Clients often come into Sirak Financial Services in Canton with several financial documents — but president and financial advisor Gary Sirak asks them to put the paperwork aside. He poses a few questions: Tell me about your first day, your first week, your first month and your first year of retirement. “The normal answer is deer in headlights. No answer — they just have nothing. That’s a problem,” says Sirak, who has met with thousands of clients over his 40 years of experience. “It’s pretty hard to know what we have to do with your money if we don’t know what you’re planning to do with it. How are you planning to spend the rest of your life?”
When people retire after decades of working about 40 hours a week, they often experience a loss of identity, routine, meaning and community. Without all those things, Sirak has seen people struggle.
“They had lost their purpose, their passion, their plan for the future and started withering away, watching TV. They would either have physical issues or be bored to death,” Sirak says. “I kept going to funerals and nursing homes, and it wasn’t rewarding. So, the book really came out of that.”
In collaboration with his son, Max, Sirak released How to Retire and Not Die in 2021. It has sold over 20,000 copies globally. It’s also now a video course, a workbook, audio book and e-book that’s available through howtoretireandnotdie.com.
The book gives tangible advice, including retiring to something and celebrating wins, as well as discovering the three P’s. “What gives you purpose? What gives you passion? How do you plan that out when you never had to?” Sirak says.
It helps to make a wishlist of things you wish you had been doing but were too busy to do because you were working.
Do three small things a day to remain engaged, identify your passion and cultivate purpose. One client makes chocolate chip cookies and distributes them at Refuge of Hope. She told Sirak about a man who started crying when he received a cookie. “He said, It made me think of my mother, who I hadn’t thought of in a long time. She made great chocolate chip cookies,” Sirak recalls her saying. “This lady started crying with the guy. … That’s her purpose now.”
The book and course have made an immense impact. Sirak tells the story of a woman who gave her parents each the book. They were approaching retirement and not getting along. “She said ...They both read your book. They made their own wishlist, they did their own things, they created their own plans,” Sirak recalls. “She said, All I can tell you is it’s amazing. They’ve been retired for over six months now, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them happier.”
Erin Gulling
Erin Gulling
Erin Gulling
