Prefermentâ¢

We are free to choose a different way to retire, one that fits our needs and personality. Yet no one offers that choice. After four years as an attorney advisor at the Social Security Administration, Anne van Leynseele watched accomplished people collect their benefits and quietly disappear. Not from age. From the absence of a positive developmental milestone left to reach. In 2025, 67% of retirees reported depression (NIH). The retirement model is not failing by accident. It was never designed for people who built remarkable careers and still have decades of capacity ahead of them.

And, van Leynseele refused the wind-down. She studied longevity science, neuroplasticity, and cultures that treat aging as expansion rather than decline. She defined her own ideal place, purposes, and social base, then bought the farm, literally. What started as a personal blueprint became the process inside this book.

It is not enough to live a long time. If you want quality longevity, you need challenges that fuel vitality. Preferment® delivers them. Inside, you will discover how to:

Build personal development milestones that do not expire at sixty

Design a retirement identity governed by your own rules, not a script written in 1935

Use the Big Three (doing, thinking, feeling) to sustain growth and confidence

Replace catastrophizing about mortality with intentional action

Create proof that mattering has no expiration date

The endpoint is not contentment with less. It is a life designed on purpose, where self-confidence replaces fear and every morning begins with something worth waking up for.

Now there is a retirement alternative for accomplished people. Concise, research-backed, and written with narrative warmth, Preferment® balances naming the problem, citing the science, and sharing real stories that connect you to your own answers. Practical challenges at the end of each chapter turn insight into action.

Preferment® is not for everyone; it's an alternative choice. True to its promise, this book reimagines every expectation for the best rest of your life.