I posted this on Raddr's board a while back, and the latest edition of the "My Next Phase" newsletter just hit my IN box. It's priceless:
"My Next Phase" is a retirement-coaching website run by an entrepreneur and a couple of clinical psychologists. The idea is to guide members through a battery of personality tests and then suggest how they should approach retirement and create a new life that's fun & fulfilling. It's a sort of Myers-Briggs on drill-sergeant steroids. It's not just about whether you're introverted or extroverted, but about how you plan and how you react to problems. The idea is to give retirees life tools, not just financial-management tools.
Like financial advisors and annuity salesmen, it must provide some sort of service to people who think they need servicing. Undoubtedly it helps people who can't (or won't) do for themselves, or who need their hands held. They've been around for a while and they're collecting media attention, so they're not totally clueless. I think they're targeting the late-50s exec (male, of course) whose career has peaked a bit short of his aspirations and who now is beginning to resign himself to spending the rest of his life with golf, grandkids, & wife-- and feels somehow unhappy about it.
But like Jack Nicholson with that quote, the MyNextPhase guys somehow manage to annoy me. I don't know if it's because they insist on dribbling out small doses of content while pelting members with ads, or because they only share their "guidance" with newsletters instead of free website content, or because they seem to take a somewhat condescending & patronizing attitude to the subject. It's written in business-speak that comes across as the type of "tough love" that's frequently seen in those self-help "Double your sales and get that promotion NOW, you loser!!" career-guidance books. I almost expect to see Dogbert's picture on the "About Us" page.
Their last e-mailed newsletter had one of those "If you can't see this in your e-mail, click here" links that led to a web page. I realized that they've put all their newsletters on their website, but without explicit links to find them. So I've collected them here for your [-]professional enhancement[/-] reading enjoyment-- and maybe you can help me understand why I find these guys so annoying…
The "My Next Phase" retirement newsletters #1-15 in the Index of /newsletter directory:
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips (#16)File under "Can't Make This Stuff Up": AARP says 28 percent of Americans spent more time watching reality TV last month than they spent planning their retirement over the entire past decade.
"My Next Phase" is a retirement-coaching website run by an entrepreneur and a couple of clinical psychologists. The idea is to guide members through a battery of personality tests and then suggest how they should approach retirement and create a new life that's fun & fulfilling. It's a sort of Myers-Briggs on drill-sergeant steroids. It's not just about whether you're introverted or extroverted, but about how you plan and how you react to problems. The idea is to give retirees life tools, not just financial-management tools.
Like financial advisors and annuity salesmen, it must provide some sort of service to people who think they need servicing. Undoubtedly it helps people who can't (or won't) do for themselves, or who need their hands held. They've been around for a while and they're collecting media attention, so they're not totally clueless. I think they're targeting the late-50s exec (male, of course) whose career has peaked a bit short of his aspirations and who now is beginning to resign himself to spending the rest of his life with golf, grandkids, & wife-- and feels somehow unhappy about it.
But like Jack Nicholson with that quote, the MyNextPhase guys somehow manage to annoy me. I don't know if it's because they insist on dribbling out small doses of content while pelting members with ads, or because they only share their "guidance" with newsletters instead of free website content, or because they seem to take a somewhat condescending & patronizing attitude to the subject. It's written in business-speak that comes across as the type of "tough love" that's frequently seen in those self-help "Double your sales and get that promotion NOW, you loser!!" career-guidance books. I almost expect to see Dogbert's picture on the "About Us" page.
Their last e-mailed newsletter had one of those "If you can't see this in your e-mail, click here" links that led to a web page. I realized that they've put all their newsletters on their website, but without explicit links to find them. So I've collected them here for your [-]professional enhancement[/-] reading enjoyment-- and maybe you can help me understand why I find these guys so annoying…
The "My Next Phase" retirement newsletters #1-15 in the Index of /newsletter directory:
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
My Next Phase - New Member Tips
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