A book by Ross Marino and Susan Bradley
Shaping Change: How to Respond When Life Disrupts Your Retirement Plan
A change in work, health, or family can affect the retirement plan you expected to follow. It can also change which financial question needs attention first.
Shaping Change explores the human and financial parts of a life transition before moving to a response.
What Is Shaping Change About?
Ross Marino and Susan Bradley examine life transitions that can change financial decisions. The book begins with the transition and considers its effects before an action is chosen.
Readers are invited to distinguish what needs attention now from what can wait. The book also addresses the uncertainty that can remain during change.
What Can Readers Explore?
Recognize the transition
Begin with what changed before trying to answer every financial question it raised.
Connect life and finances
Consider how the transition may change the financial decisions associated with it.
Separate now from later
Identify which question needs attention and which one can be reconsidered later.
How Does the Book Relate to Dovetail's Work?
The book offers general ideas for thinking about a transition. In an ongoing planning relationship with Dovetail, we consider what has changed, what matters to you, and what you want your money to support. You do not need to arrive with every goal settled.
We analyze how a change affects income, spending, and the other choices in your plan. The findings may reveal possibilities or tradeoffs you had not considered. We explain our recommendations, the reasons behind them, and what remains uncertain. Your questions and concerns help us judge whether a choice fits. As life changes, we help you revisit earlier decisions and work through new ones.
Where Can You Find the Book?
Shaping Change was published by Advantage Books and is distributed by Simon & Schuster. The paperback ISBN is 9781642252088.
Has a Change Raised a Financial Question?
You can begin with what prompted you to reach out, even if you are not sure which financial question comes first. Share as much about your situation as you are comfortable sharing. The introductory call will help determine whether a planning conversation makes sense.
