Join me for an online discussion of the key findings of The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security on October 25th.

This webinar is sponsored by the International Mature Marketing Network, which graciously is waiving its usual registration fee and is opening the event to all comers at no charge. Click here for registration info; or, visit this page to learn more about IMMN.

My first article for AARP Magazine is in the September-October issue.

Titled “It’s Time to Protect Social Security,” the story is a primer on how Social Security works, why there’s a long-term imbalance and how that can be fixed. If you don’t subscribe, read the online version here.

How have the rules of retirement changed over the past generation? I talked about the challenges to retirement security facing successive generations of retirees today with Emily Brandon of U.S. News & World report:

Individuals must now take more personal responsibility for their retirement finances, even as life expectancies increase and personal savings rates remain low. “Each succeeding generation is looking at a less secure retirement, with today’s seniors being the best off,” says Mark Miller, publisher of RetirementRevised.com and author of The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security: Practical Strategies for Money, Work, and Living. “This has to do with everything from the decline of defined-benefit pensions to the diminution of Social Security and health benefits, not to mention the worst economy since the Great Depression.” Here are some key ways your retirement will be different from that of previous generations of retirees.

Read the full story here.

Social Security isn’t headed for insolvency, despite all the negative headlines in the media. I sat down recently with Jill Schlesinger of CBS Moneywatch to talk about Social Security’s future, along with strategies for working longer and restoring the health of retirement portfolios.

I visited recently with Lauren Young at Reuters to talk about reinvention of retirement, working longer and the future of Social Security; here’s the video of that interview, along with a brief excerpt from The Hard Times Guide and a free download of the chapter on the financial impact of working a few additional years.

I stayed up late last night to talk about The Hard Times Guide with Steve King and Johnnie Putman, a married duo who host a great overnight program on WGN Radio in Chicago. The interview ranged across a wide array of topics, including what young people need to do to plan for retirement, the importance of working longer, 50+ career strategies and the future of Social Security. Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.

CBS Moneywatch.com blogger Steve Vernon zeroes in on The Hard Times Guide’s chapters on working longer, noting that staying at work past age 65 “is becoming standard retirement planning advice from many financial writers. . .”

One good source of inspiration and information for finding retirement work comes from a great book by Mark Miller: The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security: Practical Strategies for Money, Work, and Living.

Mark devotes a number of chapters to finding work that offer realistic and appropriate tips for boomers. One table I particularly liked, distilled from a comprehensive report from the Urban Institute entitled Will Employers Want Aging Boomers?, showed 20 of the fastest-growing occupations with above average proportions of workers age 55 and older.

Steve is a former actuary who I’ve quoted frequently on issues related to longevity issues. He also has contributed a number of great guest articles to my RetirementRevised.com website.

Along with his regular posts at CBS Moneywatch.com, Steve heads up Rest of Life Communications, a firm devoted to no-nonsense retirement education. He publishes an especially useful free eNewsletter, to which you can subscribe here.

The Hard Times Guide is featured as the Book of the Week in the current issue of The Week magazine.

“Mark Miller’s book is spot on when it comes to the new realities of retirement,” the magazine says, quoting Chris Farrell’s earlier review in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Download the review as a PDF.