From the Publisher
Inspiring, insightful, and deeply practical, this book is an essential guide for women embarking on retirement. Drawing on extensive research and the stories of women who have redefined life after work, it offers a thoughtful exploration of the personal transitions that come with leaving the workplace. Each chapter provides personal stories, reflective exercises, and coaching-style questions designed to help readers uncover what truly matters to them, and create a personalized retirement map. Full of actionable strategies, this book will empower you to shape a rich, meaningful, and joyful future. An accompanying online workbook makes it a versatile tool for anyone navigating this pivotal life stage. - Gillian Jones-Williams Founder of Emerge Development Consultancy and the RISE Empowering Women’s Development Programme. Businesswoman of the Decade with the Best Businesswomen Awards
What Next? The savvy woman’s guide to redefining retirement is an invaluable route map for women planning their post-work lives. Refreshingly, Jane Moffett’s book does not try to offer advice on pensions, hobbies, and joining clubs but instead helps the reader navigate the next phase of life with ambition, self-awareness, confidence, and optimism. With the individual at its heart, this is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach to retirement but a flexible tool packed with hugely practical and reflective exercises which meet you where you are. Helpfully it explores relevant societal context, history, and theory which gives the practical content a really sound and relatable foundation. Written with empathy and insight it addresses fundamental issues that matter most. - Claire Williams, Ex-Managing Director of Inclusive Employers and attendee of the Empowered Women: From Retired to Redefined course
What Next? The savvy woman’s guide to redefining retirement is a hopeful, optimistic read which speaks of the period post-retirement as an exciting stage of opportunity. Extremely readable, the book provides a comprehensive exploration of all of the relevant considerations for women as they approach retirement. The exercises after each chapter are a valuable resource for women to apply the learning from the book to their own lives. Well worth a read for anyone heading into this stage of life. - Professor Rebecca J. Jones PhD CPsychol, Professor in Coaching and Behaviour Change, Director of the Henley Centre for Coaching, Henley Business School
As a woman contemplating ‘what next?’ myself after a long career as a radio producer at the BBC, I felt both excited and inspired by Jane’s book. What Next? underlines what a gift women of our baby-boomer generation have been given in being able to potentially enjoy up to another 30 years of productive life post-retirement. It highlights how important it is to reflect on how to make the most of this precious ‘extra’ time both in terms of self-fulfilment and in giving back to the community at large. It made me stop and think, and often shift my perspective as I was reading it. You might not realize that you need to read this book, but you will be very glad that you did! - Karen Holden, Freelance Radio Producer, 60 years old
In an ageing world, this is such an important book. Whilst statistics abound regarding the 100-year life, there is very little literature to help you actually plan for it! But there is this book, which offers women leaving work a guided coaching plan for designing their unique map of the future. Taking the reader through the psychological transition of ‘retirement’, it will help you plan your journey, craft your new identity, and give you hope for this exciting next stage of our lives. - Lucy Ryan Managing Director, Mindspring. Author of Revolting Women: Why midlife women walk out and what to do about it
What next indeed! With our ‘squiggly’ careers and our 100-year lives we are rethinking, reinventing, and redefining what retirement can look like. In this brilliantly accessible book Jane has created a practical tool to map out that process. First defining where we start, then figuring out our timetable, creating our own guidebook, deciding upon our travelling companions, selecting our travelling gear, and finally calibrating our compass! What a wonderful and much needed reframe – far from being a sad slide into obsolescence, our later years can be whatever we design them to be – challenging, fulfilling, thoughtful, thrilling, educational, or whatever combination we can dream up. - Emma Thomas, Executive Coach, host of Middling Along podcast series, founder of Managing the Menopause
In her thought-provoking book, What Next?, Jane Moffett offers women a fresh perspective on the post-retirement stage of life. She starts with an excellent description of the wider societal issues and asks important questions such as ‘why is society not recognizing the power of women post-menopause?’ and ‘why is there no new vocabulary to describe this new life stage?’ Through inspiring interviews and empowering coaching questions, Moffett also invites the reader to delve into personal questions about identity, purpose, and relationships. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is seeking to embrace the power and potential of the new life stage of ‘redefinition’. - Berit Lewis, Author of Ageing Upwards, a Mindfulness-Based Framework for the Longevity Revolution
Many women such as myself have benefi tted from rich and interesting careers. Our careers have nevertheless been hard-won and the prospect of letting go of this can be discomforting. Before reading this book, I had found myself feeling ‘untethered’ and struggling to work out what I really wanted for this next phase. Right from the start, the book provided me with a reassuring sense of being understood and a sense of relief that the concerns that were swirling around in my head could be structured and made more coherent. Moffett’s research enables the reader to structure the issues she faces in a way that turns a sense of general unease into a clear set of areas for focus. For each area there are simple exercises, and for me these have provided a useful framework for refl ection and have made navigating this transition a little less daunting. Throughout the book, the tone is supportive and encouraging as Moffett helps the reader reframe and rethink this next stage of what she calls the ‘breathing space years’. Whilst the book is well researched, it wears its theoretical underpinning lightly, and there are a myriad of useful references and resources for further reading and reflection. Whether you follow the exercises step by step, or simply dip into them as the appetite takes, I would heartily recommend this book to any woman approaching the next phase of their life pondering the question ‘what next?’ - Sarah Jones, Former consultancy director, and coach, attendee of the Empowered Women: From Retired to Redefined course
I highly recommend this ‘savvy’ book, it provides an insightful and thorough context for the new landscape that the current generation of women approaching and entering retirement face. This background was really eye opening and emphasizes how very different the landscape is today for these women, the pioneers creating a new template for retirement. The exercises and resources provided then allow the reader to work out what all of this means for them and what to do about it. The case studies drawn from the author’s research bring it all to life and make it very accessible. I found the book a compelling read backed up by clear expertise in the subject and a very constructive approach. I actually think it’s a must read for all generations as it opens up so many options for working life. - Rachel Goodwin Leadership Coach, host of Wordwise Coaching Podcast
