ABOUT My Retirement Works  

Welcome to MyRetirementWorks.com (MRW), an online site created to help make the retirement experience successful and purposeful and keep you “connected.”  It is for those hoping (and wise enough) to plan ahead, as well as those who are actually “retired,” whatever form that takes.  This is a place to learn, reflect, share and connect.

Here is what you will find:

• first-person stories and interviews from real people in retirement
• secrets to a successful retirement–avoiding retirement funk
• research-based information about successful retirement
• links to resources for planning/amending your retirement

I started MRW because my life’s academic/professional work has centered on helping people live life with meaning and happiness (see below to learn more about my background).  The scholarly and popular literature on “successful retirement”  focuses mostly on finances. Although having one’s finances in order is essential, MRW focuses on the rest of retirement—on living one’s life successfully on the personal and social levels.

For most, days filled with total leisure is no longer the goal of retirement.  With more freedom to spend time as one chooses, retirees want less stress and more meaning, fewer obligations and more joy.  For many, retirement takes the form of working for others or for oneself—sometimes to help pay bills, but often to give back rather than accumulate more wealth.

MRW offers first-person stories from RetireMentors, and the research about what has worked and what hasn’t. MRW is a place to find out about:

• It matters if the person chooses retirement or is forced into it.
• Some of the personal and social factors that aid and hinder retirees in their quest for a meaningful, happy retirement–e.g. planning, staying connected, having purpose.
• Men and women can experience retirement differently.
• Retirement can create stress for a couple.
• It is likely you will “Go Solo” at some point – Plan for it.

MRW also includes my research findings from 100 people who have been interviewed and/or attended focus groups and classes. Responders are from the Osher Lifelong Learners Institute of the University of California Santa Cruz or tech in Silicon Valley, California.

This site is a labor of love.  There is nothing for sale, nothing asking for support.  No ads to avoid.  All that is asked, if you see its value, please participate.

ABOUT Jill Steinberg, Ph.D.

I am a dedicated lifelong learner, having a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis on Community Organizing. In my pre-retirement career, I was a Psychology Professor and the Director of the Peer Mentor Program at San Jose State University (in California) as well as a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in private practice in Santa Cruz, California.

The transition from full-time work to enjoying retirement seemed to come pretty easily.  This was unexpected given how much I loved working with my students and being part of a university community. However, it took me a couple of years to realize that my psychologist mind was “missing something.”

That is when I started this project. I spent a year reading the scholarly and popular literature related to successful retirement. I wanted to know, “How closely does the theoretical research literature match what real people are actually doing and feeling?”

Thus began the data collecting part of the project — interviewing University of California Osher Lifelong Learners  members and Silicon Valley tech retirees, and doing focus groups and classes related to successful retirement. The information gleaned felt invaluable, insightful and helpful—and needed to be shared.

Thus, the creation of MyRetirementWorks.com and presentations of the findings at universities (e.g. Boston University webinar; UCSC) and organizations like Google and MENSA.

EDUCATION

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, PhD., Clinical Psychology Department (1972-1978)

APA Internship at Colorado State University Counseling Center (1976-77), Fort Collins, Colorado

Honors: University Fellowship, Research Grant from the Office of Women’s Studies

Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, A.B., Psychology Department (1968-1972)

City College of London, semester abroad (1970)

Honors: Magna Cum Laude, Graduated with Honors/Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Examples of recent Presentations on “Successful Retirement”

Boston University, Webinars, 2017, 2013.

Google, 2016

Mensa,2016

University of California, Santa Cruz, Osher Life Long Learners, 2015; Women In Science and Education (WISE), 2014.

Teaching “3Rs of Successful Retirement: Read, Reflect and Re-Invent,” and “Graduate Retirement,” OLLI, UCSC, 2014-present

San Jose State University, San Jose, CA ,1978-2008; Emeritus Professor, 2009-Present

Founder and Director of The Peer Mentor Program, 2000-2009

Psychology Department Professor, 1978-2009

Counseling Services, Clinical Psychologist, 1978-2000

Fellow, Salzburg Seminar, Salzburg, Austria, 2006

Affiliate Scholar, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 1979-1982

Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Private practice, Santa Cruz, CA, 1981-2004

HONORS, AWARDS and PUBLICATIONS

“Peer Mentor Programs at San Jose State University and Portland State University,” Presentation with C. Reynolds at the International First Year Experience Conference, Southampton, England, July 2005

Professional Development Grant, SJSU, Fall 2004

“Peer Mentor Program Integral to the First-Year Experience,” E-Source, The National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition at The University of South Carolina, Vol 1, No 2, October 2003.

Peer Mentor Program Lottery Grant, Fall 2002

Clinical Interventions with Women Experiencing the Impostor Phenomenon, Women and Therapy,1986, pp.19-26

Climbing the Ladder of Success in Highheels: Backgrounds of Professional Women,UMI Press, 1984.