Kathleen M. Rehl, Ph.D., CFP®, CeFT® Emeritus wrote the award-winning book, Moving Forward on Your Own: A Financial Guidebook for Widows. She owned Rehl Financial Advisors for 18 years before retiring to a six-year encore career empowering widows. Now happily “reFired,” Rehl writes legacy prose and poetry plus assists nonprofits. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger’s, CNBC, USA Today, other publications, and online. Check out her website at http://kathleenrehl.com.

Latest Posts By Kathleen M. Rehl

3 months ago

I Celebrated One Year Wine-Free

As a young adult, I drank wine to fit in with my social crowd, celebrate victories, and relax at the end of a grueling week. I thought conversations at parties flowed easier with a wine glass in hand. Festive toasts were made at friends’ birthdays…

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5 months ago

Choose Refirement Rather Than Vintage Retirement! These 7 Questions Will Help You Find Your Direction

This January, I’ll start my 78th year. I’m part of a large aging population in America. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2030, all baby boomers like me will be older than 65…

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7 months ago

5 Big Money Mistakes that Widows Make and How to Avoid Them!

I’m a member of the club women hate to join — the Widows Club. When my husband died, it felt like a big part of me died, too. I lost the love of my life and the dreams we shared for our future. All gone in an instant and right…

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10 months ago

Jane Fonda and I Happily Agree About Drinking After 60

We’ve said goodbye to Jane Fonda’s long-running series, Grace and Frankie. In character, she often held an ice-cold martini. However, in a recent interview with CBS News about the show’s last season, Fonda said she stopped drinking in real life at age 84…

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12 months ago

9 Benefits Boomer Women Can Find in an Encore Career

For many elder boomers, like me, the outdated model of retirement isn’t a good fit today. We’re healthier and living longer than prior generations. Most of us don’t want to just sit in a porch rocking chair gazing at the sunset…

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1 year ago

Thoughts After My 75th Birthday!

Recently I celebrated my 75th birthday. What fun to receive many phone calls, texts, emails, cards, and social media comments! That included fragrant flowers and meaningful message from my Honey… plus an original art card created by my daughter-in-law and son.

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1 year ago

Two Ways I Found Later Life Love

As I looked out at my smiling family, in our lush backyard summer gardens on that sunny August day, I whispered to myself, “I never imagined this.” Not in my craziest dreams did I ever expect to be a septuagenarian bride, exchanging wedding vows beside my Charlie…

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2 years ago

6 Know-It-All Statements New Widows Don’t Want to Hear (and Alternatives That Are Actually Helpful)

Perhaps because my late husband was a pastor, some people thought they were helpful after Tom’s death to tell me, “God needed another angel in heaven.” (Wrong! I needed that angel beside me, not gone away.) Or they said, “I know exactly how you feel…

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2 years ago

5 Easy Steps to Write a Legacy Letter for Family and Friends

Before Great Gram got hitched at age 20, as they used to say, she was a teacher in a one-room rural Iowa schoolhouse. After marriage, she wasn’t allowed to teach. That was written in her contract. As a teacher, she called her readin’ and writin’…

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2 years ago

How we Hosted “Camp Grandma & Grandpa” During the Pandemic

The best benefit of “Camp Grandma & Grandpa” for us during last summer’s pandemic peak was precious time with our grandsons and their parents. We never shared this many weeks together with them since their own childhood… and they probably…

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