Grace HollowayLater Life, On Your Terms
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Grace Holloway · Thirty-one years at a bank counter

Nobody sets out to take your life apart. They just ask, and you were raised to say yes.

Two books for the second half. One shows you the fifty situations that quietly cost older people their money, their house and their afternoons — and gives you the exact sentence to say in each. The other keeps the ordinary daily skills sharp, because that is what people actually judge you on.

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50Situations
200Puzzles
286Pages
Grace Holloway on her front porch

“This book is about the difference between being asked and being used, which is a line most of us were never taught to see.”

Grace Holloway · Before You Begin
Section I — The Two Books

Staying in charge, and staying sharp. They are the same problem.

I worked thirty-one years at a small bank in Ohio. Eleven at the teller window, twenty more doing the branch books. In those years I watched a great many careful, intelligent people sign things they did not want to sign.

The Later Life Collection — both books

Almost none of them were fools. They were kind people who had never been given the words. The request arrived, the room went quiet, and they said the only thing they had ever been taught to say.

“It goes: a favor, then a bigger favor, then a favor that was never really a favor, then a Tuesday afternoon where you are watching two children you did not agree to watch, in a house you are paying for, on a card that is not in your name — and you cannot point to the day it started.”

So I wrote one of them: fifty situations, every one of them ordinary, each with what it looks like early, what it actually costs, and the exact sentence to say — written out, short on purpose, so you are not composing it while somebody waits.

The other book came out of the other half of what I saw. The move into a facility is almost never the result of a diagnosis. It is an accumulation. A bill paid late. An appointment missed twice. A daughter visits for a weekend, adds it up, and has a conversation with her brother on the drive home.

So that book works the small competencies that add up to that picture — holding numbers in your head, reading a timetable, finding the word on the first try, remembering a name at the door. Two hundred puzzles, ten parts, a full answer key, and a ninety-day log.

One book protects what you have. The other protects the reason nobody gets to take it. That is why they are sold together.

Book One

200 Brain Puzzles That Keep You Out of the Retirement Home

Ten parts, two hundred puzzles, 146 pages, full answer key.

  • Words, numbers, logic, memory, patterns
  • Pictures, riddles, everyday reasoning, language play
  • Answers with the reason, not just the answer
  • A ninety-day log you can take to your doctor
Book Two

50 Ways Seniors Get Used After Turning 60 And How to Stop Each One

A field guide for later life — 140 pages, eight sections, fifty situations.

  • What it looks like, before it looks like anything
  • The tell — the one detail that gives it away
  • What it costs, in real dollars and real years
  • The sentence, written out word for word
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Section II — The Difference

Most advice for people our age is either a warning or a lecture.

Neither one gives you anything to say on a Tuesday afternoon when somebody is standing in your kitchen waiting for an answer.

What is usually offered

The warning

  • A list of scams, none of which sound like your daughter
  • “Be careful” — with no words to be careful with
  • Fear stories designed to make you take your own pulse at two in the morning
  • Brain-training programs that promise to prevent a disease
  • Advice written for a hypothetical stranger, not for a family
  • Nothing you can hold in your hand next to the telephone
What these two books do

The words, and the practice

  • Fifty situations that begin as ordinary requests — because that is how they begin
  • The exact sentence, written out, short enough to say without rehearsing
  • No fear industry: no warning-signs checklist, no self-scoring quiz
  • No medical claims. The puzzles work skills, and say so plainly
  • Written for people who love their families and still want to keep their own name
  • A sentence book, a ten-call list and a phone-number page you can tear out
Section III — What's Inside

The real contents of both books.

Nothing here is a summary written for a sales page. This is the table of contents, as printed.

200 Brain Puzzles That Keep You Out of the Retirement Home — cover
Book One · Ten Parts, Full Answer Key

200 Brain Puzzles That Keep You Out of the Retirement Home

200puzzles10parts146pages90day log

The title is a figure of speech and chapter one takes it apart, on purpose, before you have paid attention to anything else. No puzzle prevents a disease and this book does not pretend otherwise. What it works are the hundred small competencies — the timetable, the change from a twenty, the name at the door — that people quietly add up when they decide whether you are still managing.

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The ten parts

Part I · Puzzles 1–20

Words

Getting the word you want, when you want it.
Part II · Puzzles 21–40

Numbers

Arithmetic you do standing up, without a phone.
Part III · Puzzles 41–60

Logic

Working out what must be true from what you are told.
Part IV · Puzzles 61–80

Memory

Putting things in on purpose, so they come out on demand.
Part V · Puzzles 81–100

Patterns

Finding the rule that made the row.
Part VI · Puzzles 101–120

Pictures

What the eye can be made to miss.
Part VII · Puzzles 121–140

Riddles

Sideways answers to straight questions.
Part VIII · Puzzles 141–160

Everyday

The arithmetic and reasoning of an ordinary week.
Part IX · Puzzles 161–180

Language Play

Taking words apart to see how they were built.
Part X · Puzzles 181–200

The Marathon

Everything at once, and nothing marked out for you.

And the three things at either end

01The First Seven Days — a seven-sitting way in, in the order that works 02The Answer Key — all two hundred, in order, with the reasons 03The Ninety-Day Log — dated numbers, worth more than a vague sentence in a nine-minute appointment
Part I — Words puzzles
Part II — Numbers divider
Part IV — Memory puzzles
Part VI — Pictures puzzles

Real pages from 200 Brain Puzzles That Keep You Out of the Retirement Home, illustrated first edition.

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50 Ways Seniors Get Used After Turning 60 And How to Stop Each One — cover
Book Two · A Field Guide For Later Life

50 Ways Seniors Get Used After Turning 60 And How to Stop Each One

50situations8sections140pages50sentences written out

Every chapter is built the same way, so you can find what you need in the middle of the week: What It Looks Like · The Tell · When They Push · What It Costs · The Sentence · The Honest Limit. That last one matters — there are situations in here where the truthful answer is that a book cannot fix it, and I say so.

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The fifty, in order

Section I

The Family Bank

Money that leaves without a date on it
  • 01The Loan That Was Never a Loan
  • 02Co-Signing for a Grown Child
  • 03“Just Put It on Your Card”
  • 04The Tuition That Became Your Bill
  • 05The Business That Needs Your Savings
  • 06Living in Your House, Indefinitely
  • 07The Bill in Your Name
  • 08Being the Family's Emergency Fund
Section II

The Unpaid Job

Time nobody agreed to give
  • 09Full-Time Childcare, Called “Helping Out”
  • 10The Call That Comes at Six Forty
  • 11The Family Chauffeur
  • 12The Holiday That Is Always at Your House
  • 13The Caregiver Nobody Appointed
  • 14The Family Storage Unit
  • 15The Dog, the Plants, and the Two Weeks
Section III

Your Name and Your Signature

The papers that are hard to undo
  • 16Adding a Name to Your Bank Account
  • 17Signing Over the Deed “For Tax Reasons”
  • 18The Power of Attorney You Did Not Read
  • 19The Will They Want to Discuss Now
  • 20Your Car in Someone Else's Driveway
  • 21The Credit Opened in Your Name
Section IV

The Ones Who Call Themselves Professionals

Licensed, and still not on your side
  • 22The Free Lunch Seminar
  • 23The Annuity That Locks Your Money for Fifteen Years
  • 24The Reverse Mortgage Pitch
  • 25The Contractor at Your Door
  • 26The Medicare “Review” Phone Call
  • 27The Hearing Aid and the Upsell
  • 28The Trust Mill
Section V

The Voice on the Phone

The seven calls that come to everyone
  • 29The Grandchild in Trouble
  • 30The Government Agency That Calls You
  • 31The Warning on Your Screen
  • 32The Prize You Did Not Enter
  • 33The Romance That Needs Money
  • 34The Charity That Will Not Say Its Address
  • 35The Package You Did Not Order
Section VI

The House and Who Wants It

The largest thing you own
  • 36The Cash Offer for a House You Never Listed
  • 37The Family Meeting About “The Property”
  • 38The Person Who Moved In to Help
  • 39The Home Improvement Loan Nobody Explained
  • 40The Deed Change You Do Not Remember
Section VII

The Quiet Ones

What it costs you when nobody asks for money
  • 41Being Told You Are Confused When You Are Not
  • 42The Relative Who Manages Your Information
  • 43Being Cut Off From Your Own Friends
  • 44Guilt as a Payment Method
  • 45Being Told You Are Too Old to Decide
  • 46The Friend Who Only Comes When They Need Something
  • 47The Group That Asks and Asks
Section VIII

The Ones You Only See Later

By the time they are obvious, they are old
  • 48The Mail You Stopped Getting
  • 49The Appointment You Are Not Allowed to Attend Alone
  • 50The Day They Ask for the Keys

And at the back, the part people actually use

01The Sentence Book — every sentence in one place, for beside the telephone 02The Ten Calls — ten things to do, in order, most of them free 03The Numbers — the free hotlines, on one page 04The Boundary Ledger — one page per request, to copy
Chapter 2 — Co-Signing for a Grown Child
Chapter 19 — The Will They Want to Discuss Now
Chapter 34 — The Charity That Will Not Say Its Address
The Sentence Book

Real pages from 50 Ways Seniors Get Used After Turning 60 And How to Stop Each One, illustrated first edition.

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Section IV — Reader Results

What readers say.

★★★★★

“I copied the sentence for co-signing onto an index card and put it by the phone. Three weeks later I needed it. I read it out and my voice did not shake, because I was not making it up.”

Marlene R. · 71
★★★★★

“Chapter forty-three is the one that got me. I had not seen my two closest friends in over a year and I could not have told you why. I do now.”

Dorothy K. · 68
★★★★★

“Twenty minutes with the puzzles after breakfast, and the log filled in. My daughter noticed before I did. That is worth twenty-seven dollars.”

Raymond T. · 74
Section V — About

I am not warning you about your family.

Grace Holloway

I want that said plainly, because it is the first thing people assume. I raised three children. I have seven grandchildren. Two of them stay with me most weekends and I would not trade it for a quiet house. My family asks me for things and I give them things, and none of that is what these books are about.

They are about the difference between being asked and being used — a thin line that moves slowly, and that most of us were never taught to see.

I spent thirty-one years at a small bank in Ohio. Eleven at the teller window, twenty more doing the branch books. I watched a great many people sign things at my counter that they did not want to sign, and almost none of them were foolish. They were kind, and they had never been handed the words.

I also watched something quieter: people who stopped going out, stopped calling, stopped being asked. Section VII of 50 Ways is about that, and it is the section readers write to me about most. Being alone and being managed turn out to be close relatives.

So this is what I do now. I write down the words, and the practice that keeps you able to use them. Nothing here is a system and nothing here is a secret. It is thirty-one years at a counter, written out.

Grace HollowayLater Life, On Your Terms
Section VI — Order

Take one, or take both.

Both books are PDFs. They download the moment you pay, they are yours to keep, and you can read them on a phone, a tablet, a computer, or print them at the library.

200 Brain Puzzles That Keep You Out of the Retirement Home

200 Brain Puzzles That Keep You Out of the Retirement Home

Ten parts, full answer key

  • 200 puzzles across ten parts
  • Every answer with the reason behind it
  • The First Seven Days, a seven-sitting way in
  • The Ninety-Day Log
  • 146 pages, illustrated first edition (PDF)
$37$27
Get 200 Brain Puzzles That Keep You Out of the Retirement Home — $37 $27

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Both books · Best value The Later Life Collection — both books

The Later Life Collection

Both books — staying sharp and staying in charge after 60

  • Everything in both books, nothing held back
  • 50 situations + the sentence for each
  • 200 puzzles in ten parts, with the full answer key
  • The Sentence Book, The Ten Calls, The Numbers, The Boundary Ledger
  • The First Seven Days and the Ninety-Day Log
  • 286 pages across two illustrated PDFs
$54$47
Get the Later Life Collection — $54 $47

Instant download · Yours forever

50 Ways Seniors Get Used After Turning 60 And How to Stop Each One

50 Ways Seniors Get Used After Turning 60 And How to Stop Each One

A field guide for later life

  • 50 situations, in eight sections
  • The exact sentence for every one
  • The Sentence Book, all of them in one place
  • The Ten Calls · The Numbers · The Boundary Ledger
  • 140 pages, illustrated first edition (PDF)
$37$27
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Section VII — Questions

The things people write and ask me.

Is this a book telling me my family are crooks?

No, and I would not have written that book. Most people are not doing this to anyone. The great majority of families are ordinary and decent, and the great majority of requests you receive are just requests. This is a list of the ways it can go wrong, in the same way a first aid book is a list of the ways a body can be injured — nobody reads one and concludes the world is made of broken bones.

Will the puzzles keep me out of a retirement home?

No, and the book says so on its first page before it says anything else. Nothing prevents, treats, slows or detects dementia — not puzzles, not vitamins, not the expensive brain-training program advertised between the afternoon shows. The title is a figure of speech and chapter one takes it apart. What the puzzles work are ordinary daily skills. If you are worried about your memory, make an appointment. That conversation is worth more than every puzzle in the book put together.

Your videos are free — why would I pay for the books?

Because a video is something you watch once and a book is something you keep by the telephone. The videos take one situation at a time, in whatever order the week suggests. The books take all fifty in order, with the sentence written out for each, plus the sentence book, the ten calls, the phone numbers and the ledger — and two hundred puzzles with the answers and the reasons. It is the difference between hearing a thing and having it in the drawer.

Why only $27, or $47 for both?

Because the people who need this most are frequently the people who are already giving their money to somebody else. I would rather ten thousand people read it at twenty-seven dollars than four hundred read it at ninety. There is no printing, no shipping and no warehouse — a PDF costs me nothing to send, so the price is what I think is fair and not what the market would bear.

What format do they come in, and can I print them?

Both are PDFs. They open on a phone, a tablet, a computer or an e-reader, and yes, you can print them — a great many readers print The Sentence Book and the Boundary Ledger and nothing else. The download link arrives the moment you pay, and the files are yours to keep and to copy for your own use.

Is this legal or financial advice?

No. These books are educational and they reflect my own experience from thirty-one years at a bank counter. They are not legal, financial, tax or medical advice. Laws differ by state and change over time, and where a chapter says to speak to an attorney, an accountant or a doctor, please do — the book will tell you which, and what to ask.

I am seventy-eight and not good with computers. Can I still buy this?

Yes. You pay with a card the same way you would anywhere else, and the file appears on the screen with a link to save it. If you would rather, buy it on a grandchild's laptop and have them save it to a folder you can find. There is no app, no account to maintain and no subscription to cancel.

Grace Holloway Wait — one thing

Less than one afternoon you did not agree to.

Both books together are $47 today — the fifty situations with the sentence for each, and two hundred puzzles with the whole answer key. One of those sentences, said once, has saved readers more than that in an afternoon.

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