The best 40 years of
your
life?
...
You don't know the half of it
William Hanley, Financial Post Published: Saturday,
December 01, 2007
Gordon Neufeld, the "retirement
missionary" is on the phone, quietly spreading the gospel according to The
Best-Half, which he describes as a "lifestyle planning process for
individuals and couples" and which he founded almost six years ago as Boomers
began to head into the uncertain land of retirement and a new industry grew to
minister to their needs and wants.
"The Best-Half is about planning and enjoying
the second or best-half of your life," he says. "We want to help give
you a clear picture of how you want to spend the next 20,
30 or 40 years. The
thing that's really central to people in developing a plan is for them to be
really clear what they want their legacy to be."
Neufeld, who is 55, and whose wife, Marilyn, is an
executive coach who's also involved in The Best-Half programs, seems a little
self-conscious about being the
"retirement missionary," saying it
with a self-deprecatingchuckle. OK. How about the retirement go-to-guy?
Individuals and corporations have been going to
Neufeld in increasing numbers in the past five years as The Best-Half gains
traction through a Web site (www.best-half.com), a book
(The Best-Half:
Planning for and Enjoying the Second or Best-Half of Your Life) and
word-of-mouth.
Changing life in mid-life, he says, is often about
untapped potential. "People don't really know what the possibilities can
be. People don't know how to start a dialogue about
what they're going to do in
the future, either with a partner or an employer."
Neufeld took his own advice early, selling his
communications and public relations business to found The Best-Half and embark
on asecond-half adventure. It's his third career, he says, following 13 years
building the communications company and 15 years in the
business side of the
arts, most notably with the Edmonton Symphony.
And while orchestrating a harmonious beginning to
people's second halves is a business for Neufeld, he says money is rarely a big
issue with the clients he counsels.
"It's what to do with the money. In
the workshops and in the coaching, money almost never comes up. We're not
financial planners, we don't work with financial planners and so we don't get
into that part of it."
Money, of course, is probably not a problem for
people willing to pay The Best-Half about $3,500 for one-on-one coaching sessions
over six months to a year, or for companies paying $2,000 per person for
two-day group sessions plus coaching time. And those are small sums
in the
general scheme of making possible life-changing decisions about what are likely
to be longer lives in retirement.
How they will be remembered in the world looms
large for most of The Best-Half clients, Neufeld says. Yet "legacy"
is a daunting word. "But you break it down and explain that you don't have
to be someone who changes the world. You can be someone who donates your
business's library to Junior Achievement or you can write a book about your
life history for your
grandchildren."
When I first heard about The Best-Half program, two
questions came to mind: Isn't "half " of life a bit of a stretch after
retirement? And isn't calling it the "best" also a stretch?
Given the choice, most of us would rather be
younger than older. So, is this just a strong, intriguing marketing slogan?
First, as Neufeld says, 100 years of age isn't what
it used to be and many Boomer retirements could easily stretch to 30 years and
beyond. "To enjoy retirement the best
way possible requires a certain
level of certainty about the future. In order to have certainty, you have to
have a plan." Second, he says, it's important to embrace older age.
For people like me, who grudgingly coexist with
aging, embracing it is impossible. But I do realize that being optimistic
about the future is easier on the body and the soul than being pessimistic.
So, The Best-Half is not a stretch. And Neufeld
seems a good choice for people looking for possibilities, legacies and how to
enjoy that looming long stretch.
He says The Best-Half workbook is a good way to get
started on the process, offering readers 50 options as to what the future might
hold and giving them an opportunity to crystallize their thoughts in writing.
"But retirement is not an individual process.
It's not a solitary activity. It needs to have feedback, reflection, input from
a partner, a spouse, an employer."
And, possibly, the retirement missionary, Gordon
Neufeld. He says: "It's really about personal fulfillment in life and not
necessarily about how you're going to fill the day --but how you're going to
fill the day in a fulfilling way, perhaps for 30 years."
whanley@nationalpost.com
