Resources For Your Retirement Journey
Preparing for retirement—or navigating it—doesn't have to be something you figure out alone.
This page brings together the tools, exercises, and resources that will help you understand yourself, assess your readiness, and move through this transition with clarity and confidence.
Whether you're months away from retirement, weeks into it, or already struggling in the early months, you'll find practical resources here to support every phase of your journey.
The Workbooks
Your Companion to the Books
Both books in The Retirement Journey Series come with a companion workbook — because reading about retirement and actually doing the work of your own transition are two very different things. These are where the assessments, exercises, and honest self-evaluation happen. Enter your name and email below, and we'll send you both workbooks together.
What You'll Find Inside:
Workbook 1: The Hidden Side of Retirement
Your companion to Book 1, built around getting an honest read on your readiness before or in the earliest days of retirement:
-
The Retirement Readiness Assessment Suite — three quick assessments (a gut check, the Five Pillars of Readiness, and reality-check questions) that cut through the overthinking
-
The Retirement Test Drive Manual — five ways to practice retirement while still employed, from a weekend test run to a preretirement sabbatical
-
Days 1–31, 31–60, and 61–90 Survival Templates — day-by-day and week-by-week guidance through the shock, the slump, and the slow climb into integration
-
The Role Audit — a simple exercise for finding your identity beyond your job title
What You'll Find Inside:
Workbook 2: The Messy Middle of Retirement
Your companion to Book 2, for the stretch once the honeymoon is over and real life sets in:
-
Taking Stock — a seven-dimension retirement life assessment built on Dr. Nancy Schlossberg's "4 S's" framework, plus gap-analysis and priority-ranking tools
-
Identity Exploration — building a "portfolio identity" around your values, relationships, and contributions, instead of one replacement role
-
Managing Money Anxiety — a financial reality check and tools for giving yourself permission to spend, not just planning out of fear
-
Getting Unstuck — telling real planning apart from procrastination, and actually finishing what you start
-
Finding Your Way When the Days Feel Empty — diagnosing boredom and rebuilding structure into open days
-
Relationships in Transition — nine tools for your marriage, friendships, adult children, and family connections as roles shift
-
Purpose Discovery and Exploration — mining your past and running small experiments instead of searching for one big answer
-
Integration — monthly and quarterly reviews, a systems audit, and a crisis-mode protocol for when it all piles up
-
Beyond Year Two — a five-year vision and annual review tools for sustaining momentum long-term
How to Use These Workbooks
These are workbooks you actively engage with — write in them, mark them up, be honest. Use them before retirement if you're planning ahead, or right now if you're already retired and struggling. Every tool works whether you're preparing or recovering.
Real Talk with Cheryl
The Blog
I write once a week about what retirement is actually like, not the Pinterest version, but the real version. The identity questions, the friendship shifts, the purpose puzzle, the marriage adjustments. The things nobody wants to talk about but everyone's experiencing.
No scripts, no filters, no pretending everything's fine. Just honest words from a woman who's been through it.