make money either by selling you financial products or by collecting fees for managing your investments. Really smart calculators that require a lot of inputs, or that might generate a lot of questions from you, just take up professionals' time with paperwork, so they prefer simple tools. We expect that in coming years, more and more financial professionals will perceive the need to use the best tools, but at present, it is nearly impossible to find one who does.

Therefore, your best bet is to go out and get access to these tools yourself. The ones we are recommending are time-consuming but not difficult to use, if you handle your own household finances. The companies that offer software involving licensing fees are generally good about answering questions if you have them.

• Free resources:


• “ESPlannerBASIC” is the best free software available for people planning ahead for retirement. It takes a much more sophisticated and sensible approach than other free planning tools, and is especially well suited for people more than five years from retirement. Its most conspicuous drawback is that inputs cannot be saved, so if you go back later, you have to start over from scratch (rating = A- for people more than five years from retirement, B+ for people within five years of retirement).


• Other resources:


• “RetirementWorks II” is the recommended software for people who are no more than ten years away from their expected retirement date. It is the most comprehensive, detailed, integrated model available for the purpose, and it is available at a discounted price of $109 for people who find it via these Retirement Readiness pages – just remember to use Discount Code RRR109. Annual renewals are $44.50 (rating = A+).


• “ESPlanner” offers purchasable versions of their software in addition to the free, basic version mentioned above. The $199 version does allow you to save your inputs and use it for a year, with annual renewals at $50. For $249 you can get ESPlannerPLUS, which includes Monte Carlo simulations related to your investments, but the utility of Monte Carlo modeling is vastly over-rated, and we do not recommend the higher cost version. Like ESPlannerBASIC, ESPlanner is especially well suited for people more than five years from retirement (rating = A for people more than five years from retirement, A- for people within five years of retirement).


• Retire Early? Make the SMART Choices, by Steven Silbiger, specifically addresses the financial questions and consequences that arise from early retirement. No book can give you enough information to fully evaluate your own situation, but this is a good place to go if you want to understand the essential concepts (rating = A-).

• Need to work after retirement: Do you financially need to find some other paid employment after retirement?

Note: If you continue or resume working with the same employer after retirement, and are receiving a monthly pension from that employer, make sure you ask the employee benefits department what effect, if any, your work will have on your pension. The implications vary a great deal from one employer to another.

• Free resources:


• “Financial Implications of Going Back to Work after Retirement,” is a helpful worksheet from AARP that assists you in thinking through the positives (paycheck and employee benefits) and the negatives (possible pension or Social Security penalties, and costs of working, such as business clothing, transportation, and caregiving). It will not give you precise answers, but it will put you in the ballpark (rating = A-).


• “How Work Affects Your Benefits,” a page from the Social Security website, explains in detail how working after you start collecting Social Security will reduce your benefits until you reach full retirement age as defined by Social Security (usually age 66 or 67, or somewhere in between), but these reductions will be offset by higher benefits after you reach that age, a point often ignored even by financial professionals (rating = A). In some cases, working can actually increase your benefits, especially if you delay signing up for Social Security – but even if you don’t, if you also have less than 35 years of work history. Your benefits can also be subject to higher income taxes if you generate more taxable income by working, an effect which is summarized on the Social Security page “Taxes and Your Social Security” (rating = A-), and is explained in more detail in IRS Publication 915 (rating = A).


• Other resources:


• See recommendations listed above under “Other Resources” for “Affording Retirement”, for help in determining whether you already have sufficient financial means for retirement, or not.


• See also:


• MONEY / Managing Money / Expense management, for help in determining what your expenses are and how they might be changing.

• Desire for work: Do you want to work after retirement, whether or not you have a financial need for it?

• Free resources:


• “5 Reasons to Work During Retirement,” an article by Phil Taylor for U.S. News & World Report, summarizes the benefits – a good place to start (rating = A-).


• “Working Beyond Retirement: For Money, Identity, and Purpose,” by Randall S. Hansen, goes into more depth about the possibilities, with some useful links to outside sources (rating = A). And check out Ernie J. Zelinski’s “Retirement Cafι,” where he discusses why retirees work when they don’t have to (rating = A). Also see “Mid Life: Career Change at 40 & Career Change at 50+” from the Job Interview & Career Site (rating = A-).


• “Health Benefits of Working After Retirement,” an article by Ilya Leybovich, summarizes recent research on the ways in which post-retirement employment can improve a person's physical and mental well-being (rating = A-).


• “Working After Retirement: The Gap Between Expectations and Reality,” a report based on a 2006 survey by the PEW Research Center, is still useful because it reflects the reality of “normal” times, not recession. Even so, while most pre-retirees said they would like to work after retirement, only a small percentage actually do, when the time comes. So take this into account when making your plans, especially if financial or relocation decisions are hingeing on it (rating = A-).


• Other resources:


• Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, by Marc Freedman, discusses the benefits to oneself and to society when we go back to work in our older years, especially when we do so in organizations that benefit the social good in ways that matter to us. This book is more about social policy than about self-help, but if you are pondering working mainly because you want to be doing something meaningful, this book will give you a lot of good ideas (rating = A-).


• Retire Retirement: Career Strategies for the Boomer Generation, by Tamara Erickson, discusses alternatives to the traditional career model of working full speed until retirement age, then switching to full-time leisure. She helps you think about what you want in the way of post-retirement work, as well as how to get it (rating = A).


• Don’t Retire, REWIRE!, by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners, helps you identify work that will fit in well with your passions and interests, and also discusses how this will tie in with other aspects of your retirement (rating = A).


• Portfolio Life: The New Path to Work, Purpose, and Passion After 50, by David D. Corbett, discusses how you can develop and deploy a “portfolio” of skills to add interest and reward to the second half of your life (rating = A).

• Dealing with layoffs and early retirement offers: What are your options, and what makes sense for you?

• Free resources:


• “Losing a Job: Your Rights,” at FindLaw, points you to excellent information about the basics of job loss, including “Ten Ways to Handle Losing a Job,” and information about wrongful termination claims and unemployment claims. They also offer a “Find a Lawyer” search that will help you locate an employment rights attorney in your area, if you think you need one (rating = A+).


• “30+ Websites to Visit When You’re Laid Off,” from Mashable (the Social Media Guide), outlines five main steps in the process, from “Find Support and Recover” thru “Time to Hunt for a Job,” and offers about half a dozen annotated links for each step. (rating = A).


• “10 Tips for Evaluating an Early Retirement Offer,” from U.S. News & World Report is a good short article you can start with if you receive an early retirement offer. For a little more detail, see “Considering an Offer to Retire Early: Should You Take It?,” from Capstone Financial (ratings = A).


• Other resources:


• “RetirementWorks II,” our recommended financial software for people who are retired or getting close to retirement, has a special analysis to help you with early retirement offers, enabling you to make a side-by-side comparison of what might happen if you accept or reject the offer. This software is available at a discounted price of $109 for people who find it via these Retirement Readiness pages – just remember to use Discount Code RRR109. Annual renewals are $44.50 (rating = A+).


• Career Comeback, by Bradley G. Richardson, is subtitled “Eight steps to getting back on your feet when you’re fired, laid off, or your business venture has failed – and finding more job satisfaction than ever before,” which explains the concept. This book is not written specifically with older employees in mind, but it contains a good deal of valuable advice, especially if you are not ready to really retire yet (rating = A).

• Type of work: What kind of work best suits you and your preferred schedule: more of the same, or something new?

• Free resources:


• “What Are the Best Jobs for Retirees? Retirement Careers and Where to Find Them,” from NewRetirement.com, asks the right questions to ponder when deciding on the kind of job that would suit you best, discusses different strategies you might pursue, and offers links to outside sources that can help (rating = A-).


• “Self Assessments and Your Career,” from About.com, provides basic information and some useful links about how to decide what new career might be right for you (rating = A-).


• “Getting from Here to There: The Art of Job Transition,” a series of columns by Kit Harrington Hayes at the Workforce50 website, offers sensible advice on how to approach a job change in your older years (rating = A).


• “The Career Interests Game,” from the University of Missouri Career Center, helps you identify career areas that suit your personality style – a simplified version of the Self-Directed Career Search described below under “Other resources” (rating = B).


• Other resources:


• Boom or Bust! New Career Strategies in a New America, by Carleen MacKay and Brad Taft, intended as a “career management guide for baby boomers and beyond,” does its job exceptionally well. It helps you understand your own strengths and desires, discusses current trends in the workplace, elucidates career areas where there is a lot of opportunity, and is geared specifically for people in the second half of their lives (rating = A+).


• What Color Is Your Parachute?, by Richard Nelson Bolles, is the classic book on figuring out what kind of work you really want to do, and how to find the job that suits you. New editions come out pretty much every year (rating = A). Note that the separate version of this book “for Retirement” is really about how to manage your retirement in terms of health, happiness, and finances – an excellent book (actually written by John Nelson), but not specifically focused on helping you identify appropriate work.


• A career coach can help you figure out what kind of job is right for you. Coaches can be expensive to work with, but information about them is free. “How to Find the Right Career Coach,” by Anne Fisher of Fortune magazine, provides nine tips for weeding out people who are not qualified or not likely to be helpful to you (rating = A). To find a career coach who has received some kind of training, you can try “The National Career Development Association” (rating = A-), “The Career Management Alliance” (rating = A-), “The Career Coach Academy” (not rated) or “The Coach Connection” (not rated). These organizations tend to have different members, so check them all.


• A “Self-Directed Career Search” is available online for $4.95. It categorizes you as one of six types – Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, or Conventional – then provides a list of job types that match your category (rating = B+).

• Self-employment: Is starting your own business, or buying into an existing business, right for you?

• Free resources:


• “FAQ on Starting a Solo Business,” from WorkingSolo.com, asks and answers in snappy form the ten questions you should be asking yourself before you jump into starting your own business (rating = A-).


• “10 Myths about Self-Employment” are busted by Steve Pavlina on this page. If you have been afraid to seriously consider self-employment, maybe you needn’t be (rating = A-).


• The “Business Idea Center” at Entrepreneur.com offers roughly 1000 ideas of businesses you could go into, gives you an estimate of the likely start-up costs, and indicates whether franchise opportunities are available (rating = A). Also see “Starting Your Biz: The Idea” at IdeaCafι.com (rating = A-).


• “Self Employment in the Arts” wants to help you turn your artistic interests into a money-making opportunity. Cruise this site, and get an idea whether this has potential for you (rating = A-).


• “Business Ownership for People with Disabilities” specifically address the needs of the disabled when thinking about the possibilities of self-employment. Other pages on this website are useful for this same audience (rating = A). Also see “DiversityWorld” for additional points of view and links to resources related to entrepreneurship for the disabled (rating = A).


• Other resources:


• Is Self-Employment for You?, by Paul E. Casey, helps you understand and evaluate your own motives, and measure whether your personality traits fit the entrepreneurial lifestyle. It also offers sound advice about the difference between starting and sustaining a business, and explains why a lot of what we think we know about running a business is wrong (rating = A).


• It's Never the Right Time: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Behaviors to Avoid at All Costs When Seeking Self Employment, by Ron Cornwell, addresses the impediments, psychological and otherwise, to starting a business, how to evaluate whether self-employment is right for you, and how to get yourself started while avoiding the worst pitfalls (rating = A).


• Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love, by Barbara Winter, offers a non-traditional view of entrepreneurship, a world where creativity matters more than money. Yet her practical advice is down to earth, and this book is worth reading if you think you have an idea for an unusual business opportunity (rating = A).


• Specifically for older entrepreneurs: “The Second Chance Revolution: Becoming Your Own Boss After 50,” by Edgar G. Rogoff and David L. Carroll (rating = A), and “BoomerPreneurs: How Baby Boomers Can Start Their Own Business, Make Money and Enjoy Life,” by Mary Beth Izard (rating = A).

• Your current work situation: If you have a job now, does it need to be improved, and if so, what’s the best way to go about it?

• Free resources:


• “How to Cope With Job Related Problems,” at About.com, will link you to a variety of articles on this topic, plus more focused lists of references concerning job problems, overwork and job stress, career advancement, and other issues (rating = A).


• “Guide for Job Seekers and Employers,” by Robin Jacobs of Portland Community College, is actually an overall guide for job seekers, employees and employers, with emphasis on people with disabilities – but it offers advice that is excellent for everyone. We particularly call to your attention Section VII (“The Road to Career Success”), which offers a communication skills self-assessment exercise and checklists for conducting and participating in meetings, and also discusses the resolution of workplace problems, managing job stress, and dealing with employee evaluations (rating = A).


• “14 Tactics for Getting Ahead at Work - No Matter What Your Job Is,” from TheSimpleDollar.com, is just what it says it is (rating = A-).


• “WorkplaceFairness.org” offers information concerning all forms of workplace discrimination, plus links to government agencies, employee rights groups, legal services, books, and other sources (rating = A+). ”Women Employed” provides a lot of information and an active network for women with job-related problems, with special emphasis on sexual harassment and discrimination (rating = A).


• “Stress…At Work,” from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, provides an overview on job-related stress, what causes it (though your own boss will not specifically be named here!), and what to do about it (rating = A). Also see “Job Stress” at the American Institute of Stress website (rating = A), and the “Managing Job Stress – Overview” page at WebMD (rating = A).


• Other resources:


• The Rules of Work: The Unspoken Truth About Getting Ahead in Business, by Richard Templar, tells us how to get ahead by both seeming and being more effective, without selling out your principles (rating = A).


• Toxic Coworkers: How to Deal with Dysfunctional People on the Job, by Alan A. Cavaiola and Neil J. Lavender, offers insights about, and practical strategies for dealing with, the people who make the workplace miserable (rating = A). If your boss is your problem, consider Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job, by Lynn Taylor, which will give you some laughs as well as some solid advice (rating = A+).


• Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America, by David A. Thomas and John J. Gabarro, uses lessons learned in the examination of three companies to identify behaviors and strategies for minority employees looking to get ahead (rating = A). Double Outsiders: How Women of Color Can Succeed in Corporate America, by Jessica F. Carter, offers advice to minority women (rating = A).


• “FindaCoach.com” has a page that lists a limited number coaches who specialize in helping you advance your current career (rating = B, not because of the coaches, but because not very many are listed). Other career coaches can usually help with these issues, too, though, so see references to other job coaching search websites in the Type of work section, above.


• “Career Change Readiness Test,” a quiz available on the Psychology Today website, asks you 21 questions and returns your overall score for free. For the complete results, which consist of a multi-page report providing a more detailed analysis and offering suggestions about how to improve your readiness for advancement, you have to pay $3.95 (rating = A-).

• Job hunting: How do you a find a new job?

• Free resources:


• “Job and Career Resources for Mature and Older Job-Seekers -- Including the Baby Boomers, Third-Agers,” from Quintessential Careers, will link you to advice on various issues relating to job seeking by older workers, as well as other sites for people in this group (rating = A+).


• “Find a Job,” from AARP, offers a variety of articles, updated from time to time, to help people age 50 and over find the jobs they want (rating = A).


• “Resume Writing & Career Marketing,” a series by Michelle Dumas on the Workforce50 website, addresses these topics from the viewpoint of the older worker, or the non-career person now trying to enter or re-enter the workforce (rating = A).


• Many websites list jobs for people who are retired or in the older (usually age 50+) category. Among them are:
• “Workforce50” is our favorite job search site for older workers, because they list only positions where the employer has specifically indicated a readiness or preference to hire an older worker, and they also provide advice and other resources (rating = A).
• Other established sites for older workers, that offer both job listings and advice or information for older job seekers: “RetirementJobs.com,” “Retired Brains,” “Seniors4Hire.org,” and “WiserWorker.com” (ratings = A).
• “RetirementCrossing” aggregates job listings from other sites, classified ads, publications, and government and nonprofit career pages (rating = B+).
• “Monster.com,” “CareerBuilder.com” and “CraigsList” do not specialize in job offerings for older workers, but they are the largest general job search sites nationwide (rating = B+).


• “America’s Service Locator” connects you with free (mostly state-supported) job counseling and other work-related services across the country (rating = A). Your local Administration on Aging office can also point you to career services in your area (rating = A). The “Senior Community Service Employment Program” is a nationwide program that provides job training to underprivileged individuals age 55 and up (rating = A)


• “AbilityLinks” is a web-based community for job seekers with disabilities, including employers and service providers. It lets you do a job search for positions suited to people with disabilities (rating = A).


• “Veteran’s Employment and Transition” is a series of columns on the Workforce50 website offering general information plus links to other employment-related sites for veterans (rating = A).


• Other resources:


• Boom or Bust! New Career Strategies in a New America, by Carleen MacKay and Brad Taft, intended as a “career management guide for baby boomers and beyond,” does its job exceptionally well. It helps you understand your own strengths and desires, discusses current trends in the workplace, elucidates career areas where there is a lot of opportunity, and is geared specifically for people in the second half of their lives (rating = A+).


• Over-40 Job Search Guide: 10 Strategies for Making Your Age an Advantage in Your Career, by Gail Geary, focuses on mid-life career changes and ways in which you can use your older age to your benefit in seeking a job (rating = A). Also check out Over 40 & You're Hired!: Secrets to Landing a Great Job by Robin Ryan (rating = A) and Finding a Job After 50: Reinvent Yourself for the 21st Century by Jeannette Woodward (rating in A-)


• There are a lot of good books for job seekers in general, including the following “A-rated” items: Just Tell Me How to Get Hired: A Top Recruiter's Fast, Easy Guide to Getting & Staying Employed by Jill DeSena-Shook, Career Coach: Getting The Right Job Right Now by Linda Conklin, Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0: 1,001 Unconventional Tips, Tricks and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job by Jay Conrad Levinson and David E. Perry, and Job Search: The Total System by Kenneth M. and Sheryl N. Dawson.


• See also:


• Type of work, above, for additional resources that include help with job searches.

• Buying into a business: How do you go about finding a business you can buy out or buy into, and how do you manage the process?

• Free resources:


• “Why Buy a Business?” and Why Buy a Franchise?,” two online toolkits from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, help you decide whether these options are right for you and, if so, tell you what steps to take (rating = A).


• “How to Buy a Business,” from Entrepreneur.com, discusses all the main points to consider when buying a business, including how to determine a price, how to negotiate a deal, and common mistakes to avoid (rating = A-). For a somewhat more random selection of short articles related to buying a business or franchise, along with comments from readers, see “Buying a Business” at Bplans.com (rating = A-).


• “Franchises,” from Entrepreneur.com, provides considerable information, both general and specific, about buying into a franchise business (rating = A-).


• “BizQuest,” “BizBuySell” and “GlobalBX” are internet brokerage sites listing tens of thousands of businesses and franchises for sale (rating = A).


• The Federation of International Trade Associations can link you with some 450 trade associations in all kinds of industries. Many of these associations can help you find businesses for sale within the applicable business or industry (rating = A).


• “Find a Business Broker,” a service of the International Business Brokers Association, can help you find a broker in your locality, though this is not a step you should take until you are really committed to the idea of buying a business, and are sure you have the resources to make it possible (rating = A).


• Other resources:


• “Search for a Certified Business Valuation Analyst” at the website of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts or use the “Institute of Business Appraisers” member lookup page. As a buyer, you know a lot less about the business than the seller does, so you are at a disadvantage. If you use a business broker, furthermore, the broker generally represents the seller, not you. Hiring an independent professional to estimate the true value of a business, therefore, can be an important step (rating = A).


• Buying a Business to Secure Your Financial Freedom: Finding and Evaluating the Business That's Right For You by Edward Pendarvis, is an excellent resource for the first-time entrepreneur (rating = A).


• How To Buy a Business by Richard A. Joseph, Anna M. Nekoranec, and Carl H. Steffens, is something of a classic – which means it is out of date in some important details, but remains a valuable guide overall (rating = A-).


• Business Valuation For Dummies by Lisa Holton and Jim Bates, is a very good book on how to put a price on a business if you are not an expert in the subject – which is not to suggest that you shouldn’t hire an expert, but this book will help you understand what the issues and techniques are (rating = A).

• Starting a new business: How do you start a new business of your own?

• Free resources:


• The U.S. Small Business Administration is a terrific government agency with a very helpful website – a great place to start (rating = A).


• “Entrepreneur.com” is a site that covers multiple aspects of starting up (and running) a business, with an emphasis on identifying specific business opportunities, rather than general advice about start-ups (rating = A). “IdeaCafι” is a site for business owners and would-be business owners, with moderately well-organized advice and information both on general topics and some specific kinds of businesses (rating = A-).


• “USA.gov for the Self-Employed” links you to government resources that help you deal with both general information about starting your own business, and technical sources relating to intellectual property protection, hiring, retirement plans, Social Security & Medicare, taxes, and other topics (rating = A-). “Business USA” is another government-funded website, which can point you to resources to start, grow, and finance your business (rating = A-).


• “Start-up Expenses Calculator,” from Microsoft Office Online, offers a free Excel spreadsheet to help you determine what your start-up expenses will be (rating = A-).


• “PartnerUp” helps entrepreneurs and people interested in starting a business find business partners, board members, executives, skilled professionals, advisors, and other kinds of assistance (rating = A-). “SCORE,” the Service Corps of Retired Executives, is a not-for-profit organization that matches small business owners with retired business executives willing to share their expertise (rating = A).


• Other resources:


• Retire - And Start Your Own Business: Five Steps to Success, by Dennis J. Sargent and Martha S. Sargent, is a book and CD package that offers practical step-by-step advice on making this transition, and also supplies many of the necessary tools to make it work (rating = A).


• Self-Employment: From Dream to Reality, by Linda D. Gilkerson and Theresia M. Paauwe, is a step-by-step, no jargon guide to starting your own business (rating = A+).


• Working for Yourself: Law & Taxes for Independent Contractors, Freelancers & Consultants, by Stephen Fishman, offers information, advice, forms, and standard agreements that will help you start up in a smart and legally proper way (rating = A+).


• Working Alone: Making the Most of Self-Employment, by Murray Felsher, takes you beyond the nuts and bolts and tells you what you really need to know to be successful: how to exhibit professional behavior, how to market yourself, how to work with clients, the importance of maintaining your skills, and other things you might think are easy or unimportant, but aren’t (rating = A+).


• Creating Wealth with a Small Business: Strategies, Tactics and Models for Entrepreneurs, by Ralph Blanchard, discusses small business strategies aimed at generating profits (rating = A).


• “Business Owner’s Toolkit,” a website of the Commerce Clearing House, a leading producer of business publications, offers membership for $39 a year to get their books and materials at a discount, which is worth considering, as their products are generally of pretty high quality (rating = A-).

• Business succession: If you already own a business and are ready to retire, what are your options for finding new owners or managers?

• Free resources:


• For businesses intended to stay in the family, which typically involve special considerations, take a look at “Your Business Succession: How to Plan for It” from CPA Site Solutions (rating = A), and “Succession Planning,” from SmallBusinessNotes.com (rating = A-).


• For business that may or may not be staying in the family, look at the “Getting Out” page from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which connects to pages about planning your exit, steps to closing a business, selling your business, transferring ownership, legal resources, liquidating assets, and filing for bankruptcy protection (rating = A).


• For information about the kinds of agreements that are commonly used to set up business succession plans, see “Understanding Buy-Sell Agreements” by Howard Davidoff in the CPA Journal (rating = A-). Some more exotic arrangements are outlined briefly in “Small Business Succession Planning Strategies,” at FindLaw (rating = A-).


• Other resources:


• “Other resources” under “Business liquidation,” below.


• See also:


• PURPOSE / Civic Activity and Your Legacy / Financial legacy, for information about estate planning.


• SECURITY / Managing Risk / The risk of dying too soon, for information about life insurance.

• Business liquidation: If you own a business of your own and are looking to liquidate it, how do you go about it?

• Free resources:


• “Asset Liquidation”, from Small Business Notes, along with its associated web pages, covers the basics you need to know on this topic (rating = A-). Also check out “A Guide to Business Asset Liquidation,” from AllBusiness, which offers a comparable but somewhat different analysis (rating = A-).


• “Liquidating Assets” from the Small Business Administration is a helpful list of steps to follow on that subject (rating = A). “Closing a Business Checklist” on the IRS website will help you make sure all your federal tax bases are covered (rating = A-). “How to Write a Company Liquidation Checklist,” from eHow, will help you make your own list of assets and liabilities to deal with (rating = A-).


• If you are looking at bankruptcy: “Liquidation Under the Bankruptcy Code” is explained authoritatively and in detail on the U.S. Federal Courts website (rating = A). For a layman’s guide, see “How to File Chapter 7 as a Business,” from eHow (rating = A). Also see “Three Tips for Finding a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Attorney,” from Financial Web (rating = A-), and to actually locate one, try “Find a Lawyer” from FindLaw (rating = A), or “BankruptcyAction.com” (rating = A-).


• “How to Liquidate a Closing Business's Assets” is outlined at NOLO.com (rating = A-). “The National Auctioneers Association” has a search utility to help you find a business liquidation auctioneer in your area (rating = A).


• Other resources:


• Exit Strategy Planning: Grooming Your Business for Sale or Succession, by John Hawkey, is an expensive book, but clearly written and covering the technicalities in more detail than most (rating = A).


• The Business Transition Crisis: Plan Your Succession Now to Beat the Biggest Business Selloff in History, by Wayne Vanwyck, offers sound advice for preparing for selling or otherwise transferring your business, whether you feel his alarmism is warranted or not (rating = A-).


• Last Rights: Liquidating a Company, by Ben S. Branch, Hugh M. Ray, and Robin Russell, is an informative book for non-experts (rating = A-). Parting Company, by Andrew J. Sherman, is an older book, but it still contains good general advice (rating = A-).

• Family farms: What options are available if you own a family farm (or want one)?

• Free resources:


• “Creating a Retirement Paycheck,” by the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers University, provides a very good process for thinking through retirement issues if you are a farmer, and links you to other relevant resources (rating = A+), including “Who Will Get Grandpa’s Farm?”, a site from The Purdue University School of Consumer and Family Sciences, that helps you work out the family and financial issues that arise in transferring a family farm to the next generation (rating = A).


• “Groom Your Successors: Notes on Handing Over the Farm,” by Canadian Agriculture Minister Lorne Owen, is a helpful guide on how to talk about the future of your farm with family members (rating = A). See also: “Farm Family Business Ownership Succession” by Prof. Ron Hanson of the University of Nebraska, who deals frankly with family discussions and negotiations (rating = A); and “Preparing To Pass On The Farm To The Kids,” from the Kansas Rural Center (rating = A-).


• “The International Farm Transfer Network” not only is trying to develop strategies for transferring farms from older owners to the next generation, but also can help you connect with programs in at least 20 states that try to link beginning and retiring farmers – though these programs generally struggle to meet the demand for such services (rating = A-).


• “AgTransitions” is software available on the University of Minnesota website that you can use to develop a professional quality transition plan for your farm (registration required; rating = A).


• “Retirement Estimator for Farm Families,” from Purdue University – a very limited calculator of retirement needs vs. income sources, but one of very few specifically oriented toward family farm owners (rating = B+).


• If you are looking to buy a farm as a retirement career or lifestyle, you will need a lot more help than we can offer you here. The best place to start is your state Cooperative Extension System office, which you can find at the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture website (rating = A), and which can further link you to your local county office. For help in creating a business plan for a farm, check out “Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses”, from the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (rating = A).


• Other resources:


• Legacy by Design: Succession Planning for Agribusiness Owners, by Kevin Spafford, a certified financial planner who specializes in succession planning for family farms. This book discusses the issues and takes you through the steps required to create a succession plan and an effective transfer of ownership (rating = A).


• Hobby Farming For Dummies, by Theresa A. Husarik, is a good book to read before you get serious about going into farming as a retirement activity, as it will help you form a realistic idea of what you are really in for (rating = A-).

©2013 Still River Retirement Planning Software, Inc. / RetirementWORKS, Inc.