About Mike
Mike Bellah doesn't just write about retirement. He's living it—and inviting his readers along for the adventure.
When Bellah retired from college teaching in 2016, he discovered something surprising. Despite a successful career as a college professor, newspaper columnist and author, he was remarkably unprepared for retirement. So he started asking questions, researching answers and writing about what he discovered.
Ten years and six retirement books later, he's still taking readers along.
While most retirement advisers begin with money—inventorying financial resources and then determining what kind of retirement those resources can support—Bellah takes a different approach. He believes starting with money can sell our dreams short. We begin eliminating possibilities before we've even explored them, assuming we can't afford what we might otherwise love to do.
His philosophy is simple: Dreams first. Dollars second. Begin by imagining the retirement you really want, then explore how your resources—including financial ones—might help you get there. It may require creativity, flexibility and a willingness to modify your plans. But Bellah believes that with imagination and hope, retirees often discover possibilities they never knew existed.
Bellah combines careful research, practical advice and inspiring personal stories with a conversational style readers describe as hopeful, funny and encouraging. One reader compared reading his work to sitting on the deck with an old friend over a glass of sweet tea. Another said his book replaced a dread of growing older with excitement about the years ahead.
His retirement books include the popular 1001 Fun Things To Do in Retirement and his latest, Should I Retire Tomorrow? What Will I Lose If I Don't?
Bellah holds a Ph.D. from Texas Tech University, but writes less as a scholar studying retirement than as a veteran experiencing it.
He and his wife, Charlotte, live near Canyon, Texas, where he enjoys hiking, biking, family adventures and a few retirement gigs of his own.
Academic bio
Mike Bellah received a Bachelor of Theology degree from Dallas Bible College in 1973, a M.A. in English Literature from West Texas A & M University in 1995, and a Ph.D. in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University in 1998. Bellah has worked as a Christian camp director, a pastor, and, from 1993 to his retirement in 2016, he was a college English teacher.
As a professor at Amarillo College, Dr. Bellah taught Composition, Technical Writing, Creative Writing, and a continuing education course on C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. In 2013, he was honored with Amarillo College’s highest teaching award, the John F. Mead Faculty Excellence Award. In 2015, the local PBS station selected Dr. Bellah as an American Graduate Outstanding Educator.
Contact Mike: mike@mikebellah.com
Check out his Author’s Page on Amazon. http://amazon.com/author/mbellah