The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

What does it mean to grandparent on purpose? For Richard and Linda Eyre, the answer has been decades in the making. The bestselling authors of Teaching Your Children Values have evolved with their family, from nine children to 34 grandchildren, and along the way have developed a philosophy of proactive grandparenting that mirrors what good leadership looks like at any stage of life. In this 1st of 2 conversations about Richard Eyre’s new book, The Grandparenting Blueprint:How to Teach Your Grandchildren Life’s Most Important Lessons, we discuss: Why grandparenting is where parenting was 50 years ago — a new frontier for intentional engagement The crucial mindset shift: from manager (the parent’s role) to consultant (the grandparent’s opportunity) Their TEAM framework — Trunk, Ear, Assembler, and Matcher — four roles every grandparent can play regardless of geography or circumstance Grammy Camp, one-on-one grandfather dates, and other practices that create genuine connection across generations The Five-Facet Review: a structured conversation with adult children that turns grandparents into informed, effective supporters How knowing your family roots builds resilience in children — and what research from 9/11 survivors revealed about the power of family stories The four types of grandparents — from disengaged to all-in, and why the all-in approach treats grandparenting like a second career Linda brings warmth, insights and creativity to the grandmothering side of the equation, such as music, art, storytelling, and the precious one-on-one moments that reveal what grandchildren are really thinking. Richard brings his Harvard MBA mindset (and toolkit) to the legacy-building and structured side of grandparenting, including how to give financial help without creating entitlement. This episode is a masterclass on how to cultivate meaningful relationships with intention. It’s a powerful reminder that grandparenting, like retirement itself, is far too important to leave to chance. Linda and Richard Eyre join us from Utah. _________________________ For More on Linda & Richard Eyre The Grandparenting Blueprint:How to Teach Your Grandchildren Life’s Most Important Lessons (Amazon) Also available from the publisher at the author’s price (40% off) https://familius.com/book/the-grandparenting-blueprint/ Use the coupon code EYREFRIEND at checkout Website Grandmothering: The Secrets to Making a Difference While Having the Time of Your Life – by Linda Eyre Online Grandparenting 101 Course _________________________ Bio Richard and Linda Eyre are among the most popular speakers in the world on parenting and families. Their clients and audiences range from The Young President’s Organization (YPO) and major corporations and associations to a wide array of school, civic, church and community groups. They find it remarkable and gratifying that in every one of the 50+ countries where they have presented, parents have similar hopes, dreams and worries about their children regardless of economic, religious, geographic, and cultural differences. The Eyres are authors of more than 50 books, most of which deal with work/family balance and parenting, and one of which, Teaching Your Children Values, became the only parenting book in more than fifty years  to reach #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In addition to their ongoing work with parents, their latest books are about grandparenting and “Life in Full” for Baby Boomers. Richard and Linda have been frequent guests on national network shows including Oprah, The Today Show, Prime Time Live, 60 Minutes, and Good Morning America; and they once did regular segments on the CBS Early Show. Their parenting website, ValuesParenting.com, provides ideas, guidance and creative programs for families throughout the world. But their most important production is their nine children (“one of every kind”) who, through the years, have helped formulate their ideas for books and speeches. The second generation Eyres and their spouses are an impressive bunch, all with university degrees from the likes of Wellesley, Harvard, Columbia, M.I.T., Stanford, and BYU and all having interrupted their university education to spend up to two years living abroad, studying, doing missionary work and providing humanitarian service. They are also doing their part to expand the importance of family through their own speaking, books, blogs, and websites, and they have presented Richard and Linda with 34 grandchildren. Beyond their speaking engagements, the Eyre’s favorite travel projects are humanitarian expeditions to places like Ethiopia, Kenya, Bolivia, India, Romania and Mexico, and the family’s Eyrealm Foundation focuses on assisting and strengthening third world families. Richard is a Harvard MBA, president of his own management consulting company (which worked with national political candidates and locally ran campaigns to build Symphony Hall, restore the Capitol Theater, expand the Salt Palace, extend the Central Utah Project and save the Hogle Zoo) and a nationally ranked senior tennis player. He was a mission president for his church in London and a former director of the White House Conference on Parents and Children as well as a candidate for Utah Governor. Linda is a teacher, musician, and co-founder of International JoySchools.com, an in-home, do-it-yourself co-op and program for teaching preschoolers the joys of life. Both Richard and Linda have served on numerous arts, university, and non-profit boards and do a radio show/podcast at BYUradio called Eyres on the Road that is now in its 14th annual season. _____________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You May Love Grandparents’ Day – Kerry Byrne & Ted Page The Mindful Grandparent – Dr. Shirley Showalter The Art of Relationships with Adult Children – Francine Toder, PhD ______________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 2 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. __________________________ Wise Quotes On The Grandparent’s Blueprint “Linda does it by group. So she’ll have her preschool group and then she’ll have her elementary age group and they all get their turn at the Grammy camp. And I’m sitting there, Joe, like, what am I? I mean, what am I doing? This fabulous Grammy is doing all these things with all these kids and I’m just sort of an observer.  And that’s really what led to this new book about these grandfather’s secrets. I thought, well, I want to leave a legacy. There’s certain life lessons I think I’ve learned as a management consultant and all the other things I’ve done in my life. And I want to  somehow condense those concepts into something simple enough that children can understand them. That’s my legacy.” – Richard Eyre — On Listening  “We just recently met with three of our granddaughters. They’re all in university. And so we went down there to meet with them and for breakfast. And it was so fun.  We call them the babes because we have these little separate groups and these are the babes. And it was so fun to be with them. But in one breakfast, we learned more about their life than we could have imagined. And what were the three things you asked? We just said, Look, we just said, while we’re having breakfast, we just want to hear your story. We want to hear your recent story. And they just got going on telling us things. And I thought, if we’d been too specific with our questions, we would have missed part of what they said.  We love to tell stories to grad kids, but what’s really great is having them tell you their story. We’ve found that if we, it sounds funny, but if we pull out a pad or a pen and take a few notes on what they’re saying, they realize we really are paying attention. We really want to know. And they tell their story and they know it’s safe with us.we we know more about them than we would have if we just spent a big family reunion and everybody because we had some one-on-one and not only that we had one-on-ones with little kids.” – Linda Eyre — On Lecturing “But the failure is the lecturing and the other failure I want to mention and I’ve made this more than Linda. Linda is way mo

The wellness industry has a problem, and Ezekiel Emanuel is one of the few people willing to call it out. In his new book, Eat Your Ice Cream: A Contrarian’s Guide to Living Longer, Healthier, and Happier, the bioethicist, oncologist, and former White House health advisor challenges both the influencers selling unproven supplements and the culture of wellness-as-self-punishment. In this episode, Emanuel makes a compelling research-backed case that the single most powerful determinant of health, longevity, and happiness is social connection, not sleep scores, protein intake, or VO2 max. Drawing on the Harvard Adult Development Study, the longitudinal study, going strong after 88 years, and other research worldwide, he explains why loneliness is biologically dangerous, and why doctors almost never ask about it. He also makes important points about retirement. When 40 hours of purposeful work becomes 40 hours of passive television, the brain pays a price. Emanuel argues that retirement requires deliberate design to replace the cognitive challenge, social contact, and structured schedule that work once provided. And he offers Ben Franklin, inventor of bifocals at 79, and still inventing at 81, as a model for what staying fully alive in later life actually looks like. Ezekiel Emanuel joins us from Washington, DC. ________________________ For More on Ezekiel Emanuel Eat Your Ice Cream: A Contrarian’s Guide to Living Longer, Healthier, and Happier Website ________________________ Bio Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, is the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor. An oncologist and world leader in health policy and bioethics, he is a Special Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was the founding chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health and held that position until August 2011. From 2009 to 2011, he served as a Special Advisor on Health Policy to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and National Economic Council. In this role, he was instrumental in drafting the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Emanuel is the most widely cited bioethicist in history. He has over 350 publications and has authored or edited 15 books. His recent publications include Which Country Has the World’s Best Health Care (2020), Prescription for the Future (2017), Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System (2014) and Brothers Emanuel: A Memoir of an American Family (2013). In 2008, he published Healthcare, Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America, which included his own recommendations for health care reform.Dr. Emanuel regularly contributes to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic and often appears on BBC, NPR, CNN, MS NOW and other media outlets. He has received numerous awards, including election to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Science and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association of American Physicians, and the Royal College of Medicine (UK). He has been named a Dan David Prize Laureate in Bioethics and is a recipient of the AMA-Burroughs Wellcome Leadership Award, the Public Service Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation David E. Rogers Award, the President’s Medal for Social Justice from Roosevelt University, and the John Mendelsohn Award from the MD Anderson Cancer Center, as well as honorary degrees from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Union Graduate College, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and Macalester College. Dr. Emanuel is a graduate of Amherst College. He holds a M.Sc. from Oxford University in Biochemistry and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard University. ________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You’ll Also Love   The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile How Not to Age – Dr. Michael Greger _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 2 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. __________________________ Wise Quotes On Wellness “Wellness should be about joie de vivre — about joy in life. It should not be only self-deprivation…Most of wellness is about don’t do stupid stuff — and most of it, we already know.” On Retirement “Most people when 40 hours of work drops out, 40 hours of TV comes in. Very passive. Not very intellectually challenging. That’s not retirement — that’s a slow decline…We don’t spend nearly enough time thinking about the brain part of retirement. Your brain is probably more important than your money.” On Willpower vs. Habits “If you have to use your willpower every time you do something, you can forget it. You have to make the wellness activity part of your habit. Doing it three to four times a week for about six weeks, that’s about what you need for a new activity to become ingrained.”  

What if cognitive decline in your 60s, 70s, and 80s is not inevitable — but largely a function of choices you’re making right now? What can you do to stay sharp in retirement? Dr. Majid Fotuhi is a neurologist, who teaches at Johns Hopkins University, and the author of The Invincible Brain: The Clinically Proven Plan to Age-Proof Your Brain and Stay Sharp for Life. He has spent decades studying the most malleable structure in the human brain, the hippocampus, and what he’s found challenges almost everything most people believe about aging and the mind.  The brain can grow. New neurons can form at any age. The most powerful predictor of late-life cognitive health is not your genes — it’s your daily habits. And retirement, done the traditional way, is one of the most reliable accelerants of cognitive decline that exists.  In this episode, Dr. Fotuhi walks us through his Five Pillars of Brain Health, the science of neuroplasticity, and what the research says about exercise, sleep, stress, nutrition, and brain training. He also shares one of the most remarkable patient stories of his career including a woman who arrived at his clinic in a wheelchair, seemingly destined for a nursing home, and left 12 weeks later looking for a new job.  If there’s one conversation that makes the case for designing an active, engaged, and cognitively rich retirement life, this is it. _________________________ Bio Dr. Majid Fotuhi is a neurologist and neuroscientist who has spent more than three decades studying memory, aging, and Alzheimer’s disease. He trained at Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins University, where he later served on the faculty and taught neuroscience to students and physicians. Over the course of his career, Dr. Fotuhi has evaluated thousands of patients with memory concerns and has researched how lifestyle, medical health, and brain biology interact. His work focuses on a central question: why do some people remain mentally sharp into their 80s and 90s while others develop cognitive decline? To answer this, he developed a practical brain-health program that integrates exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and cognitive training. His research and clinical experience led him to write The Invincible Brain, a guide designed to help readers strengthen memory, improve focus, and reduce their risk of dementia by building what he calls “brain reserve.” Dr. Fotuhi is also the founder of NeuroGrow Brain Fitness Center and frequently lectures to physicians, corporations, and community groups about preserving cognitive vitality across the lifespan. His goal is to shift the public conversation about aging—from fear of Alzheimer’s disease to proactive brain health. He lives in the Washington, DC area with his family and continues to teach, write, and develop educational programs that empower people to take an active role in protecting their brains. __________________________ For More on Majid Fotuhi The Invincible Brain: The Clinically Proven Plan to Age-Proof Your Brain and Stay Sharp for Life NeuroGrow Brain Fitness Center __________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You May Also Love Make Your Next Years Your Best Years – Harry Agress, MD Why Brains Need Friends – Ben Rein Breaking the Age Code – Dr. Becca Levy Why We Remember – Charan Ranganath ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 2 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Retirement and Your Brain “The idea that you retire and now you relax, you sit by the pool and just do crossword puzzles, is not a good idea. I view retirement as a new childhood. I think that as I’m in my 60s now, it’s like a new world. You can choose how busy you will be by the decisions you make. A mistake that people commonly make about retirement is to think that they just need to have enough money. What they don’t realize is the cognitive reserve — that’s the most important factor. Your brain is your biggest asset. And the good news is that you can keep on growing your brain reserve in your 70s and 80s. On Lifestyle vs. Genetics “Genetics play a strong role for early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. However, the most common form — late-onset Alzheimer’s disease — has a small genetic component. If you have a grandmother or parents who developed Alzheimer’s in their 80s, your risk may go from 2% to 4%. However, if you have poor lifestyle choices — diabetes, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, too much stress, lack of brain activity — your risk is 16-fold higher. Your 2% chance becomes a 32% chance. In summary, your lifestyle choices have a much stronger role in your cognitive function in late life than genetics do for late-life Alzheimer’s disease.” On the Power of Narrative “So much of what happens to our brain depends on the narrative that we have in our head about how things should happen. If you think you’re going to decline as you go into your sixties and seventies, you will. But if you have the narrative that, hey, I may be forgetting names a bit more often, but look at all the things I’m doing, look at how I’m impacting my community — there are two different narratives. If you have the negative narrative, you will get there. If you have a positive narrative, you will continue on that path.” On Exercise  “Exercise is really the fountain of youth. I know people talk about it figuratively, but it really is the fountain of youth. If you could bottle the benefits of exercise and give it to people as medicine, it would reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease literally — not just indirectly, directly. Walking 10,000 steps a day reduces your risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 50%. Dozens of studies have shown that. Physical movement should be a priority — the number one priority. You don’t have to do a marathon or a triathlon in order to see the benefits. Walking 3,000 to 5,000 steps a day reduces the footprints of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain.” On Sleep “Sleep is not a passive process — it’s not like you’re just lying in bed doing nothing. During sleep, a lot of cleaning and rinsing happens in the brain, and your memories are being consolidated. The things that go on during deep sleep at night are similar to all the garbage collection that happens at night in New York City. Imagine if the garbage collection doesn’t happen for a month — it would be a disaster. When people cut down on their sleep, the brain is not as clean and crisp as it would be otherwise. Your neurons are very sensitive, fragile cells. When they don’t work, your brain doesn’t work, your cognitive abilities, your mood, your experience of daily life — the joy you would have otherwise is not there. Sleep is critically important for brain maintenance.” __________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.  

Retirement triggers one of the most profound re-evaluations many people will ever face. A career ends. Structure disappears. Identity shifts. And suddenly a question that could be put off — What do I really want out of life? — becomes more urgent and unavoidable. Valerie Tiberius has spent her career building a useful framework for exactly that question. Her insights offer you something much more valuable than advice on life from your Financial Advisor – a way of thinking about your values, goals, and well-being in one of the most important transitions of your lifetime. Valerie Tiberius joins us from Minnesota. __________________________ Bio Valerie Tiberius is the author of What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters (Princeton University Press, 2023). She is the Paul W. Frenzel Chair in Liberal Arts and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, where she has taught since 1998. Her work sits at the crossroads of philosophy and psychology — specifically, how both disciplines illuminate what it means to live well. She is the author of four additional  books, including The Reflective Life: Living Wisely with Our Limits, Well-Being as Value Fulfillment, and her widely acclaimed ). Her newest book, Artificially Yours: Real Friendship in a World of Chatbots, is forthcoming from Princeton University Press in May 2026. Valerie has received grants from the Templeton Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and her ideas have reached audiences through MPR News, numerous podcasts, and speaking engagements worldwide. __________________________ For More on Valerie Tiberius What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters Artificially Yours: Real Friendship in a World of Chatbots (availabkle for pre-order – coming in May) Website __________________________ Mentioned in This Episode Why you should swap your bucket list with a chuck-it list __________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You May Like The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD Living for Pleasure – Emily Austin, PhD Life in Three Dimensions – Dr. Shige Oishi ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Values and Alignnment “I think living in accordance with your values, living up to your values, doing the things you value, that just is what it is to live a good life. So the good life is the life in which you fulfill the best values for you… Life goes well to the extent that we pursue and fulfill our appropriate values over time — not the values society assigns us, but the ones that are emotionally authentic, reflectively endorsed, and capable of being sustained together.” On Hidden Goals “If you don’t acknowledge [a hidden goal] and it’s there, it will come up and haunt you at some point. It will come and hit you in the face.” On Adding a Chuck It List to Your Bucket List “Sometimes you have to give yourself permission to say, I’m never going to do that. I’m just not going to do it. And for my dad, it was learning Spanish. He really thought an educated person – my father has a PhD, he’s very educated – an educated person knows a foreign language. And then at some point in his 70s, he was like, it’s not happening now. I got better things to do.  And he does have other things to do. So I think the Chuck-it list is important for the specific goals we have. And sometimes there’s a whole big value that needs to be chucked. If your capacities change, there are things you just can’t do anymore.” On Listening to Your Emotions “I really think it’s worth spending some time reflecting on what matters to you and thinking about whether you’re tracking it – because I think people have a tendency to get caught up in trivial crap that doesn’t really matter. And then the second part is I think that, although I’m recommending being reflective and thinking about these things, that process has to be informed by our emotions. So you can’t just sit and think about what you believe. You also have to listen to your body, they would say if you were in a yoga class. But there’s something to that. Listen to what your emotions and motivations are yelling at you from the bullpen.”  

Choices shaped your career. But when retirement approaches, a new design challenge appears. Not a financial one. A life design challenge. What will your days look like? What will energize you?  What might the next five years become? In the Designing Your New Life in Retirement program, you’ll step back from the fray and apply design thinking to those questions, with a bias for action. Learn more here. We begin in April. Join us and get started – on your most important project. _____________________________ Friendship is one of the most powerful forces shaping our lives—and our health. Friendships become harder to maintain as life evolves, especially during major transitions like retirement. Losing work friends is normal, yet few realize how new connections can be cultivated. Our guest today highlights why identity shifts can, perhaps counterintuitively, create oppotunities to build new friendships. My guest today is Janice McCabe, is a sociologist at Dartmouth and author of Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends. Her research, mainly on college campuses, illuminates key principles of forming friendships like the hidden structures that shape our friendships. In this conversation, we explore how anyone—at any stage of life—can become more intentional about building meaningful connections. Why friendships are essential for long-term health and well-being The two biggest drivers of friendship formation Why proximity matters more than we realize Three types of friendship networks The difference between fading friendships and breakups If you’re approaching retirement or navigating a major life transition, understanding these patterns can help you design a richer and more connected life. Janice McCabe joins us from New Hampshire. __________________________ Bio Janice M. McCabe is associate professor of sociology at Dartmouth College and the Allen House Professor. She is the current president of the Sociology of Education Association and the author of Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends and Connecting in College: How Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success. __________________________ For More on Janice McCabe Website Books __________________________ Mentioned in This Retirement Podcast Conversation I Study Friendship. Here’s How You Make Lasting Friends. ___________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Make New Friends in Retirement – Dr. Marisa G. Franco Our New Social Life – Natalie Kerr & Jaime Kurtz The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Life Changes & Friendships ” We’re changing and we’re growing throughout our lives, and there may be times that we change with our friends, and so our identities, our interests change in similar ways, or we’re able to keep some sort of connection through those transitions. But it can be harder for people who are now retired. They likely have friendships that, started earlier in life, and you may have similar transitions with having kids at the same time, or living in the same area or in different areas throughout your lives. So all of those things, some of which are structural. When you’re having those life transitions, sometimes we feel like a friendship is really important to us, but then someone changes jobs, or someone moves, and we may realize that that connection was either more or less important than we thought, just because we took it for granted when it was easy.” On Prioritizing Friendships “I interviewed a lot of people in the course of my research and the people that were able to both make and keep particularly meaningful friends, one thing was that they were intentional about is making time for friends. Also being reflective about which friends are most meaningful to you,who are you really excited to see, excited to talk to, excited to do things about and making sure that you’re reaching out to them. That not always, just up to your paths crossing or them reaching out to you, but thinking through, what people do I especially want to prioritize is part of it.  Another thing that I saw people do is that is just making time for friendship in general. We typically have goals for our work lives, we may have goals for our family lives, but I’d say most of us don’t have goals for our friendship lives. But having that would help us see that as another really valuable part of life. And so not just letting friendship fill the cracks of like our extra time, but really going out of the way to make sure that we are prioritizing friendship in our lives, making time for friends.” On Friends & Health – and Being a Good Friend “A lot of research has shown that our friendships help us live longer. It’s actually more important to have connections than to not smoke, not be obese, the things that we look at as healthy behaviors. Having friends are equally, if not more, important from other people’s research, epidemiologically, that have looked at those factors. So making sure that you invest in friendships is really important.  And I think we can get so busy going through life that we don’t slow down to take stock of our friendships and just see who’s there. And, not just do I have good friends, but am I being a good friend also? Because friendship is a reciprocal relationship. Friendship isn’t just a one time event. It’s not just that you make friends and Oh, I’m done. Instead, you constantly are making new friends and thinking through those factors that I was mentioning; who’s important, what am I getting from my friends? What am I missing? And not assuming that either our partner, our romantic partner, or one friend will meet all of our needs.”

________________________ Get started in April on your most important project. Learn more here _________________________ Retirement planning focuses heavily on finances — investments, Social Security, and risks. But there’s another question that often sneaks up on people once the career chapter closes: Do I still matter? Our guest today has spent years researching one of the most powerful psychological needs we have as human beings — the need to feel valued and to add value. Jennifer Breheny Wallace is an award-winning journalist and author of the new book Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose. Her work explores how feeling significant, appreciated, invested in, and depended on shapes our well-being throughout life. And her insights have important implications for retirement. Because when work ends, many people lose one of the primary places where they knew they mattered — where their contributions were visible, valued, and relied upon. In this conversation, we explore:        • Why the need to matter doesn’t diminish with age        • How retirees can build what Jennifer calls a “mattering portfolio”        • The surprising research on relationships and resilience        • Practical daily actions that restore a sense of meaning and contribution If you’re thinking about retirement — or already there — this conversation may change how you think about purpose, connection, and belonging in the next chapter. _________________________ Bio Jennifer Breheny Wallace is the author of Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose.  She is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose work explores the power of mattering in our everyday lives. Through research and storytelling, Wallace examines the hidden forces shaping modern life, from the crisis of meaning in achievement culture to the essential role of mattering in personal, workplace, and societal health.  Her first book, Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — And What We Can Do About It, was a New York Times Bestseller, an Amazon Best Book of the Year, and a Next Big Idea selection. Wallace is the founder of The Mattering Institute, whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in workplaces and communities, and co-founder of The Mattering Movement, a nonprofit whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in K-12 schools. Wallace has partnered with The LEGO Group on its global Play Unstoppable campaign to address perfectionism and grow confidence through play. She has also consulted with Calm wellness app, Netflix, and is a BCG  BrightHouse Luminary. She serves on the University of Michigan’s Well-being Collective Advisory Council, and the Advisory Board for Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Wallace is a Journalism Fellow at The Center for Parent and Teen Communication at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. After graduating from Harvard College, Wallace was a journalist for CBS “60 Minutes” and was part of the team that won The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism. She is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post and frequently appears on national television programs to discuss her work. Wallace serves on the board of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, where she lives with her husband and their three children. ___________________________ For More on Jennifer Breheny Wallace Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose by Jennifer Breheny Wallace Website ___________________________ Mentioned in This Retirement Podcast  The Retirement Crisis No One Warns You About: Mattering – The Wall Street Journal Video: Taylor Mali (What Do You Make?) ____________________________ Your choices shaped your career. But when retirement approaches, a new design challenge appears. Not a financial one. A life design challenge. What will your days look like? What will energize you?  What might the next five years become? In the Designing Your New Life in Retirement program, you’ll step back from the fray and apply design thinking to those questions, with a bias for action. Learn more here. Our next two groups begin in April. Join us and get started on your most important project. _____________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like What Matters Most – Diane Button How to Live a Meaningful Life – Dave Evans Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Adding Value “I found this very common thread among the hundreds of people that I interviewed who, when they were going through a life transition—if it was retirement or grief, getting divorced, all these things—what they did over and over again was that they found new ways to add value. And so they would look for what I call in the book a genuine need in the world. And then they would use either their time or their talents or their treasure to meet those needs. It’s kind of a handy formula for finding purpose.” On Your Mattering Portfolio “Plan your retirement social portfolio—your mattering portfolio—as carefully as you plan your financial portfolio…You are only one decision, one action away from getting back on that path to mattering.”  

Discern what you’ll retire to. Join our group program starting in April. Learn more here _________________________ What if the secret to happiness isn’t success or achievement — but simply feeling loved? In this episode, one of the world’s top researchers on happiness and well-being Sonja Lyubomirsky explains why connection, curiosity, and listening may be the most powerful ingredients for a fulfilling life — and a meaningful retirement. Her new book, co-authored with relationship scientist Dr. Harry Reis, is How to Feel Loved: The Five Mindsets That Get You More of What Matters Most —and it offers a surprising and practical roadmap for getting there. Key insights? When you want to feel more loved, don’t try to make yourself more lovable. Don’t try to change the other person. Instead, change the conversation. Go first. Make them feel loved—and watch what happens next. This conversation is full of wisdom for anyone planning for or navigating retirement—a life stage where relationships become the center of your world. Dr. Lyubomirsky talks about the vulnerability paradox, the three magic words everyone wants to hear, why older people are actually happier than younger ones, and what really matters when you’re designing a life worth living. Sonja Lyubomirsky joins us from Santa Monica, California. ___________________________ Bio Sonja Lyubomirsky (AB Harvard, summa cum laude; PhD Stanford) is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside and author of the best-selling The How of Happiness and The Myths of Happiness (published in 39 countries). Lyubomirsky’s research—on the possibility of lastingly increasing happiness via gratitude, kindness, and connection interventions—have been the recipients of many grants and honors, including Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Basel, the Diener Award for Outstanding Midcareer Contributions in Personality Psychology, the Christopher Peterson Gold Medal, a Positive Psychology Prize, and the Faculty of the Year Award (twice). She has four kids, ages 12 to 26, and lives in Santa Monica, California. ___________________________ For More on Sonja Lyubomirsky How to Feel Loved: The Five Mindsets That Get You More of What Matters Most Website  __________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Live a Meaningful Life – Dave Evans Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD ___________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Love & Happiness “The key to happiness is feeling connected and loved. The secret to feeling loved is really feeling known.” On Going First “When we want to feel more loved, we often try to make ourselves more lovable. But the research suggests something different — we need to start by making the other person feel loved. A relationship is really a series of conversations. Changing the conversation can change the relationship. When you think about a relationship is a series of conversations. And so during your next conversation, the first step is actually to try to make the other person feel more loved. And so we talk about, you know, showing curiosity in the other person and really listening to them and helping them open up, you know, because the secret to feeling loved is really feeling known. You know, you can’t really feel loved by someone else if they don’t know you, right?  If you don’t really know me, I can’t feel loved by you because I’ll always wonder would he still love me if he knew me? If you could see what was sort of behind those walls. It’s a little bit counterintuitive, right? If you want to feel more loved, you want to go first and make the other person feel more loved.” On Vulnerability “I’m not going to feel loved by you just if you’re admiring me. And so that’s where sort of we go wrong where like, it turns out that actually being a little vulnerable and showing more of our kind of real selves, not really real selves, it’s all real, you know, but you know, kind of showing more of our full selves, what’s beneath those walls. That’s actually what forges a connection. So that kind of, in fact, I think it’s called the vulnerability paradox. Like we think people won’t like us if we show a little bit vulnerability or weakness even, but actually people will like us more. Now, if it has to be done at the right pace and at the right time for the right person, right, you have to really read the room so you don’t just like dump your traumas or your weaknesses right away on another person. That’s not, that’s not going to work either.”

What’s next? Don’t drift. Design. Our next small group coaching program starts in April. Learn more here. ________________________ Most retirement planning conversations start and end with money. Rod Yancy, founder of Oath Planning, challenges that assumption head-on — arguing that mindset, emotional health, and identity matter more than any portfolio balance when it comes to actually thriving in retirement. In this conversation, Rod shares data from Oath’s latest client survey, their Q1 2026 Money and Meaning Institute survey of over 500 retirees and near-retirees, and some the findings may surprise you. For example, the biggest regrets aren’t about money. The financial advisory industry is structurally incentivized to keep money at the center of retirement planning — even when that leaves clients less than fully prepared for what they’ll face in planning for life in retirement. He offers a candid, practitioner-level view of what he actually sees working (and failing) in retirement transitions. Rod Yancy joins us from Tulsa, Oklahoma. _________________________ Bio Rod Yancy is a multifaceted entrepreneur, writer, attorney, and leader. His personal mission to empower others to live their lives to the fullest is woven into both his business ventures and creative projects. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 2002 with a double major in philosophy and political science, Rod made adventure his top priority, traveling in search of new experiences, inspiration, and deeper meaning. He began writing about his journeys while immersing himself in diverse fields, from mindfulness to literature to software development. Recognizing the importance of legal expertise for his entrepreneurial goals, Rod pursued a J.D. at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, graduating in 2006. He quickly put his education to use by founding two app-based software companies in fantasy sports and photo sharing, before shifting his focus to creating what became one of his life’s major undertakings – Oath. Since its inception in 2010, Oath Law has been guided by Rod’s belief that life is short and everyone should embrace their unique journey to achieve their full potential. With this perspective, Rod utilized estate planning as a means to help people recognize life is short and organize their affairs, allowing them to focus on what truly matters: enjoying life. _____________________________ For More on Rod Yancy Oath Planning _____________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You May Like Retire with Purpose – Cesar Aguirre Design a Phased Retirement – Anna Rappaport Coming of Age in Retirement – Tom Marks _____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Mindfulness  “I remember hearing when I was young, about a farmer whose crops had failed. And when they asked him what he would have done different, he said I would have cared for the soil sooner. And that that really is the thing. Oftentimes, we really don’t care for what matters until after it’s too late to fix it. And I think that when it comes to emotional well being and mindfulness, people sometimes don’t even know what they were missing. But when we sit down with our clients who are retirees, we see clearly that their mindset does shape their experience in retirement even more than money.” On Resilience “Oftentimes, resilience determines whether the change going into retirement feels like freedom, or feels like a loss of identity. And their purpose or what they what they mean to do with their life can make their calendar either feel very empty or open for for better things for them to do.  I don’t know if it’s counterintuitive, but I just keep seeing it time and time again, that people really need to pay attention to who they are before retirement.” On Taking Aim in Retirement “A man without an aim or a woman without an aim…is just that drifting. Taking aim at something is really important even in retirement. I think that is where you find the peace and that’s where you find that purpose.” _____________________________

What’s next? Don’t drift. Design. Our next small group coaching program starts in April. Learn more here. _________________________ Who are you when you’re no longer your title? For many high-performing professionals, that question can feel destabilizing — even frightening. Michael Kay is a CFP, a financial life planner, the author of the new book How To Craft Your Chapter X: A Guide For High-Performing Men to Discover Meaning (and Joy) In Retirement. He’s been through it himself—the excitement of the new chapter, and then, six months in, the wall he didn’t see coming. Today he shares what he’s learned about reopening the aperture, grieving what you’ve left behind, and finding out who you were before you were your job. This is a conversation every high-achieving man—and the people who love them—needs to hear. _________________________ Bio Michael F. Kay is a coach, teacher, author and retired CFP(R). Through his books, workshops, speeches, and the Chapter X community, he’s helped thousands of women, men, and families master their financial lives—and navigate the transition from full-time work to what comes next. He’s written three books: How to Craft Your Chapter X, The Feel Rich Project, and The Business of Life. His insights have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, Forbes, and Psychology Today. Today, he publishes weekly essays for the Chapter X newsletter, hosts the Chapter X podcast, and shares his thoughts on LinkedIn. He is the former president of Financial Life Focus, a fee-only multi-advisor financial life planning firm. ___________________________ For More on Michael Kay How To Craft Your Chapter X: A Guide For High-Performing Men to Discover Meaning (and Joy) In Retirement _________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Inspired Retirement – Nathalie Martin How to Prepare Mentally for Life After Work – Joseph Maugeri Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives – Daisy Fancourt ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Saying No in Retirement “If it’s not joyful, I’m not going to do it.” On Perspective “As we get older and we start focusing towards career, that aperture narrows. And so when we get ready to step into this next chapter, whether it’s our choice or not, we are at our narrowest. So we need to, mindfully and intentionally—I think that’s the right word—look to reopen that aperture.” On Returning to Music – For Fun “I got the trumpet out and had it cleaned, and I found a teacher, and I started playing again, and I put up on my music stand, ‘fun’—the word fun—to remind me. Because if you miss a note, I was like, ‘You suck.’ All these things that come back. And so I had to keep reminding myself: this is for fun. I am never going to be a touring professional musician. I’m never going to play with Blood, Sweat and Tears or Chicago. This is for fun. And it just takes the discipline to keep reminding yourself—have joy in the music, have joy in the doing. The joy is in the journey, not in the destination. Because the destination is the journey.”

Don’t plan for just one side of retirement. Design Your Life in Retirement. Join our small group coaching program beginning in April. Learn more here. Very Early Registration Discount ends on March 1st. Sign up here. ___________________________ What if the biggest risk in retirement isn’t the market — but misunderstanding your own goals? As you approach retirement, the questions shift. It’s no longer just “How much have I saved?” It becomes, “When do I want the freedom to retire?” “How much risk do I really need to take?” And perhaps most importantly — “What is my money for?” Today, I’m joined by financial planner Zach Morris for a candid conversation about risk tolerance versus risk capacity, sequence of return risk, working one more year, helping family, and why having a 100% probability of financial success might actually mean you’re leaving life on the table. If you’re within five years of retirement — or wondering whether you’re truly ready — this episode will help you think differently about risk, purpose, and pulling the trigger. Zach Morris, CFP joins us from Atlanta. __________________________ Bio Having traveled to over 35 countries, Zach is a believer in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s statement that Life is about the journey, not the destination. Being a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® provides Zach the opportunity to help clients define and realize their journey, and co-founding Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors, an independent firm, allows the freedom to define the client experience along the way. Previously, Zach was a partner in The Diamond Morris Group and a Financial Advisor with J.P. Morgan Securities, a wealth management division of J.P. Morgan. Before becoming a Financial Advisor, Zach started as an Associate with the firm in 2011, where he developed skills for building lasting relationships with clients. Later, Zach developed and oversaw a training and mentorship program for J.P. Morgan Associates. Zach supports a number of organizations including Alzheimer’s Association, Georgia Chapter, The Shepherd Center, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, and NewStory. Zach received a B.S. in finance, with a minor in economics, from Elon University in North Carolina. He was a member of The Kappa Alpha Order and has served on the board of the Elon Alumni Association’s Atlanta chapter. Zach speaks Spanish and is an Atlanta native. He and his wife live in West Midtown’s Underwood Hills neighborhood and his parents and two of his three sisters and their families live nearby. In his spare time, Zach golfs, plays tennis, rides his mountain bike and travels. _____________________________ For More on Zach Morris, CFP Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors Zach Morris, CFP® You Tube channel ______________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Live a Meaningful Life – Dave Evans Re-Visioning Retirement – Susan Reid, PhD Retire with Purpose – Cesar Aguirre ______________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On The One More Year Trap “Sometimes it’s just one more year because they don’t know what the next step is…If somebody is working one more year and they have 100% probability of success — they’re not just leaving money on the table, they’re leaving life on the table.” On Risk “Risk is invisible… you can have a risk tolerance today, but once you hit that maximum threshold, it can very quickly become uncomfortable.” On Retirement Planning “You don’t want to go into retirement with unfulfilled expectations. You want to go into retirement knowing what to expect.” _____________________________

Don’t drift into retirement. Design yours. Learn more about our next small group coaching program starting in April here. Sign up here. Very Early Registration Discount ends on March 1st. _______________________ What happens when you finally get everything you worked for…and realize something is missing? In this powerful and deeply honest conversation, Darrow Kirkpatrick shares what early retirement can really feel like — beyond the spreadsheets and freedom headlines. After leaving his software engineering career, he found himself confronting something he didn’t expect: the loss of identity and clout that work had quietly provided. He discovered that early retirement wasn’t just about having time—it was about creating meaning. Instead of retreating, Darrow leaned into challenges. From launching a successful retirement blog Can I Retire Yet? to spending nights alone above 12,000 feet, to confronting his lifelong struggles with fear and panic, Darrow’s journey, chronicled in his new book Two Sticks, One Path, reveals the surprising truth about what can make retirement fulfilling. If you’re within a few years of retirement — or already there — this conversation will make you think differently about what comes next –  and why the challenges we choose to take on may matter more than the comfort we think we want. _________________________ Bio Darrow Kirkpatrick is the author of the new book Two Sticks, One Path: A Journey Beyond Fear on the Colorado Trail. Darrow is an early-retired civil and software engineer with five decades of hiking, biking, and technical rock-climbing experience, including first ascents in the Shawangunks of New York and the sandstone belt of Tennessee. He climbed three big walls in Yosemite Valley, California: The Shield and The Nose on El Capitan, and The Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. In 2011 he founded “Can I Retire Yet?” — winner of the 2019 Plutus award for Best Retirement Blog. His personal finance books include “Retiring Sooner” and “Can I Retire Yet?” ___________________________ For More on Darrow Kirkpatrick Two Sticks, One Path: A Journey Beyond Fear on the Colorado Trail Can I Retire Yet? ___________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Prepare Mentally for Life After Work – Joseph Maugeri The Inspired Retirement – Nathalie Martin Lessons Learned in Early Retirement – Chris Mamula _____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On the Value of Challenge in Retirement “I find 100% of the meaning that I found in early retirement has come from the challenges I’ve tackled.” On Meaningful Pursuits “The things I did pay attention to starting Can I Retire Yet, a successful personal finance blog, a bucket list item hiking the Colorado Trail, even though I had to do most of it on crutches, those things are incredibly meaningful to me, writing a memoir about it. I think I would have really regretted if I had stayed at my corporate desk through all those years instead of reaching for those bucket list items.” On Adaptation “I did have a series of chronic injuries in my lower body, which got worse. I had a bad hamstring injury, was in bed for a few months, one summer. And as part of the recovery from that, a doctor friend suggested I start using forearm crutches… I wound up realizing I needed to just keep using the crutches on the trail, because they would keep me safe. They reduce the impact on my body, they prevent falls. And if I had any hope of doing a trail as difficult as the Colorado Trail, I needed all the help I could get.”

Will you retire with purpose? Don’t leave it to chance. Design Your New Life after you leave full-time work. Learn more about our next small group coaching program starting in April here – and sign up here. __________________________ What if the word retirement is setting us up for the wrong life? After years in senior leadership roles, Cesar Aguirre discovered something most of us miss about retirement: the word itself matters more than we think. In English, we “retire” – we withdraw. In Portuguese, you become “aposentado” – left aside or left behind. But in Spanish-speaking cultures, retirement is called “jubilación” – which comes from the word for joy. That distinction changed everything for Cesar. Because when he stepped away from his career, it wasn’t the loss of work that shocked him – it was the jarring shock of losing an identity. He realized retirement isn’t just a life transition, it’s an identity transition, offering an opportunity to redefine who you want to become, and retire with purpose. Cesar joins us to share the framework he developed through his own transition – a ten-chapter roadmap for moving from “what I’m leaving” to “what I’m moving toward.” He’ll reveal why planning goes far beyond your finances, how to measure success when you’re no longer producing output, and the key warning signs that show up early when retirement first starts going wrong. This is a conversation about why approaching retirement with more intention might just create the most fulfilling chapters of your life. How will you retire with purpose? Cesar Aguirre joins us from Florida. __________________________ Bio César Aguirre is a seasoned HR executive with over 40 years of experience in global talent development. Now in active retirement, he embodies reinvention with passion as mentor, consultant, and author. In his book, Retirement with Purpose: The 10 Rs of Retirement, he shares his vibrant energy and insights to help readers rediscover purpose and embrace joyful living in their post-career lives. He currently resides in a lively 55+ community in Central Florida with his wife, inspiring others to design their authentic journeys for the second act of their lives. _______________________ For More on Cesar Aguirre Retirement with Purpose: The 10 Rs of Retirement _______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Prepare Mentally for Life After Work – Joseph Maugeri Re-Visioning Retirement – Susan Reid, PhD How to Retire – Christine Benz _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _________________________ Wise Quotes On The Power of Language “Retirement becomes a celebration, not a retreat. I think the languages shape mindset. And mindsets shape behavior. So when retirement is framed as a joy, planning shifts from survival to flourishing become more natural.” On Measuring Success in Retirement “A good day is no longer about output, it’s no longer about how much you produce. It’s about action that is intended, an action that aligns with a master plan.” On What He’d Do Differently “I wish I had thought about it and prepared for my post-work identity a little sooner and more deliberately. In my job in HR, I helped many others plan careers, but I underestimated how much my own self-worth was tied to that job in that title. I think I did it humbly. I can say that I did a solid job planning financially, but probably not as good in preparing emotionally for the change. For a brief period of time, a few months, I underestimated that the identity shift that was occurring and the loss of a daily structure that I was so accustomed to.” On What He’s Gained in Retirement “Presence, the ability to not just having the time, but having the mindset of real presence, presence with my wife, which I neglected for a few years while I was traveling or working, presence with my kids, now with my grandkids, the rest of my friends, and new friends. I also gained a space and time for mastery, my hobbies. I enjoy cooking, well, time to do more and do a little better, exercising, riding the bike three or four times a week, playing pickleball. Retiring has given me time to go more in depth on my preferences instead of just speed, because in my working years, I was always rushing. Even when I was at home, I needed to accomplish, I needed to do things. I needed not to be idle. And retirement has now given me presence and bandwidth.” On Warning Signs “I think there are three main things that one needs to start paying attention to. Isolation. If you don’t have that network, social network, family network, and you become isolated. A loss of structure. Doing nothing without a structure or living in the past tense. When people stop connecting with others, when they drift through the days without an intentional plan, or when they only talk about what they used to be, that should be a warning, – a huge yellow flag for oneself and for loved ones that are looking after them.”

Sign up for our next Designing Your Life small group coaching program starting in April here __________________________ What happens when you’ve done everything “right” — built a successful career, made a difference, checked the boxes — and yet something still is missing? Today I’m joined by Dave Evans, co-author of How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day and the #1 New York Times Bestseller Designing Your Life, and a longtime Stanford educator, to explore a question many people quietly wrestle with in the second half of life: Why doesn’t impact bring lasting meaning — and what actually does? Dave shares insights from his newest work with Bill Burnett on meaning, presence, and what he calls the shift from role to soul. We talk about why chasing fulfillment often backfires, why the most meaningful moments are often small and fleeting, and how many of us live almost entirely in what he calls the “transactional world” — often missing the richness of the present moment that’s available right now. This conversation is especially relevant if you’re nearing retirement, newly retired, or simply sensing that achievement alone isn’t enough anymore. Dave offers practical reframes, deeply human stories, and a powerful idea he calls the scandal of particularity — a concept that may completely change how you think about what a well-lived life really looks like. Dave Evans joins us from California to discuss How to Live a Meaningful Life. ___________________________ Bio Dave Evans is the co-author of How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day. Dave has worked in alternative energy, telecommunications, and high tech. As an early member of the advanced systems group that built the technology that became the Macintosh, he led the first computer mouse team and laser-printing projects, before leaving to co-found the software giant Electronic Arts. After more than thirty years of executive leadership and management consulting in the high tech world, Evans realized that what he really wanted and needed to do was help people rediscover purpose in their jobs and lives. He joined Stanford’s Design Program, teaching the incredibly popular Designing Your Life course. In their book Designing Your Life, Dave Evans and co-author Bill Burnett, brought these principles to a larger audience, proving it’s never too late to design a life you love through innovation, creative problem-solving, and a growth mindset. Evans teaches audiences of all ages that the same principles used to create amazing technology and products can also be used to design and build a life filled with purpose and joy that is constantly creative and productive. Dave Evans earned a Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford and a graduate diploma in Contemplative Spirituality from San Francisco Theological Seminary. He lives in Santa Cruz. _________________________ For More on Dave Evans How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day  Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans (2020 Podcast) _________________________ Podcast Conversatons You May Like The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD Resurface – Cassidy Krug The Purpose Code – Dr. Jordan Grumet __________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.9 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________ Wise Quotes On Becoming “The most essential definition of a human person is you’re a becoming. You’re constantly evolving into hopefully your more and more authentic self – never your complete self, by the way… there’s no way you’re ever going to get done.” On Shifting from Role to Soul “I think, particularly in that second half transition, you’re really looking at what we call the shift from role to soul. And by role, I am primarily identifying who I am as a person, my sense of what makes me who I am, is what I do in the roles and I have in the world, mostly in institutions called, you know, companies or employment or families. And I get this feedback loop from being the Dad, from being the General Manager, from being the mailman, or from whatever it is that says I’m doing the right thing, I’m getting paid for it, and the world’s a better place. And that’s the achievement feedback loop, which for most people that’s what we mostly hear from people is the primary thing. And as life moves along, even if you’re still achieving, I still have four part time jobs. But my relationship with that achieving role is very different than it used to be. And you start moving more and more where your life is really simply about expressing as authentically as you can in the world, who it is that you actually are.” On the Scandal of Particularity “The scandal of particularity is the recognition that all wonderful things only come in these small bite-sized pieces that are temporary, incomplete, partial, but reflections of the true thing. So if you radically accept you’re never going to get all of it, then you go, Oh, so what I really want to do is when the opportunity for some beauty or some truth shows up at all is dive all in, fully celebrate and enjoy it.”

What if creativity works like medicine? New research shows that regular engagement with the arts can slow biological aging, protect the brain, reduce stress, and promote a new sense of purpose, identity and meaning—especially in retirement. This episode reframes art as one of the most powerful, underused tools for healthy aging. Our guest today, Dr. Daisy Fancourt, is a leading researcher on the health impacts of arts engagement and the author of the new book Art Cure:The Science of How the Arts Save Lives. Her work bridges neuroscience, public health, and lived experience—bringing rigorous data to some things many people may dismiss as “just a hobby.” Listen in for insights on why engaging with art is a wise addition to your retirement plan. In this conversation, you’ll learn: How arts engagement compares to exercise and sleep in its health impact Why talent and skill have nothing to do with the benefits you can reap How creativity builds cognitive reserve and protects against dementia Why music is a powerful tool for wellness How the arts can foster renewed identity, purpose, and community in retirement Daisy Fancourt joins us from London. ________________________ Bio Daisy Fancourt is the author of the new book Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives. She is Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London where she heads the Social Biobehavioural Research Group, and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. She has published 300 scientific papers and won over two dozen academic prizes. She is a multi-award-winning science communicator and has been named a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and BBC New Generation Thinker. Daisy is listed as one of the most highly cited scientists in the world. _________________________ For More on Daisy Fancourt Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives Website _________________________ Podcast Conversatons You May Like Tiny Experiments – Anne-Laure Le Cunff Why You’ll Want a Hobby – Ashley Merryman The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. __________________________ Wise Quotes On the Science Behind Arts and Health “I started doing lots of research on the long-term impact of arts engagement across people’s lives using the same kind of data sets and methods that people had previously looked at exercise and diet and sleep. And I was honestly quite amazed at what came out about these associations between arts and future well-being, reduced risk of depression, enhanced cognitive function, reduced risk of chronic pain, frailty, dementia. And most excitingly, the effect sizes were very similar or sometimes even stronger than these other behaviours that we’re much more used to talking about in relation to our health.” On Biological Aging People who engage in the arts actually have increased connectivity between regions of the brain that are vulnerable to aging. So they actually have brains that are younger than people who don’t regularly engage in the arts. And actually, they have higher levels of cognitive reserve, so resilience of the brain against cognitive decline and dementia. But they also have different clinical biomarker patterns that indicate that they are physiologically younger. So better respiratory rates, lower cardiovascular stress, better levels of inflammation in their immune systems. And I think most excitingly, they even have patterns of gene expression in their DNA that are younger. So the way that their genes express themselves have a younger, what we call epigenetic age.” On the I’m Not Creative Myth “I think this is a slight failing in our societies because we tend to set ourselves up that you’re either artistic or creative or you’re not. And it’s a complete myth. Actually, most of the health benefits of the art come through doing it, regardless of whether you’re any good at doing it. And I think sometimes people have got hangovers, often from like childhood when they didn’t feel they sang in tune or when they weren’t good at doing art in class. But it’s surprising how often people can actually try new activities as an adult and actually discover a passion they had absolutely no idea about.” On Music as Medicine “Music is actually a natural pain relief. It releases endogenous opioids in our brain. But also it provides us with a beat that means we can synchronize with that beat and that can really help us with our movements. So when people exercise to music, they’re actually able to run faster for longer, they’re able to lift weights in the gym for longer. And if people have got conditions like Parkinson’s or they’ve had a stroke or another neurological disorder, then actually listening to music can be a way of improving balance, their walking speed and reduce the risk of falls as well.” On Art in Retirement – and Purpose & Meaning “Lots of people speak about losing their sense of purpose when they move out of that work environment and trying to figure out what their new purpose is. And arts engagement is a very effective way in so many trials now of increasing that sense of purpose. It’s a similar thing for cultivating a new sense of meaning. And there are lots of other aspects of our well-being, like a heightened life satisfaction, which is really important to people, particularly as they get older. And actually arts engagement is such a powerful way of helping to build all of those different aspects of our well-being.” On the Daily Arts Practice “If we’re looking at basically accumulating the health benefits of the arts over time, we need to have a really regular, sustainable arts practice. I recommend in the book that people try and figure out their equivalent of the kind of five-a-day vegetable rule that they could apply day to day. Could they set aside 15 or 20 minutes every day that they will reliably be able to commit to? But also, can they think about sort of simple ways that they could swap out activities in their lives to make that manageable?”    

If you’re in, or approaching, a life transition and think, “I should have this figured out by now,” this conversation is for you. Today, mindfulness teacher Monique Rhodes shares how to move through that sticky in‑between space of “no longer who you were, not yet who you’re becoming” without beating yourself up. You’ll hear why happiness is an inside job, how to work with your mind when life blindsides you, and practical ways to rediscover joy and purpose with mindfulness—especially in retirement and other big life changes. We also discuss how mindfulness can help Type A people (like me and perhaps you…). Monique Rhodes joins us from Costa Rica. _________________________ Bio Monique is an internationally acclaimed Happiness Strategist who teaches students and corporations around the world how to master their lives. She has spent the last 25 years studying the mind and its relationship to happiness and she believes that happiness is not merely an emotion but a daily habitual practice. Over 70 universities and colleges use her program The 10 Minute Mind®. Her 8-week online course, The Happiness Baseline, has a 100% success rate in raising the mental wellness for every student who has completed it. Monique hosts the daily In Your Right Mindpodcast, where she discusses how a series of small habits determine our well-being. She is also a singer, songwriter and producer born in New Zealand. She has toured the world performing and composing music bridging the worlds of contemporary music with modern spiritual teachers. Monique has produced two platinum selling albums in New Zealand, toured Europe twice with Chuck Berry and collaborated on music projects with some of the most well-known inspirational teachers in the world including the Dalai Lama. _________________________ For More on Monique Rhodes MoniqueRhodes.com ________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson The New Happy – Stephanie Harrison What Matters Most – Diane Button _________________________ Planning for retirement? Chexck out our summaries of the Best Books on Retirement _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. __________________________ Wise Quotes On Getting Unstuck “So, one of the things that I see with my students is that the place that people get stuck most often is actually that we’re resisting what is. And so let’s say you make some New Year’s resolutions or you’re in the middle of a transition like retirement and you’re in the middle of that change and you think to yourself,  this shouldn’t be so hard and I should have figured this out by now. But what those thoughts do is they actually only tighten that knot. So if we’re looking at getting unstuck, you know, the way that I teach is we have to have this willingness to soften, to stop pushing, to actually sit with what’s here, even if it’s uncomfortable. And from what I’ve learned and what I’ve seen, this is really the ground of transformation. Because when we allow ourselves, Joe, just to be exactly where we are with all the uncertainty, with all the doubt, with all the longing, then we begin to loosen the grip on all the old habitual ways of being. And our heart opens. And in that openness, something new can emerge. So I invite you all to not push through, but just to rest in that middle place and let the aspiration be there, but also let the discomfort be there. And let yourself almost be held by this knowing that the moment that you’re in right now is actually part of the path.” On Mindfulness…for Type As “And this energy is very, very powerful, but it can also become a kind of armor and it can protect Type A people from seeing themselves, from vulnerability, from uncertainty. So, if I was talking to a Tai A personality who was a skeptic, I would first of all say it is mindfulness is amazing for Type A personalities. And what if you didn’t need to fix anything right now? What if there was nothing to improve, but just something to notice? Because at the heart of mindfulness, we’re not looking to change our nature or our personality. What we’re doing is we’re inviting you to become more intimate with yourself, to sit beside that aspect of yourself that strives and maybe ask, what am I afraid of and what am I avoiding? Because often as a Type A personality, what we’re avoiding is the discomfort of being with ourselves as we are. But if we can soften that resistance, even for a breath, even for 10 minutes a day, I tell you, something extraordinary happens. And we begin to feel so much more alive, more connected to ourselves. The endless, amazing results of meditation, our relationships change. We just deal with everything differently. We become more whole. So it’s really good for us to understand, which is why mindfulness is used in so many, you know, big companies around the world, is that mindfulness isn’t an enemy of ambition. It’s really a way to return to the ground beneath your striving, to be able to see that ground clearly, to feel deeply, to live more fully, which is why I totally believe it’s a superpower.” On Why Happiness is an Inside Job “The biggest misconception that I know is that people believe that happiness comes from outside of themselves. And that is such a mic drop moment to understand that happiness doesn’t. Happiness is an internal job. And the wonderful thing about that is it means that we’re in control of it. It means that if you want to be happier, you don’t have to be rich. You don’t have to be powerful. You don’t have to be the most beautiful person in the world. I remember some years ago going to Las Vegas to hear Lady Gaga sing. And she was doing these kind of acoustic jazz Tony Bennett style concerts. It were really incredible. She was getting paid a million dollars a gig, Joe, and it was extraordinary. Here she is. She’s super wealthy. She’s beautiful. She’s successful. She’s powerful. And it was shocking for her to talk about how incredibly unhappy she is. So I think that’s one of the biggest things we need to understand is that all the things that we’re sold to believe will make us happy actually don’t. Because if they did, we would be able to look around the world to so many of the people that have all of them. And we can wonder why they’re not happy. So when we begin to understand that happiness is an inside job, then we actually have the incredible power to take control of it. So I think that that is probably the biggest misconception, but also the most powerful thing about it. And so that means that we need to learn to work with the thing that drives our happiness and our suffering, which is our mind. And if we can learn to work with our mind, then we can change our whole experience of the world.”

Last call… Design Your New Life in Retirement New Groups start on Thursday 1/22 & Friday 1/23. Join us…and design your next chapter. Learn more and sign up here _________________________ Bio For decades, Anna Rappaport has studied how people actually transition out of full-time work—not in theory, but in real life. And what she’s learned may challenge how you’re thinking about retirement. Anna Rappaport hasn’t just studied retirement—she’s been living a phased retirement for three decades and is still going strong at 85. As a former Society of Actuaries President and one of the profession’s most published and respected retirement experts, she has insights you’ll want to hear. So, today, we’re focusing on phased retirement, but not as an HR policy. We’re talking about it as a life strategy—one that blends purpose, flexibility, and relationships. Anna introduces a powerful framework she calls the Life Portfolio—Health, People, Pursuits, and Places—and explains why money alone is never enough for a fulfilling next chapter. If you’re wondering Who will I be when I retire?, this conversation is for you. Anna Rappaport joins us from Chicago. ________________________ Bio Anna Rappaport is the founder and president of Anna Rappaport Consulting. Anna is an actuary, consultant, author, and speaker, and is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on the impact of change on retirement systems and workforce issues. She is a phased retiree and is passionate about women’s retirement security. Anna is a past-President of the Society of Actuaries and chairs its Committee on Post-Retirement Needs and Risks and its Aging and Retirement Research Initiative Steering Committee. Anna spent 28 years with Mercer as an employee benefit consultant, before she founded her own firm, Anna Rappaport Consulting, after leaving Mercer. _________________________ For More on Anna Rappaport LinkedIn A Conversation With Anna Rappaport & Steve Siegel: Solo-Agers Disconnect Thinking About the Future of Retirement _________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace Is Your Company Ready for the Aging Workforce? – Paul Rupert _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. __________________________ Wise Quotes On The Portfolio You’re Ignoring “The Life Portfolio assumes that the individual has enough money. So this is on top of money—it’s not instead of money. That’s really important. The four quadrants are: Health, Pursuits, People, and Places. If you’re not in good health, nothing else matters. But pursuits—the things that give you a sense of purpose in your life—that’s critically important. And here’s the key: you need a portfolio of them, not just one or two. Because you can always lose one or two. If your pursuit is playing tennis, you might not be able to play tennis anymore. If it’s work, it might disappear. So people should try to do a few things, see what they like, zero in on it, but not be limited to one thing.” On The Reboot, Rewire, Retire Concept “Rather than saying ‘Okay, I’m done with work, I’m going to play golf all the time,’ Reboot is thinking about this life portfolio. What can I do that brings value to my life? We went around the table asking what people were most concerned about regarding retirement. The biggest issue wasn’t money, wasn’t health, wasn’t caregiving—it was ‘who am I going to be when I’m not who I was anymore?’ That was a real wake-up. Rewire is getting ready—building new skills, keeping up your contacts, maintaining your skills. Those are critical things.” On Preparing for Phased Retirement “The preparation you should do is not when you’re ready for phased retirement—it should be way before that. Think about career planning where you’re always focusing on how you’re creating value. You need to have ways of creating value. If you have a good relationship with your employer, you can work something out. I was probably the most published and well-known retirement person in my firm at Mercer. You need credibility. Learn to use their words, not ours—if I’m talking actuarialese to my client, they’re like ‘what?’ But if I’ve translated that to their language, it’s a lot better.” On Identifying Where You Add Value “I think the big benefit for employees is that they have much more satisfying lives. There are also a lot of people who they get near what like the traditional retirement ages and they want to spend more time with their grandchildren. They want to take more vacations. They want to pursue a hobby, but they don’t just want to say, my work life is over. And it gives them a variety of options. So I think there’s a lot of benefit. It’s really a way of this gradually changing pursuits. And it may involve money and it might not involve making more money. But it does involve value. Now there can be, and we had a Society of Actuaries essay on employees and both, we’ve discussed the value a number of times. We’ve also discussed the routes to phased retirement because it’s not an easy deal that just automatically happens. Not usually. For employers, it’s a different thing. Depending on the kind of employer and the kind of job that people have, it lets them keep value that people have contributed. And what I want to say is that if we look at employees, and of course it varies by type of employment, there’s firm-specific human capital and there’s general human capital. And for example, if you were a currency trader, you could probably move into one job to another in two minutes. But Joe, you were a human resource director, and you had years and years of history, a lot of firm-specific human capital. What we have not done a good job of, and this is a speech I’ve been making for 25 years, probably maybe 30, is identifying what are the things that you contribute, that you really contribute value. It might be that 10% or 20% of your job, you’re doing something where you’re contributing a lot of value. And what I think is really important is for the employee to figure out how they can contribute a lot of value and the employer to figure out, and for them to reach a meeting of the minds.”

Don’t just retire. Design. Join us in our group program. Two new groups starting on January 22 & 23. Don’t put off planning for your life in retirement. Take the first step today. _________________________ What does it truly mean to age well in a world where longevity is increasing, but health spans vary wildly? In this episode, we meet with Dr. Arnold Gilberg, author of The Myth of Aging: A Prescription for Emotional and Physical Well-Being. Dr. Gilberg challenges the traditional definition of retirement, arguing that total withdrawal from professional life can lead to loneliness and decline. Instead, he advocates for “semi-retirement” and finding new ways to stay needed, including his own journey of entering rabbinic training. Tune in to hear his wisdom on adapting your physical fitness as your body changes, the power of self-forgiveness, and why exercising your brain is just as critical as exercising your body. Dr. Arnold Gilberg joins us from Los Angeles. __________________________ Bio Arnold L. Gilberg, MD, PhD, received his bachelor’s degree in political science and Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Illinois. He interned at the Los Angeles General Medical Center. He is the last person alive trained by Franz Alexander, MD, a distinguished colleague of Sigmund Freud. His psychiatric training took place at the  Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was chief psychiatric resident. He also has a doctorate in psychoanalysis from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute. Dr. Gilberg is a distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the former clinical chief of psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and an associate clinical professor at UCLA School of Medicine (honorary). He served for ten years under three different governors on the Medical Board of California for LA County, and has treated thousands of patients in his Los Angeles-based practice. Today he lives with his wife in LA, where he continues to see patients on a regular basis. ___________________________ For More on Dr. Arnold Gilberg The Myth of Aging: A Prescription for Emotional and Physical Well-Being At 89, he’s heard six decades of L.A.’s secrets and is ready to talk about what he’s learned ___________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Shift – Ethan Kross Make Your Next Years Your Best Years – Harry Agress, MD The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. __________________________ Wise Quotes On Retirement “Retirement is very loosely defined. And for some people, retirement is going from working six days a week to working four days a week. And people think, oh boy, I’m really retired. I’m working less. And especially if you like your job. And I think people who really like their work and what they’re doing should seriously consider whether retirement, total retirement, is something they want to do. Because for most professions or work, people don’t have to completely retire. They can semi-retire and work two or three days a week if that potential is given to them. Take, for example, myself. I don’t feel like really completely retiring. I’m proud of the fact that I’m 89 years old, and I still work a couple of days a week seeing patients because I like what I do. It makes me feel needed. And the hospital that I attend at tells me I can’t retire. Well, let’s talk about myself. I think my working allows me to remain involved, sing patients, sing other professionals, engaged in some teaching. And we know that people struggle with loneliness. And I do address that in my book The Myth of Aging. There’s a recent study that came out that in the United States today, one out of three people are lonely, which leads to depression, leads to anxiety, leads to psychiatric problems, leads to suicide, leads to drug abuse, and a variety of other condition. So the idea that a person remains engaged in their profession in some way is very critical, and people need to seriously take a look at their retirement, or if they are going to retire, what they might do following their retirement.” On Adapting “We all continue to adapt. And I think recognizing that is important. And also not beating up on yourself about these adaptations that take place. People don’t forgive themselves and people are always ready to jump on themselves. And we need to understand that this type of adaptation is very, very important and to accept it and be grateful for it. I enjoyed running marathons, Los Angeles primarily, and it’s nice for me to hold on to the memory, but I’m not really there anymore. I’m in a different place. I’m happy that I can go to our gym and exercise for 25 or 30 minutes, you know, and come up fatigued. And I feel good about that. And my wife feels similarly. We’re both at that place and we enjoy the fact that we can at least do this.” On Doing Something New “Well, for most people, I think trying to find something new to do, especially after you’re retired, is very critical for cognitive brain functioning because it keeps your mind at work. And we know today, neurologically, that people need to exercise their brain just as they exercise the rest of their body. So people who retire and find something new to do are helping themselves. I must say there is a small segment of the population who enjoy being retired, moving to a cabin in Northern California or Montana, and being very satisfied in that life situation. But for most of us, that doesn’t work. And so for me, I’ve always had an attachment to faith and spirituality, which I think ultimately provides people with a sense of community.”

Are you graduating from the grind in 2026? You could go it alone and wing it. But here’s what one participant said about our small group coaching program: “It was fantastic! I got to work with other people and share ideas with others on what retirement could be. It gave me clarity and confidence.” New groups are starting on January 22 & 23. Let’s go. Learn more Join us “Challenged me to get out of the starting blocks and far down the path of really thinking about this next phase of my life in very different ways. I now feel like I have a solid road map.” “I wish I’d taken this program earlier.” _____________________________ What if everything you’ve planned for financially in retirement still leaves you feeling completely lost? Today’s guest knows this paradox intimately. Dan Haylett built his career as a financial planner, helping people achieve financial independence. But what he discovered shocked him: when money stops being the problem in retirement, and that’s when the real problems show up. Dan is a retirement transition specialist helping people navigate the psychological side of retirement that no financial plan can solve. He’s learned that people plan meticulously for financial independence but rarely prepare for psychological independence. The result? Three devastating losses hit early: loss of structure, loss of relevance, and loss of identity. In this conversation, Dan shares his framework for retirement well-being built on five human pillars that have nothing to do with your bank account. He challenges what you think you know about retirement as a “reward” and shows you why the most successful retirements aren’t built on bucket lists and endless travel, but on something far simpler and more profound. If you’ve ever wondered who you are when no one needs your output anymore, this episode will change how you see the next chapter of your life. Dan Haylett joins us from the UK. ______________________ Bio Dan Haylett, who’s the author of The Retirement You Didn’t See Coming: a guide to the human side of retirement nobody warns you about. Dan is a financial planner and head of growth for TFP Financial Planning based in the UK. Dan focuses on financial planning, retirement planning, and life planning for people 50+. He also hosts a podcast called Humans vs. Retirement on the behavioral aspects of retirement. Prior to joining TFP, Dan held a number of positions in asset management. ______________________ For More on Dan Haylett The Retirement You Didn’t See Coming TFP Financial Planning Humans vs Retirement ______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Prepare Mentally for Life After Work – Joseph Maugeri Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile What Are The Keys To A Successful Retirement? Fritz Gilbert ______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Structure in Retirement “So the biggest surprise for me is this. Money stops being the problem. And that’s when the real problems show up, right? So I think that’s kind of the biggest surprise for me. People expect relief. Instead, they probably feel quite disorientated. They’ve planned for financial independence, but not necessarily psychological independence. And so I think the three big shocks or surprises, I think, tend to hit quite early. You get this loss of structure. So there’s kind of no diary or no default rhythm. People get this loss of relevance. Nobody needs you at 9 a.m. anymore. And this loss of identity that job title that once explained you to the world has quietly disappeared. So I think that to me is probably the three big,money stops being the problem. And then the real problems of loss, particularly structure, relevance and identity, really start to take hold. I think one of the things that I really want to reframe when it comes to structure, structure doesn’t disappear in retirement. I think it just stops being imposed on us. For decades, work has  spoon-fed you your structure to a degree, right? Work gave us a reason to get up, a place to be, people to see, and problems to solve. And I think if you remove that overnight, your brain will just panic. And I think the mistake that people try to make, or sorry, the mistake people make is trying to recreate work this kind of same hours, same busyness, just without the meaning. And instead, what I encourage people to do is to build what I would describe as kind of light scaffolding, I suppose, something like that, not rigid schedules, just kind of what I would describe as anchors.” On Identity “The question is, who are you when no one needs your output? Let that breathe for a second. Who are you when no one needs your output? And then you start widening identity whilst you’re still working, right? Develop interests that don’t pay you. Spend time with people who don’t care what you do. And I think really importantly, notice what gives you energy outside of kind of performance and status. Because I do think if your entire sense of self is wrapped up in your role in your job, retirement will feel less like freedom and kind of more like redundancy, right? It’s that kind of instant, you’ve lost this thing and you didn’t want to lose it. So I do think it’s a massive challenge because it’s been, you know, our identity that we’ve had has given us so much, has given us status, has given us structure, it’s given us a sense of self-worth. It’s given us many things that provide us with joy and happiness. And, you know, for the first time, we’re free probably to explore with a really decent chunk of wisdom who we actually are as a person. I think the first question you ask is, what’s your name? Hopefully, if you want to kind of start building a bit of a rapport and bond with someone. And maybe the second question is, what do you do? And as we’ve just explored, you would typically answer that question with, I am a ___________. Or on a lot of occasions, someone still gives you a business card or now modern day, it’s like a QR code, right? That kind of gives you a little thing. But, if you give a business card and on that business card, it will have your name. And underneath your name, it will have your job title. It’s kind of, here you are. This is what I do. This is who I am. And my challenge I do to people, I say, well, if you didn’t have a business card, what would you give out or what would you say? And actually, let’s create a business card. Let’s think about what your business card would say. And you can be creative, you can be funny, you can be jovial, you can be serious, you can be whatever you want. But what if your business card said free to explore or, you know, just make up something creative? I’ve got a client who on his business card wrote, trying to play the top 100 golf courses in England before I die, right? That kind of thing. It’s kind of like, that was one of his missions. And you can have multiple business cards, multiple things that you want. So it’s just trying to kind of frame this thing where I think people will, because what I do see, Joe, which I think is actually quite sad, is when people hang on to past identities.”

Are you ready to graduate from the grind in 2026? Then here’s your most important project: Future You. Join our small group coaching program and design your new life after work. Learn more “Eye opening and provocative.” “Challenged me to get out of the starting blocks and far down the path of really thinking about this next phase of my life in very different ways. I now feel like I have a solid road map.” “I wish I’d taken this program earlier.” __________________________ Start the new year right with new habits. FREE 3 session program – 3 Fridays in January at Noon Eastern January 2, 9 and 16 Sign up here ____________________________ Thank you for joining us and listening this year. This special year-end Best Of episode is a collection of valuable insights from our recent guests. If you missed Part One, you can find it here ____________________________ Listen in to full conversations: Harry Agress Kerry Burnight Nathalie Martin Ken Stern Joseph Magueri Christine Platt Michael Long Carl Landau Francine Toder Diane Button ________________________ You May Also Like The Very Best of 2024 – Retirement Wisdom Best of 2023 – Part Three _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

What if the most creative chapter of your life hasn’t happened yet? Today’s conversation is about second acts that arrive not quietly—but boldly. Kim Gottlieb-Walker published her debut novel at age 78 after a 50-year career as a photographer. She also leads the Vintage Writers, a lively weekly Zoom group of women authors over 70. Joining her is Roselyn Teukolsky, a former math and computer science educator who retired and now writes fiction. This conversation explores creative courage, identity shifts, the power of starting something new – and the value of community. Kim Gottlieb-Walker and Roselyn Teukolsky join us from California. _________________________ Planning for retirement? Check out our recommended Best Books for Retirement _________________________ Bios Kim Gottlieb-Walker’s  career as a photographer covered a wide range of subjects, from classic rock and roll, reggae, and politics in the ‘60s and ‘70s to major motion pictures and television shows. Now in her late 70s, she has reinvented herself as a novelist. While still at UCLA (where she  received a BA in Motion Picture production) and shortly thereafter, she shot for underground LA newspapers and magazines including Crawdaddy, the Staff, and Music World. She  also shot the stills for John Carpenter’s Halloween, The Fog, Christine and Escape from New York and worked at Paramount Pictures for nine years as the production photographer for Cheers, and five years for Family Ties. For three decades she  was an elected representative for still photographers on the National Executive Board of IATSE Local 600, the International Cinematographers Guild. Her coffee-table photo books Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae and On Set with John Carpenter were published by Titan Press (UK) distributed by Random House (USA) and both are now in multiple printing. They have editions in Japanese, Russian and French. She’s  had gallery shows in London, Los Angeles and New York. Her novels are  Lenswoman in Love – a novel of the 1960s & ‘70s (her debut) and the not-yet published historical novel Caterina by Moonlight, about a girl growing up in renaissance Florence in the late 15th century. Her short story “Summer of Love – 1967” appears in the multi-award-winning anthology Feisty Deeds. Former math and computer science teacher, Roselyn Teukolsky, is the author of A Reluctant Spy, an unconventional spy thriller, and The Fourth Woman, a cautionary tale about online dating. Teukolsky has long been intrigued by the dilemmas faced by smart women in male-dominated settings. Working as a computer science teacher has given her the familiarity to create an authentic female protagonist, a brilliant computer scientist, who, in the latest novel, must ward off a ransomware attack and an online-dating predator. Teukolsky has a B.Sc. in Math and Chemistry from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and an M.S. in Math Education from Cornell. She is the author of the Barron’s review book for AP Computer Science, which is currently in its 12th edition. Roselyn’s favorite pastime is tournament bridge. She wrote How to Play Bridge with Your Spouse … and Survive (Master Point Press) in 2002. She lives in Pasadena, CA, with her husband, Saul Teukolsky. ________________________ Have a Question You’d Like Answered on the Podcast? Click here to leave a voice message or email me at [email protected] _________________________ For More on Kim Gottlieb-Walker  Lenswoman in Love www.Lenswoman.com for an overview of her photographic history www.TheRenaissanceWoman.net www.KimGottliebWalker.com – her author website. — For More on Roselyn Teukolsky A Reluctant Spy The Fourth Woman _________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Why Retirement Was Just the Beginning – Neal Lipschutz A Creative Pursuit with an Intergenerational Assist – Neil & Michelle McLaughlin Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta __________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On a Writing Community “One of the things I’ve loved best about this recreation of my life is the number of people it’s brought into my life because the writers are a very supportive community. And it keeps your brain alive. There’s so much you have to learn with the learning curve of writing a book that it keeps your brain cells going. It stimulates them. I think there are many people out there who, after having had very active careers that are now retired and are feeling at lost ends. Every person has met interesting people during their lives, has had things happen to them, have had tragedies, have had happiness. Everybody has experiences in them that they might want to communicate. And writing, even though it seems like a very solitary occupation, it gives you a chance to put all of your life experience out into the world and to then connect with other people, other writers, to get the support that you need and to learn all of the different aspects of it. So it’s a very satisfying way to spend your retirement. Oh, well, it’s an amazing group of women. They’re all over 70. They’ve all reinvented themselves as writers. Some were writers beforehand, but most have reinvented themselves. And they cover all different kinds of writing of every genre. There’s self-help, there’s romance, there’s mystery, there’s historical fiction, and they’re all very talented, alert, wonderful women. And we meet every Tuesday on Zoom and commiserate and celebrate and give advice. And it has been the most wonderful support group. So we’re not isolated in retirement. We have interactions with people who have similar goals and similar challenges. It’s a tremendous support group.” – Kim Gottlieb-Walker On Age as an Asset ” It is never too late to reinvent yourself. It’s totally within your reach. You don’t have to depend on anyone else. All you have to do is sit down and let your ideas flow. And I wouldn’t worry about ageism because now that we’re in an age where you can self-publish, it doesn’t matter how old you are. And the fact that we have had such rich lives and so many experiences informs the writing and gives the writing depth and gives it reality because it’s based on our real experiences. No matter what you’re writing, you’re bringing your life experiences into it, which is incredibly valuable. So don’t worry about ageism. Don’t worry about the publisher. Just get it out on paper. Do it yourself.” – Kim Gottlieb-Walker On Starting to Write “A lot of my friends have said to me, Oh, they would love to write a book. They would love to write a book. They’re going to write a book. But the point is, if you don’t sit down every day at the same time, backside in the desk, it doesn’t happen. It just doesn’t. Even if you sit and do nothing. I would ask, what are you going to do in the next 10 years? And I say, I don’t know what I’m going to do. And I say, Well, why not write in the next 10 years?” – Roselyn Teukolsky  

Start the new year right with new habits. FREE 3 session program – 3 Fridays in January at Noon Eastern. Sign up here. __________________________ Are you ready to graduate from the grind? Then here’s your most important project: Future You. Learn more. ______________________ You’ve spent decades building a career, mastering a craft, and maybe even raising a family. But what happens when the ‘work’ stops? Do you stop creating? Or do you finally have the freedom to chase the ideas that used to visit you only in daydreams? Today, we’re joined by a father-daughter duo who turned a foggy night’s inspiration into a historical fantasy trilogy. Neil McLaughlin, a veteran of commercial real estate, and his daughter Michelle, his editor and collaborator, talk about their journey writing The Witch Hunt series and the first book Torment of the Bloodlines together. We dive into how skills from a 50-year business career can transfer to novel writing, and the surprising health benefits he discovered of the ‘author life. Whether you’re aspiring to write a book or just curious about a new adventure in your second act, this conversation includes a lot of valuable tips on reinventing yourself in retirement. ________________________ Bios Neil McLaughlin has enjoyed storytelling and writing short stories and poetry since childhood. He wrote his first book, The Witch-Hunt, in retirement after a 5 decades long career in commercial real estate. Neil is passionate about sharing his journey which serves as inspiring proof that retirement can be an opportunity to explore passions, share wisdom, and contribute meaningfully to culture and knowledge. Neil and his wife Linda enjoy spending time with their children and grandchildren, travel, wine, murder mysteries, live theatre, books and boating on Lake Ontario. Michelle McLaughlin, with over 20 years of business and corporate experience, brings a wealth of knowledge and strategic insight to every project. She passionately manages the book marketing for her father Neil’s writing business. Combining her expertise in marketing and her deep appreciation for literature, she expertly promotes Neil’s work, helping to expand its reach and impact. Dedicated to blending professional acumen with family values, she thrives at the intersection of creativity, business, and community connection. ____________________________ For More on Neil and Michelle McLaughlin  The Witch Hunt (website) The Witch-Hunt (Torment of the Bloodlines Book 1) on Amazon ____________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Why Retirement Was Just the Beginning – Neal Lipschutz The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ On the Origin Story “It started late one night about three years ago. I was staring out the window and it was a foggy evening. And I wondered, we’re all asleep at night. And I was wondering, what happens at night? The coyotes are howling and no one is walking about. What really is going on? So I imagined in my own mind a short story evolving… I had something. Maybe four or five pages. And I showed it to Michelle. And she said, Jeez, Dad, it’s kind of an interesting story. Have you ever considered writing it into a novel? And I thought, well, I never gave it any thought. But now that you mention it, it might be a good idea.” – Neil On Intergenerational Collaboration “So this isn’t the first time we had worked together. We did work together professionally in commercial real estate, but this was the first time we had worked together on a creative project, more of a passion project. And what really struck me was how much we both loved writing and creativity. My dad had written things, as I mentioned, I have written things, but we’d never worked on something collaboratively together. So this to me was really surprising because it was so much fun.  And had I known it would be this much fun, I would have suggested something sooner. The work in this case is the fun. And another point in a professional setting, especially in real estate, my dad was the mentor and I was the mentee. Whereas this was new, this is new for both of us. The editing process, the literary world is a new discovery, which is fun equally on both sides. No one is the expert in this case. We’re learning together, which I found was really refreshing.” – Michelle On Transferable Skills “I found the process of writing a novel to be very similar to what I did for a living for about 50 years. Earlier on, as we were getting ready to build something, we would hire an architect, we would hire designers and planners and tradesmen. And I found myself ironically finding the same in script writers and editors and influencers that came to the party as well. And I found that writing a novel and building a building were very, very similar. And one of the characteristics in real estate development is the attitude of patience.” – Neil 

“You are what you repeatedly do.” Start the New Year strong. Join my FREE 3 session Tiny Habits program.  Register here _________________________ What’s your most important project in 2026? Future You. Don’t wing it. Design it. Learn more here. _________________________ What happens when a financial columnist and CFP® professional suddenly becomes her mother’s caregiver? Beth Pinsker discovered that her expertise couldn’t prepare her for the relentless tenacity required to navigate Medicare mazes, fight for proper care, and manage the details of her mother’s financial life. In My Mother’s Money , a comprehensive practical and detailed resource, she shares the street-smart lessons that only come from boots-on-the-ground caregiving experience. In this conversation, you’ll learn: Why financial caregiving requires perseverance to advocate effectively for your loved ones The critical difference between big-picture finances and knowing the granular details that matter How Medicare decisions made at age 65 can create enormous consequences for caregivers years later Why humanizing your loved one to healthcare providers changes the quality of care they recei Why “stuff” is such a complicated issue and how to prepare your own estate realistically _________________________ Bio Beth Pinsker is a financial-planning columnist at MarketWatch and has been a  Certified Financial Planner™ since 2018. She won a SABEW Best in Business award in 2023 for commentary for a series of columns about caring for her mother. She turned those into a book, “My Mother’s Money: A Guide to Financial Caregiving” (Crown Currency, November 2025). Beth was previously the launch Money Editor for Buy Side from WSJ, providing advice and service on anything having to do with how people handle their money. Prior to that, she was a personal finance columnist and editor at Reuters for eight years. She covered all aspects of financial planning and decision-making, such as retirement strategies, selecting employee benefits, and saving money. In 2018, she was part of a team that won a Front Page award for Live Online Video from the Newswomen’s Club of New York. Beth worked at Fidelity during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, where she was an Editorial Director handling coverage of taxes and wealth strategies. She also was the editor of Walletpop.com, a personal finance website owned by AOL that launched in 2008 in the midst of the Great Recession and focused on frugality, budgeting and finding the best deals. Beth spent the first part of her career as a film critic and entertainment business reporter, writing for many publications, such as Entertainment Weekly, The Dallas Morning News, The Independent Film & Video Monthly, Variety and the New York Times. She had brief stints at “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and was an intern for “Late Night with David Letterman.” Beth has a B.A. in English from Harvard University. She is the mother of two humans and one dog and lives in Brooklyn. ______________________ For More on Beth Pinsker My Mother’s Money: A Guide to Financial Caregiving Website MarketWatch columns ______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Is Your House in Order? – Adam Zuckerman What Matters Most – Diane Button ______________________ I’m Just Asking for a Friend Retirement brings so many tough questions. Share your question to be answered in an upcoming retirement podcast episode. Click here to leave a voice message or send me an email at [email protected] _____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _______________________ Wise Quotes On Becoming a Financial Caregiver “I think what really matters when you’re trying to be a financial caregiver is that you pay attention to the details. Some people, most people in fact, never have the conversation with anybody that they’re caring for, their parents, aunt, uncle, whatever. Nobody knows how much money anybody has. Nobody knows what they’re spending their money on. Everybody keeps that information private. But even if you do step into the conversation, like my Mom and I stepped into it a little bit – big picture stuff. Can you afford two houses? No, we’re going to sell one. So you can’t have a summer place anymore kind of thing. When should Dad stop driving? Big picture stuff. But nobody ever gets down to the little stuff that you have to do when you fully take over for somebody. Like when I had to step in and take care of my Mom’s bills, it got down to such nitty gritty like, do you pay your electric bill on an automated schedule? Or how do you pay it otherwise? Do you mail in a check? Like nobody talks about that kind of stuff. But that is absolutely essential when you are a financial caregiver.” On Advocacy “One of the biggest things I did with my Mom and any care setting she was in was try to humanize her for the caregivers. They needed to see her as a person who was functional.  Now, because they all they saw was a little frail old lady who was out of it most of the time, they just assumed she had cognitive decline or dementia and they weren’t trying to get her back to any sort of baseline. And so what I did was primarily showed them like, Oh, isn’t this funny? I saw this video I took two weeks ago on my phone of my Mom playing Scrabble with us. You know my Mom was fine. And then she wasn’t and they just thought that she was always like she was in the hospital. And so to fight for services and fight for what you what you need out of them with an with a person who’s sick and aging is to constantly humanize them so that people in the medical industry want to help them.” On What To Do First “You need to make sure that you have the proper documents to help somebody. We are all legal adults and nobody can help us with certain things unless they have the proper authorization.  That’s a durable power of attorney, a healthcare proxy and some kind of will or trust for after the person dies plus beneficiary designations. You need to secure the person’s phone because so much today is run,  through our phones and if you don’t have the passcode, you’re going to hit a brick wall of no – and the brick wall of no is unmovable. So you need to secure that phone. You need two factor authentication. You need to know what banking apps, and you need to just know what’s in a person’s phone. Those are the two main important things. But the last thing is even more consequential. You need to know what the person wants. Their wishes matter. Having a conversation about what they want and what you’re able to do is absolutely essential both for your mental health, your wellbeing and for how much money you can spend on any particular thing. You just have to know what page everybody’s on.”

Don’t retire. Redesign. Join our small group program beginning in January. Learn more. ___________________________ Will your retirement life look like the glossy images you see in the brochures? Wise up. There’s a real transition that happens when the paychecks stop and you move into your new life. But here’s the thing: it presents an opportunity for rewarding personal growth, or even transformation, that may not be apparent to you at first. Tom Marks spent decades defining himself by his profession and then faced such a transition when he stepped away. Tom shares his journey from being a high-pressure boss to finding his ‘path of happiness.’ We discuss the danger of the ‘hedonic treadmill,’ the specific mistakes to avoid in your transition to retirement, and why at this stage of life, we are all entitled to a ‘satchel of do-overs.’ Tom Marks joins us from Arizona. ________________________ Bio Tom Marks survived 48 years in the advertising business and has lived to write about it. He has won the American Advertising Awards more than sixty-five times for his writing, including TV commercials, print ads, and magazine and newspaper articles. He spent many years on the professional speakers circuit and apparently survived that, too. His thought leadership workshops for Fortune 500 companies, as well as for small and medium-sized businesses, have brought him national acclaim, and his love of the original thought leaders, Socrates, his star-student, Plato, and Plato’s ace student, Aristotle has made Tom a favorite among CEOs across the US who want to learn about corporate ethics and its origins. Tom’s new book is Coming of Age in Retirement: An Advertising Executive’s Story of Revelation and Enlightenment, also a national bestseller. Tom has won the Gold Medal for Best Nonfiction Book from the Nonfiction Writers Association, three International Impact Book Awards, the POTY Award, two Literary Titan Awards, the Reader Views Award, and two American Book Fest Awards. ___________________________ For More on Tom Marks Coming of Age in Retirement: An Advertising Executive’s Story of Revelation and Enlightenment The Peaceful Retiree ____________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD Make Your Next Years Your Best Years – Harry Agress, MD _____________________________ I’m Just Asking for a Friend Retirement brings so many tough questions. Share your question to be answered in an upcoming retirement podcast episode. Click here to leave a voice message or send me an email at [email protected] _____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On the Identity Crisis in Retirement “Who are we after we are once who we were? And so I had to let go of that stuff. I had to let go of working with these people… But I let go of the things I really like to do, which was write and direct TV commercials… But that was probably the hardest thing to let go. And I still find myself, Joe, thinking about that, those days.” On “The Do-Over” “We are entitled to the satchel of do-overs, but we are not entitled to a do-over of a do-over. We can make the mistake and we shouldn’t be hard on ourselves, but we’ve got to move past it.” On Miserable Retirees “I tried to understand why people would be so unhappy and actually miserable in retirement. And it wasn’t that they woke up on the wrong side of the bed. They woke up on the wrong side of life.” On the Danger of Possessions “Most of that stuff are possessions. But, you know, they accumulate and they just become baggage. And there is so much research that tells us that as much as we chase this stuff, it doesn’t define happiness because the goalposts just move further and further away.”  

Two New Designing Your Life groups kicking off in January 2026 is coming soon. Is It Time to Design What’s Next?. Learn more and sign up today Early registration discount ends 12/15 “Now I know what I’m retiring to.” _________________________ What if everything you’ve been chasing in your full-time working years—the promotion, the bigger paycheck—hasn’t been leading you toward the life you really want? Today’s guest, Jon Rosemberg, knows this tension firsthand. After 25 years of climbing the corporate ladder and finally “making it”, he found himself in a heated Zoom call, heart racing, feeling trapped—until a moment with his kids playing Legos changed everything. Within two weeks, he left his job, went back to school, and wrote A Guide to Thriving: The Science Behind Breaking Old Patterns, Reclaiming Your Agency, and Finding Meaning, a roadmap for moving from survival mode to genuine fulfillment. In this conversation, Jon reveals the crucial difference between success and thriving, why thriving is both a choice and a skill set, why discomfort is essential for growth, and how the beliefs we carry shape every choice we make—especially as we approach retirement. If you feel stuck on the hamster wheel or are wondering what comes next, this episode offers a fresh lens on what it means to truly thrive. Are you in Survival Mode? Take Jon’s quiz Jon Rosemberg joins us from Toronto. ___________________________ Bio Jon Rosemberg empowers leaders and organizations to shift from survival mode into thriving. With 20+ years of expertise in leadership development, coaching, organizational transformation, and workplace culture, Jon combines real-world business insight with cutting-edge research to help people reclaim their agency and find meaning. Jon has successfully led high-impact initiatives at Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Indigo, and GoBolt. He holds an MBA from Cornell University, a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and advanced certifications in leadership, coaching, and complex negotiations. As CEO of Strongpoint Group and co-founder of Anther, Jon guides individuals through powerful personal transformation with clarity and confidence. Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, Jon’s journey to thriving has taken him from New York and Montreal to Toronto, where he lives with his wife, Adriana, and their two sons. _____________________________ For More on Jon Rosemberg A Guide to Thriving: The Science Behind Breaking Old Patterns, Reclaiming Your Agency, and Finding Meaning Website LinkedIn ______________________________ I’m Just Asking for a Friend Retirement brings so many tough questions. Share your question to be answered in an upcoming retirement podcast episode. Click here to leave a voice message or send me an email at [email protected] ______________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The New Happy – Stephanie Harrison Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Everyday Vitality – Dr. Samantha Boardman ________________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Surviving versus Thriving “You feel like you’re putting out fires, like you’re just moving from one thing to the next. And it’s very hard to see a lot of options. So that’s a really good way to define survival mode.  Now let’s try and define what thriving is not. And I think what thriving is not is success. And we’ve often confused thriving with success. I would say success is often measured by money, status, and power. These are three things that we’re all very familiar with, especially because we live in a system that it’s meant to help us be successful. I’m sure many of your listeners experience most of their lives trying to accomplish these extrinsic motivators that are the success motivators, money, power, and status. Thriving on the other hand is a little bit different. Thriving is about agency, meaning, and connection. And when I mean connection, I mean human connection, connecting with other people. Those are kind of like the three big intrinsic motivators of thriving.” On Agency “Agency is a skill. It’s not an innate thing that we’re born with. It’s something that we develop. It’s like going to the gym, like doing strength training to get more muscles. Agency is also a developed skill. And as I went deep into the research, I found three things that kept coming up and I synthesized them in an acronym, which is AIR, A-I-R, which stands for Awareness, Inquiry, and Reframing.” On Negativity – and Hope “We find ourselves today, because we’re surrounded by so much negative information and constantly bombarded by negative information, we tend to our negativity bias, which is this kind of survival mechanism. And by the way, every second we’re exposed to about 10 million, between 10 million and a hundred million stimuli. Every second we’re exposed, and only about 10 to 50 of those make it into our conscious awareness. And of those 10 to 50, not 10 or 10 to 50,000, just 10 to 50 of those bits of information actually make it into our conscious awareness. And of those, the ratio is about, by some estimates, nine to one of negative to positive. So what I’m suggesting with this idea of positive prospection is hope, really. It’s this idea that if we can be hopeful about the future, then we can create that future. If we give up and there’s no hope, then it’s very difficult. If we’re in that hopeless state, which is very much correlated to survival mode, then it’s much harder to do that.”

Two New Designing Your Life groups kicking off in January Retirement by Design: Create a meaningful roadmap for what’s next. Early registration discount ends 12/15 Limited to 10 spots per group Learn more and sign up today  __________________________ Should you hire a Financial Advisor or do-it-yourself ? Glenn Frank rejoins us with some food for thought. __________________________ Just Asking for a Friend… Retirement brings so many tough questions. Share your question (for a friend, of course…) to be answered in an upcoming retirement podcast episode. Click here to leave a voice message or email me at [email protected] _____________________ Bio Glenn Frank is the author of Your Encore: Retirement Planning Guide – How to Balance Time, Money and Joy. He was named 2019 Financial Planner of the Year in Massachusetts and one of the top financial advisors in the country for 10 straight years by Worth.   Professor Glenn Frank is a partner at https://www.frankandflanagan.com . Glenn’s college teaching experience is extensive. Since 1985 he has taught a large variety of courses in investments, taxes and financial planning. Glenn was the Founding Director of the Master of Personal Financial Planning program at Bentley University. He has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest, Financial Planning, The Boston Globe,  and various other media outlets. _________________________ For More on Glenn Frank Current monthly workshops: “DIY or Advisor”, “How to Build a Lifetime Portfolio” and “Finding a Balance between Time, Money and Joy”. Links can be found at Time, Money and Joy.com (no registration required, extensive slides and resources provided). _________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Prepare Mentally for Life After Work – Joseph Maugeri The Purpose Code – Dr. Jordan Grumet The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD ________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters. ________________________

Two New Designing Your Life groups kicking off in January Your Future, Designed: Turn curiosity into action with design thinking.  Early registration discount ends 12/15 Learn more and sign up today   Limited to 10 spots per group ________________________ What does it mean to age with agility? Dr. Michelle Pannor Silver, University of Toronto professor and author of Aging with Agility: How Elite Athletes and Ordinary Folks Embrace Exercise with Age , rejoins us and shares what she discovered after studying everyone from retired Olympians to octogenarians in their best shape ever. Her core messages may flip your assumptions about aging, exercise, and body image. You’ll hear how elite athletes taught her about the power—and pitfalls—of lifelong discipline; why negative role models can be surprisingly motivating; and how small, practical habits like brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand can strengthen both your body and your brain. If you want to thrive as you age, her insights will inform and inspire you. Michelle Pannor Silver joins us from Toronto. ________________________ Bio Michelle Pannor Silver is a Professor at the University of Toronto and author of numerous studies on aging. Her first book, Retirement and Its Discontents, draws from in-depth interviews she conducted with people whose departure from their life’s work meant losing a core and fundamental component of their personal identity. Her second book, Aging with Agility examines how our perceptions of aging shape the way we take care of our bodies. Her work calls attention to ageism and societal loss while highlighting the personal struggles that can be arise when there is a mismatch between personal identity and social expectations about age. Michelle received her PhD from the University of Chicago and completed undergraduate degrees at the University of California Berkeley. ________________________ For More on Michelle Pannor Silver Aging with Agility: How Elite Athletes and Ordinary Folks Embrace Exercise with Age Website __________________ Michelle Pannor Silver’s Previous Visits If You Love Your Work, What Challenges Will You Face in Retirement? – Michelle Pannor Silver The Retirement Roundtable III __________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Stress Paradox – Sharon Bergquist, MD The Benefits of a New Challenge – Joe Simonetta The Joy of Movement – Kelly McGonigal _________________________ I’m Just Asking for a Friend Retirement brings so many tough questions. Share your question (for a friend, of course…) to be answered in an upcoming retirement podcast episode. Click here to leave a voice message or email me at [email protected] _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ________________________ Wise Quotes On Aging with Agility “Aging with agility means understanding, accepting, embracing, and taking care of the body that you have. And by understanding, I mean understanding that that body will change and that your job is to keep up with that body and to understand that you’re probably going to live longer than you think. And the goal is to carve out ways to live and to thrive. That’s aging with agility.” On the Value of Negative Role Models “…learn to adapt to your body, that that was another real takeaway, was just that it’s a journey. It’s a process to find that acceptance and then to use it to help yourself thrive. So, we all have different perceptions about aging. And I think that’s really important to acknowledge, not just gender differences, but, women have different perceptions about aging from men. There’s a ton of heterogeneity in the way that people perceive aging and the ways that that impacts them. And one really interesting takeaway, I think, is this idea that negative role models can be really strong.” On Learning to Anticipate “…learning how to anticipate that there are things that we all inevitably will do. We will all fall if we’re able-bodied enough to be walking. Those of us who are not able-bodied enough to walk, there’s other ways that we need to think about things, but we will all fall. And to think about how to, how to do that in ways that we’re not going to like hurt ourselves before we need to unnecessarily. But I think that was another practical lesson is thinking about, not fearing what’s going to come next, but finding ways to anticipate that changes are coming. And there are practical ways that we can mentally, compartmentalize and mentally prepare ourselves in ways that are optimal that are going to help us embrace those changes better. And then there’s also physical things that we can do, depending on what our abilities are.” On the 80/20 Rule “So we’re talking Pareto principle, so the idea is that like 20% of the peapods generated 80% of the peas. So the idea is identify what is most important to you. Is it not falling? Is it looking a certain way? Is it being able to move with more capacity? And I think the idea is you want to, so like, most our outcomes, they come from a small number of causes, and a small number of actions. So to be efficient, I think part of that is filtering out all the extra noise, all the ideas from society that at X age, you need to look a certain way.” _________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.

I’m Just Asking for a Friend Retirement brings so many tough questions. Share your question (for a friend, of course…) to be answered in an upcoming retirement podcast episode. Click here to leave a voice message or email me at [email protected] — What really makes for a successful retirement? Financial readiness is only part of the story. After decades in the financial planning world, Joseph Maugeri, a CFP professional and former executive at the CFP Board,  knew what to expect. But when he stepped into retirement himself, he was surprised by  the mental and emotional transition to retirement. In this episode, Joseph shares the lessons he’s learned firsthand—what surprised him, what helped him adjust, and the SHELF framework he built to stay balanced and purposeful in retirement. If you’re planning your own transition or supporting someone who is, Joseph’s insights will help you navigate it with more confidence, patience, and optimism. Joseph Maugeri joins us from Pennsylvania. ___________________________ Bio Joseph V. Maugeri, CFP®  joined the CFP Board in 2011. Prior to his retirement, he was the Managing Director, Corporate Relations, focused on continuing to strengthen and enhance the organization’s connections within the financial services industry. His responsibilities include the growth of CFP® professionals among all channels, marketing initiatives, product development and membership on the Executive Leadership Team. Prior to his appointment at CFP Board, Maugeri was a Vice President and head of the Professional Alliance program at Merrill Lynch; a Director at SEI Investments, Inc., leading its marketing and distribution support services; and worked for more than 14 years as a financial advisor at AXA Advisors, LLC.  He received his Bachelor of Arts from Temple University, an M.S. in Leadership Studies from Northeastern University and has completed a Competitive Marketing Strategy Executive Education program at the Wharton School of Business. __________________________ Two New Designing Your Life groups kicking off in January Early registration discount ends 12/15 Learn more and sign up today  Limited to 10 spots per group __________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Inspired Retirement – Nathalie Martin Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile The Balancing Act in Retirement – Stew Friedman ___________________________ Mentioned in This Episode Let’s Make a Plan – Find Your CFP®  Professional ___________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Resilience & Retirement “People who retire well, I believe, are also resilient. They have handled setbacks in their life and they know and expect that not everything will go perfectly, but their ability to handle and recover from setbacks helps them bounce back. The people who struggle in retirement are in many ways the opposite. They maybe haven’t had time to think or plan about retirement and they may have a failure of imagination about the possibilities, and they also may not have the emotional traits that help them through some of the changes in variable setbacks that they’re going to encounter. They know retirement will be a big change, but they’re unsure how they’ll handle the change and they may not be seeing the upside and opportunities they will have. People in many ways are strangers to themselves. Retirement’s a way that we’re forced to confront who we are and what we’re going to do with the remainder of our lives.” On The SHELF Framework “A few months into my retirement, I realized I needed some structure, something to help me stay focused on the right things each week. I wasn’t looking for a formula for happiness or purpose, those are kind of abstract, and I felt those are more outcomes that take time to achieve. I wanted something more like a roadmap to follow that hopefully leads to those outcomes, if that’s makes sense. And that’s how the SHELF framework came about. It’s something I can pull off the shelf whenever I need to get balance in my life. So,  the S is for socialization. There’s a large body of research that says that socialization can improve your mental and physical health and may even help you live longer. So I make it a point to stay connected, keep in touch with former colleagues… And the second part of the acronym is Health,  I think this is pretty straightforward. We can live 25 or 30 years in retirement. It’s not like it was 100 years ago. So staying active is key. And that means regular exercise eating better, periodic checkups, good health, gives you more energy and it keeps you exploring the world, the future self. E is for Experience. We love to travel, and a couple of months ago,, we made a trip to the Canadian Rockies, which was stunning. But experiences don’t have to be big trips, it can be a concert, a movie, a dinner with friends or family, which also gets you points for socialization. And your goal is to keep adding those moments of awe and joy to your life. And those little moments are important. L is for learning. I’ve always believed in lifelong learning, it keeps your mind sharp and your curiosity alive. In addition to the classes, my wife and I take, we’re also enjoying reading, going to a lecture, and  I joined a book club. She’s joined one as well. So that’s important. And then the last is F and that’s Finance –  my career for the CFP Board,  I can’t forget finances. If they’re managed well could be something that really gives you mental well being. When you don’t have enough to retire, it’s a stressor. So, having a plan you trust, brings peace of mind. We work with a financial advisor and it helps us feel secure and allows us to focus, you know, more on living than wearing. So that’s my SHELF system. It’s not complicated. But it’s something I put together and it helps me check in on what really matters. staying connected, health, curiosity, and being grounded. Everyone’s vision I think will look a little different, but for me, it’s been a simple and practical way to stay balanced in retirement.” On Selecting a CFP® Professional “The CFP Board has a great website, where you can search for CFP® Professionals and filter based on various criteria. It’s a good place to start: cfp.net. But advisors are also required to supply disclosures that answer many questions. But it’s always good to hear it in the advisor’s own words. So, you know, once you meet with an advisor, I think there’s four key questions I’d recommend asking. The first one is, what’s your financial planning process? Will you create a written plan? How often will we review or update it? The second would be what areas do you cover and not cover? Sometimes that’s a surprise to clients. Do you include taxes? Really important in retirement planning, estate planning, or employee benefits, or do you focus mainly on the investments? So the third would be, how do you get paid? This is an uncomfortable question. Many people do not like to ask, but it’s an important one. Yes, the disclosures will have it. But for the average person, understanding these disclosures could be they’re written by lawyers and it’s very difficult to understand. So have the advisor explain how they get paid and make sure you understand, you know, when they charge, you know, whether they charge asset based fees, commissions, flat fees, or a combination. And then I guess the last question would be CFP professionals are required to act as a fiduciary. Sothe CFP professionals, should be able to articulate and clearly explain what that means in practice. So understanding that, what differentiates me and what it means to be a fiduciary. So if you get thoughtful, transparent, and I think detailed answers to these questions, you’ll have a good sense of whether that advisor is the right fit for you.” ___________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Po

What if your brain’s health in retirement depended as much on who you see as on what you eat or how you move? Neuroscientist Dr. Ben Rein, author of  the new book Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection, joins us to reveal how social connection shapes your brain. He explains why isolation is as toxic as chronic stress, how friendship fuels brain resilience, and why your dog might be one of your best wellness allies. In this e, ye-opening conversation, you’ll learn how staying socially engaged literally protects your brain from decline, the science behind “nature’s medicine” — oxytocin — and practical ways to rewire your social habits for longevity, joy, and emotional well-being. If you’ve ever wondered why friendships matter more than ever in retirement, this episode will change the way you think about your brain — and your calendar. You’ll learn: Why social interaction is a fundamental pillar of brain health, as critical as sleep and nutrition – and what happens when we don’t get enough of it The invisible pattern of retirement isolation: how time spent alone steadily increases while connections with coworkers, friends, and family decline simultaneously Why text-based communication doesn’t satisfy your brain’s need for connection (and what to do instead to restore the social cues your brain craves) The surprising neuroscience behind why dogs are so good for us—and how they activate the same brain reward systems as human connection Two scientifically-proven exercises you can start today to train your empathy and strengthen the brain regions associated with compassion and social connection Ben Rein joins us from Buffalo, New York. ____________________________ Bio Ben Rein, PhD, is an award-winning neuroscientist, chief science officer of the Mind Science Foundation, adjunct lecturer at Stanford University, clinical assistant professor at SUNY Buffalo, and a renowned science educator. Dr. Rein’s research focuses on the neuroscience of social interactions, and outside of the lab he teaches neuroscience to an audience of more than one million social media followers. Dr. Rein and his research have been featured on major media outlets including Entertainment Tonight and Good Morning America, and he has received awards from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; the Society for Neuroscience; and elsewhere. _____________________________ For More on Ben Rein Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection Website You Tube Channel ______________________________ Mentioned in this Podcast Loving Kindness Meditation Affect Dyad excercise ______________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Our New Social Life – Natalie Kerr & Jaime Kurtz The Laws of Connection – David Robson The Self-Healing Mind – Gregory Scott Brown, M.D _______________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Why Social Interaction is Essential “As a social neuroscientist, so I have spent a decade studying the biology of our interactions and not just in my own studies, but in reading a ton of literature, there is so much science out there on this. Basically, interacting is really, I consider it a fundamental pillar of wellbeing. And that goes for throughout the entire lifespan. But I think there are especially sensitive periods where we really need interaction. And that is early life. And that is also late life. In early life, it really shapes the development of our brains. And in late life, it sustains the health of our brains.” On the Hidden Crisis of Retirement Isolation “The data show that as we get older, the number of hours we spend alone continues to rise. And similarly, imagine if the amount of fast food you ate went up steadily as you got older, or the amount of hours you slept went down steadily as you got older. We would be pointing at this and saying, oh gosh, this is really not bad. 75 year old people are not sleeping. They are eating fast food. This is super bad for their health, but we are not really looking at the social component of it. And that is why I really point to it and say this is something that actually I think has to be a need-to-have because it is really significant for the brain and body.” On the Nightmare That Changed His Life “That was the first time where I realized I am interested in the organ behind the behavior. I mean, what incredible computational power to be able to do that, that same computational power is behind all those behaviors that I am interested in from a psychology viewpoint. I cannot ignore this anymore. I need to change my major. And I did. And what is funny is the reason I shared the story of The Nightmare is because I actually think it reflects my brain playing out an undesirable future where I do not listen to that inner voice. And I end up in a career that controls me and does not let me do what I want. And I feel distorted. My identity is distorted. And I think that was sort of my subconscious trying to tell me, wake up. It is the brain. Study neuroscience.”

What if retirement isn’t the end of something — but the beginning of something better – and deeply meaningful? Dr. Susan Reid thought she was ready for her next chapter when she retired early from her career as a university professor. But within weeks, she realized she’d gone from 100% full throttle to zero — and felt adrift. That awakening led her on a powerful journey to re-vision retirement — for herself and for the millions of others who feel they’re “not done yet.” In this conversation, Dr. Reid shares the insights from her research and personal experience — about identity, purpose, and how to craft a clear vision for the next phase of life. You’ll hear how to move from “what am I leaving?” to “what am I moving toward?” and how meaning, contribution, and joy can fuel a longer, healthier, and more fulfilling life after you leave full-time work behind. If you’re planning your own next act — or helping someone who is — this episode will change how you think about what comes next. Susan Reid joins us from Halifax. _____________________________ Bio SUSAN REID is an award-winning expert on the topic of vision. Until 2021, Susan was a tenured professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec. As a teacher, researcher, and keynote speaker, she works at the intersection of marketing, innovation, and user-focused design, with an in-depth focus on the topic of vision, particularly for older adults and entrepreneurs. Her book on Entrepreneurial Vision: A guide for charting and implementing the vision process (co-authored with Charles Crawford). Susan is also the co-founder of Domaine Pinnacle, a pioneering Canadian producer of craft ciders and spirits. When she retired at age 57, after years of helping businesses and individuals develop their visions, Susan realized, to her surprise, that she had not set a vision for her own retirement. This led her to develop a workbook (Re-Visioning Retirement) for people just like her. Susan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Queen’s University, an MBA from McGill University, and a Ph.D. from Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business. _____________________________________ For More on Susan Reid Re-Visioning Retirement: A Workbook Website ______________________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Joyspan – Kerry Burnight, PhD The Power of Reinvention – Joanne Lipman When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill Make Your Next Years Your Best Years – Harry Agress, MD ________________________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Retirement and Meaning “Most people after they retire feel like they’re not done — they want to create meaning, but many don’t know how to go about it.” On Transitioning to Retirement “I went from 100% full-out work to 0% in just a few weeks. That was a real eye-opener — and it made me realize how many others feel the same.” On Vision “Vision is a cinematic preview of the world you want to see. When you hold a clear vision, you stack the deck in favor of success.”

I’m Just Asking for a Friend Retirement brings so many questions! Share yours (for a friend….) Click here to leave a voice message or email me at [email protected] ____________________________ What does it mean to live life fully — without any unfinished business? Today’s guest, Diane Button, knows the answer. As a compassionate end-of-life doula and author of What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living, she’s spent years walking beside people at the end of life — and she’s learned lessons that help all of us live more fully right now. In this podcast conversation, Diane shares what she’s learned about forgiveness, gratitude and legacy — and how each of us can create peace long before the final chapter. You’ll hear touching stories of regret, reconciliation, and joy — including how one man’s “joy counter” became a simple but profound reminder to notice beauty in everyday moments. If you’ve ever wondered how to live more intentionally, strengthen your relationships, and make sure nothing important is left unsaid — this episode will move you, inspire you, and change how you think about how you want to use your time. Diane Button joins us from California. ________________________ Bio Diane Button is a founding partner of the Bay Area End-of-Life Doula Alliance in Northern California, a frequent podcast guest, and best-selling author of several books related to end-of-life, meaningful living, and the growing impact of death doulas worldwide. She is an instructor at the University of Vermont’s End-of-Life Doula Certificate Program and was a former board member of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA). She holds a master’s in counseling psychology from Goddard College in Vermont. Her master’s thesis, The Components of a Meaningful Life, became the genesis for her life’s work of supporting people to find meaning, comfort, joy, and peace in life and in death. Diane’s best-selling books have been featured on numerous programs and podcasts, inspiring others to leave a meaningful legacy. Her other books include the best-selling titles Dear Death: Finding Meaning in Life, Peace in Death, and Joy in an Ordinary Day which combines the insights gained from her research on “The Four Pillars of a Meaningful Life,” with over a decade working with hospice and doula clients in their final days and The Doula Tool Kit: The Complete Practical Guide for End-of-Life Doulas & Caregivers, which was co-authored by Angela Shook and Gabby Jimenez. In October of 2022, during the pandemic, Diane wrote an article that went viral article for Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper that remains widely-read and one of their most popular articles. What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living is her latest book, written at the invitation of Maria Shriver and published by Penguin Random House. Diane is also a breast cancer survivor. Immediately following her diagnosis of breast cancer at 48, Diane and her young children established the nonprofit Dream of a Better World. Through grassroots fundraisers and local events, they have supported underserved children and families around the world. Their motto is: “You’re never too young or too old to make a difference!” _________________________ For More on Diane Button Website What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living __________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Well-Lived Life – Dr. Gladys McGarey Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller The Inspired Retirement – Nathalie Martin __________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. __________________________ Wise Quotes On What Matters Most “Death is just one day. All the other days are for living fully.” On Unfinished Business “Just being in the moment, which means pausing which means looking people in the eye, which means having deep conversations…not being afraid to say how I feel to have to live my life with a clean slate – so that I don’t walk around carrying unfinished business with people. More than anything, I say I’m sorry. I say I love you. I say thank you. I show up for my friends and people in my life so that if this were my last day everybody knows that I love them and everybody knows that I’m sorry for the things that I’ve done. I think it’s really important because if we don’t say the words now they build up and at the end of life it can be just so excruciating to watch somebody who hasn’t healed something from their past scrambling to get it done at the end of life. So I think I’ve learned that lesson and I really try to stay on top of that.” On Joy “The real beauty of life lies in the simplicity of an ordinary day — the coffee on the porch, the laughter, the quiet moments. That’s where joy lives.”

What if doing less could actually give you more? Author and minimalist Christine Platt, known as The Afrominimalist, joins us to explore how letting go of clutter—physical and emotional—can lead to a life of greater intention, peace, and purpose. Her new book, Less Is Liberating, challenges the myth that our worth is tied to our busyness or possessions. In this conversation, Christine opens up about her own transformation—from attorney, federal government leader, to writer and minimalist—and shares how living with less helped her rediscover herself after parenting, career, and overwhelm. If you’ve ever struggled with the question “Who am I now?” or felt burdened by the weight of “shoulds,” you’ll want to listen closely. This episode is about redefining freedom—not just freedom from, but freedom for—the life you truly want in retirement. Christine Platt joins us from Washington, DC. In This Conversation, You’ll Learn: – How Christine’s minimalist journey began—and what she discovered about consumerism and identity. – Why overwhelm became her “baseline” and how she learned to listen to her body’s warning signs. – What the “five wells” of wellness reveal about balance and self-care. – How limiting beliefs form—and how they shape our behavior long after we leave work. – The powerful distinction between freedom from and freedom for in retirement. – How to reclaim your time, your energy, and your sense of self. _______________________ Bio Christine Platt is the author of Less Is Liberation: Finding Freedom from a Life of Overwhelm. a multi-hyphenate, multi-genre author whose work centers the journey of personal liberation—inviting readers to examine, release, and reimagine the narratives that shape their lives. From adult fiction and lifestyle to children’s literature and cultural commentary, Christine’s expansive body of work defies genre limitations by centering an empowering throughline: understanding and achieving personal liberation. With each book, Christine affirms what she knows to be true: liberation is not a destination—it is a way of being. And through the power of storytelling, she helps others find their way. Christine holds a Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies, Master of Arts in African and African-American Studies, and a Juris Doctorate from Stetson University College of Law. _______________________ For More on Christine Platt Less Is Liberation: Finding Freedom from a Life of Overwhelm Website _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff – Matt Paxton The Joy of Saying No – Natalie Lue Stop People Pleasing – Hailey Magee ________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ________________________ Wise Quotes On Overwhelm “When overwhelm is your baseline, you’ve stopped listening to your body. The work is learning to pause and ask: which of my wells needs care right now?” On Becoming an Empty Nester “I realized I’d spent the majority of my adulthood mothering.It was like all I knew how to do. And so when our daughter went off to college,there were times that the the silence and the space felt very unsettling, right? When, as a writer, you have a project you’re always head down, it’s kind of siloed anyway. But when you don’t have a project, it’s even more quiet. And I just found myself like, filling, filling, trying to just fill that space. And coming to ultimately realize that overwhelm was kind of my baseline, like my body didn’t know, it felt unfamiliar to not be overwhelmed. And like, Man, I should be doing something, I should be doing something. And then I was doing too much. On Less I feel like [less] is a word that unfortunately has gotten a bad rap. I hope this book Less is Liberation: Finding Freedom from a Life of Overwhelm will give it a rebrand. But I feel like we tend to associate that word with scarcity, with loss, with lack – it has like a negative connotation. And almost because we never really fill in what comes after that, which is, it does leave you room for so much more of what you want and enjoy.” On the Five Wells of Wellness “She explained to me the five foundations of wellness. And she said, we look at your physical health – how are you? How’s your body? How’s your movement? How are you resting? How are you eating? We look at your mental health. Are you problem solving? Are you processing new information? Are you reading a book? Are you listening to an amazing podcast, and learning something new each day? We look at your emotional health, are you able to emote? Do you feel your feelings or do you suppress them, escape them, or try to outrun them? And she said, we look also at your social health. What’s your friendship circle like? What are your interpersonal relationships like? And then we look at your spiritual health, which is less about religion and more about how are you feeling? What contributions are you making to the world? Are you doing meaningful work? Have you done meaningful work before you retired? What do you want to do now in terms of volunteering? And she said,  this is not, you know, alternative medicine. This is traditional medicine, I am a licensed medical doctor. And this is the diagnostic tool that we use. And she said, if any one of those areas of health is deemed in need of care, it can be anything from you’re not getting enough rest. If you’re just your physical health is deemed off.” On Identity and Freedom “…as opposed to just, how can I just fill up my calendar? Do I need to be saying yes to everything? I love that you asked about those two facets of freedom, because I think it goes so well with the debt identity. For so long, our careers are a big part of our identity. For so long, mothering was a big part of my identity. And so I didn’t really have the freedom of identity to just be Christine. I didn’t even know what that looked like. There were some people that didn’t even know my name, I was just Mala’s mom. And so, it really becomes a big part of your identity. And then all of a sudden, you’re retired, you have this time. You don’t have the sort of tethering to some of the titles and responsibilities that came with the work that we did. And you just find yourself almost kind of floating, like, who am I? And so that identity really allows us to think about this life that we’re seeking freedom for. And I feel like this is the first time probably since I was a young woman, that I belong to myself. A lot of the beliefs, behaviors, and identities that we know aren’t serving us anymore.” On Overcoming Fear “There’s, there’s fear that is there.Usually like what’s at the crux of it is fear, you know, and I talked to folks that are decluttering their homes for the first time and letting go of things for the first time. There’s a very real fear of: What if I still need this? What if I let this go and it’s a mistake? When it comes to our identities and beliefs, it’s a very real fear. How are people going to perceive me when I’m no longer the person who is so helpful? And it was a very painful experience to see how many of the relationships in my life were transactional…and which are genuine connections.”

What happens when a sleepless baby, a Victorian fixer-upper, and a vineyard come together? For Richard Moran, it sparked a multi-year journey of transformation—from corporate boardrooms to wine country. Along the way, he discovered lessons about serendipity, risk-taking, family, and building a place that lasts for generations. In today’s conversation, Richard shares his story of balancing a high-flying consulting career with the slower rhythms of grapevines, why creating a family gathering place matters in retirement, and the life lessons he lives by. _______________________ Bio Richard Moran is the author of The Accidental Vineyard: An Old House, New Vines, and a Changed Life in Wine Country. Besides being a winemaker and a preservationist, Richard Moran’s background includes serving as a CEO, a college president, a venture capitalist and an author he is an authority on workplace issues and hosts a weekly radio program on KCBS, “In the Workplace” and has written ten books about management. Rich has also served as a director on public and private corporate boards. He lives in California’s Wine Country. Moran has served as a CEO, a college president, a venture capitalist, and a top-level consultant. He is a set of one. He has worked for or with some of the world’s leading organizations including Accenture, Apple, News Corp, American Airlines, PG&E and many others. He prides himself on his matter-of-fact manner of consulting and believes that many parts of the business world are needlessly complicated. Moran holds a Ph.D. in organization behavior but his work is not academic. Research is important but he believes what is just as critical are the observations one can make by being in the “trenches” _______________________ For More on Richard Moran The Accidental Vineyard: An Old House, New Vines, and a Changed Life in Wine Country _______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Take the Detour – A Second Act Story – Melissa Davey The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ____________________________ Wise Quotes On Transitioning to a New Life “I was on a conference call with a big time CEO and I was trying to do two things at once. I was clipping grapevines at the same time. And the CEO said, what’s that noise? What’s that noise? And I knew right then that I had switched, I had gone to the country where life is a little simpler than it is trying to meet flights and put together a PowerPoint presentation.” On Creating a Place People Want to Visit “What we wanted to create was a place and we created it. This place is still alive. We didn’t make it into a museum. We live here. And I think finding a place for you and your family at any time in your life, but especially as you grow older where you want people to come visit, you want people in retirement to come and say, Hey, I want to visit. We don’t want to—I don’t want you to drag your ass here just because you’re my grandpa. I want people to come visit and they do.” On Intentions “Actions follow intent. If you know what your intentions are, then you know what your actions are that might lead to that intention.”  

I’m Just Asking for a Friend Retirement brings so many questions! Share yours (for a friend, of course…) Click here to leave a voice message or email me at [email protected] ____________________________ What if the secret to a longer, healthier, and more purposeful life isn’t about diets or exercise routines, but about connection, purpose, and how we approach aging itself? In this conversation, Ken Stern author of the new book Healthy to 100: How Strong Social Ties Lead to Long Lives.  He shares powerful lessons from his travels across Asia and Europe, where he studied some of the most vibrant societies with a track record of longevity. From intergenerational living to lifelong learning, Ken challenges the way we think about retirement and shows how our later years can be a time of renewal, engagement, and meaning. If you’ve ever wondered how to thrive in the decades ahead, this episode will give you a fresh perspective—and the motivation to design your own path. Ken Stern joins us from Washington DC. _________________________ Bio Ken Stern is the Founder of the Longevity Project, which fosters public conversation on the impact on longer lives on civil society, and engages a global audience through events, research and newsletters. Stern is the host of the award-winning podcast Century Lives, from the Stanford Center on Longevity. Stern is the author of the new book Healthy to 100: How Strong Social Ties Lead to Long Lives. He has also been a regular contributor to a diverse group of publications such as Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and Slate. He is also the CEO of Palisades Media Ventures, a Washington D.C. thought leadership company. Stern was previously the CEO of National Public Radio. Prior to joining NPR, Stern was a senior executive in American International Broadcasting, beginning his media career with Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty in Munich. Stern, a lawyer by training, holds degrees from Haverford College and Yale Law School. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife Beth and their son Nate. __________________________ For More on Ken Stern Healthy to 100: How Strong Social Ties Lead to Long Lives __________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Super Age – Bradley Schurman Joyspan – Kerry Burnight, PhD Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile ___________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ____________________________ Wise Quotes On Intergenerational Relationships “The countries I visited were Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Italy, and Spain. And I picked them because they’re among the longest-lived and the healthiest countries, but there are others. I picked them because in some ways they’re actually challenging countries. They’re not ideal. Singapore is hot and notoriously stressful. People in Spain really smoke a lot and they drive terribly. Their income is not as high as other places. There are a lot of things that says they shouldn’t be as healthy as they are. So I wanted to know what was their secret sauce. When you write a book like this, Joe, as you probably know, you do a lot of research in advance and have a lot of conversations. So in some ways it’s not really set up for surprise, but there were things that surprised me. One was, so I’ll mention two things. There are a lot more than that, but I’ll mention two things. One that surprised me, that was uniform across, they all have somewhat different approaches to longevity and social connection. But one thing that was uniform was the deep commitment of each of those societies to intergenerational relationships. In the U.S., back to table 23, we actually think it’s natural to divide people based upon their age. They were all those countries. both directly and indirectly, had all sorts of strategies of bringing the generation together for the good of the young and for the good of the old. So that was one thing that was surprising about sort of the uniformity of that across all those societies.” On Working Longer “In Japan, I met workers in their 80s and their 90s. In Korea, I met people who were engaged in lifelong learning and, gained degrees at the same age. In Italy, people were volunteering into their 80s and 90s, and sometimes it was hard to tell who were volunteers and who was being served. The thing that actually sort of got me is that every time I asked them, all those people, almost 100%, how long they wanted to keep doing what they were doing, whether it was working or learning or volunteering or taking care of family members, the answer is almost uniformly until I can’t. And that was sort of the anthem of the trip, until I can’t. There was no notion that like at 65 I have to turn it off or 62 I’m supposed to stop doing things. The answer was I get vitality from what I do, I get meaning and purpose, and I’m gonna keep doing that until the day I can’t.” On Cultivating New Relationships in Retirement “The first thing I’m going to  say is don’t retire or don’t retire casually, right? Or don’t retire because you think it’s time to retire. So I’ll start with that. But a lot of people can retire and they retire at different ages and I’m very big on the importance of work as part of community, but that’s not going to be for everyone. And even in Japan, which has the highest percentage of older workers, only roughly half of people between 65 and 70 still work. So there are millions of people who can retire. So I think the thing is, the first thing I say is treat those years after retirement the same way you’ve achieved the years before retirement.You have a plan, think about how you’re going to be engaged. Don’t treat those years as any less valuable than the years that preceded it. So maybe work, maybe part-time work, it might be volunteering, it might be lifelong learning, it might be the clubs you’ll join, the groups you’ll form. But treat it with the same seriousness and purpose. It’s really hard, as you said, to often replace those networks. You spend 40 years or so at work building up relationships, talking to people every day. They may or may not be your friends, but they’re your network. They’re the people who you engage with. And then they’re gone. I’m almost in the snap of the finger. And you can’t just replace that unless you’re looking for other ways to engage with people and with ideas.So my friend, Mark Friedman, who’s also written great books on the subject, says that we’re sort of designed like jigsaw puzzles that fit together, the generations fit together. And I think what sort of the evidence shows and these things I saw is that just an enormous value that different generations bring together, it works, and it’s a lot of different contexts.It’s when you have multi-generational workforces, multi-generational work groups, they tend to do better than single generation work groups. They bring different ideas, different experiences, and it’s true in community as well. When you find ways to bring the generations together, people do better. Kids do better, tons of evidence about how that multi-generational having people who aren’t members of the family is actually the single most important thing in terms of childhood development. But it’s also really good for older people, whether you’re 50 or 60 or 70, just the opportunity, the vitality the young people bring to you, the opportunity to learn from other generations to have purpose in raising the next generation.”

Parenting doesn’t end when your kids grow up — it just changes. And for many, that shift can be confusing, frustrating, and even painful. How do you move from being the authority to being a supportive “peer”? And what do you do when your hopes for your adult children don’t align with who they’ve become? Today, we’re joined by Dr. Francine Toder, a clinical psychologist to discuss her new book Your Kids are Grown: Parenting 2.0 – With Strategies for Moving On. Drawing on decades of research, therapy, and her own lived experience, Dr. Toder shares practical wisdom on how to navigate this often-overlooked stage of family life. You’ll learn how to let go, listen with empathy, and focus on your own growth while building stronger, healthier relationships with your adult kids — and perhaps, rediscovering yourself in the process. Francine Toder joins us from California. __________________________ Bio Francine Toder, Ph.D. is an emeritus faculty member of California State University, Sacramento and is a clinical psychologist retired from private practice. She is the author of 5 books. Her newest book is Your Kids are Grown: Parenting 2.0. Her extensive writing on diverse topics appears in magazines, professional journals, newspapers, blog sites and as edited book chapters. She resides in the San Francisco Bay area where she tries to practice the cello daily. ___________________________ For More on Francine Toder Your Kids are Grown: Parenting 2.0. Website ___________________________ Previous Podcast Conversations with Francine Toder The Vintage Years – Dr. Francine Toder Inward Traveler – Francine Toder PhD ___________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like All Grown Up – Celia Dodd How to Reconnect with an Estranged Adult Child – Tina Gilbertson ___________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode How Did the Latchkey Kids of Gen X Become the Helicopter Parents of Gen Z? by David French ___________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _________________________ Wise Quotes  On Leveraging Curiosity “…when you step back and realize that that other person or those other persons are not you and you are curious about learning about them, then that becomes positive. I think when you try to equalize power, you know, when your kids are really young, when they’re under 18 or 21, you have all the power legally, socially, everyone expects that. And then to suddenly switch off and recognize this human as an independent person with their own ideas, thoughts, values, wishes, plans, it’s pretty tough. And so one of the goals is to equalize power and to realize that advice offered by one adult to another. is acceptable but needs to be two-way. Give help only if it’s invited. This is probably the hardest thing that parents, whether you’re parenting a newly empty nest child or you’re parenting a, you know, a 35 or a 50-year-old child.” On What Adult Children Want “Let’s start with what they don’t want. What was effective before won’t work now. Role modeling, which is effective with children, is experienced as patronizing. Rewarding positive behavior is interpreted as demeaning. Providing guidance is seen as meddling. So you can’t do that. Limit setting is irrelevant. You can’t do that with adult children. You can do that with kids and it’s really hard to let go of that. If you’re supporting them and they’re, they’re still in college or they’re in their 20s, but they’re kind of floundering financially. You may feel like you have power, but if you do that, you’re going to alienate them. You have to be able to negotiate with them. The teacher-learner model is obsolete. So it has to be a new model. And there’s really much to learn from our adult kids, if we step out of our parent as teacher role.” On What Matters Most “Listening. Adult kids want you to hear them but not to problem solve for them. So in conversation with them, listen more than 50 percent of the time. It doesn’t mean listening where you’re listening for a break in what they’re saying, so you can jump in and rehearse in the meantime what you are wanting to say because that won’t work. Because they’re adults, they have their own ideas about things. Be more curious and have more wonder than advice-giving. Be open to hearing about who they are because they may have very different ideas than you, and they may have merit.You don’t have to see the world exactly like they do. You haven’t failed if they don’t mirror you exactly, and empathic listening. Try on their ideas. Be open to hearing what they think. Because they’re adults, they have their own ideas about things. Be more curious and have more wonder than advice-giving. Be open to hearing about who they are because they may have very different ideas than you, and they may have merit. You don’t have to see the world exactly like they do. You haven’t failed if they don’t mirror you exactly, and empathic listening. Try on their ideas. It’s true that today everything is very polarized, but be open to hearing because if you’re not open to hearing it, then you can’t have a relationship.”

Our guest today, Dr. Chris Walinski, is a dentist, researcher, MasterChef contestant, and prostate cancer survivor. His story is an inspiring one of persistence, adaptation, reinvention and turning adversity into advocacy. Chris shares how his childhood independence led to a lifelong passion for cooking, how his wife nudged him into the MasterChef spotlight, and how a life-altering cancer diagnosis reshaped his perspective on food, prevention, and living fully. You’ll learn: – What Chris learned from competing on MasterChef (and from Gordon Ramsay…) – How his cancer journey shifted his mindset on prevention, nutrition, and resilience – The role of antioxidants, anti-inflammatory foods, and gut health in longevity – The top prostate-friendly foods – The importance of cutting back on ultra-processed foods, red meat, alcohol, and sugar – Chris’s lessons on reinvention in midlife and retirement ________________________ Bio Dr. Chris Walinski has been an author, inventor and trusted expert in dentistry for over 25 years and has authored a dental text that has been translated into 10 languages. He is one of the earliest dentists to use lasers in dentistry, Dr. Walinski has been called upon to make presentations around the world at professional conferences and universities. Since 2004, he has taught thousands of doctors on the topics of cosmetics, minimally-invasive dentistry, technology and the use of lasers. His lectures have taken him to almost 50 countries at this point. Dr. Walinski is the Executive Director of the World Clinical Laser Institute and the International Dental Laser Research Institute, and is a Founding member of the American Academy of Oral Systemic Health. He is a Diplomate and Past-President of the World Congress of Minimally Invasive Dentistry. He is a proud member of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, and his Fellowships include the International College of Dentists, The Royal Society of Medicine, The International Association for Laser Dentistry and the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Walinski’s lifelong love of cooking resulted in him competing on this season’s MasterChef on FOX. He also has three lovely children and is married to the love of his life and wife of six years. They live together with their English Springer Spaniel, Lacey. _________________________ For More on Chris Walinski The Prostate Site 3 recipes to try: ‘MasterChef’ alum’s cake, soup, rice – Ohio State Alumni Magazine _________________________ Prostate Cancer Testing Free Prostate Cancer Testing Near You NFL Crucial Catch – FIND A CANCER SCREENING LOCATION NEAR YOU* _________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like How Not to Age – Dr. Michael Greger The Well-Lived Life – Dr. Gladys McGarey Take Charge of Your Well-Being – John La Puma, MD _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _________________________ Wise Quotes  On Prevention “…nobody wants to pay for prevention. I started writing some, some notes down because I do a lot of research and if I end up writing a book about how to prevent prostate cancer I might sell 10 copies, but if I write a book about how to treat it once you get it and how to extend your life and how to use food as medicine, that’s what people want to know. And so that’s where the hard part is –  because once you get it, as they say the cow is out of the barn or the horse is out of the barn, now you’re chasing it versus trying to prevent it. Prevention is the big thing. And then there’s a lot of uncertainty when you’re diagnosed because when I was diagnosed, honestly, I didn’t know if I was going to make it until the end of the year.” On Food as Medicine “It just doesn’t come with a lot of warning signs. It really just eats you from inside out. And what I’ve found is that if you find a food that is good for you, chances are it’s because it’s an antioxidant and ultimately it will reduce your inflammation. So for like an anti-cancer plan, you really need to go with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. And those two things together, and actually I would add at this point because you’re reading more and more about it is having a healthy microbiome, gut microbiome. So, he beneficial bacteria that’s in your digestive system. And that’s another thing that we never really thought much about. But if you, there was a study that compared a group of men with advanced cancer versus those who didn’t, and they checked their microbiome and the ones with advanced cancer, they were missing all the beneficial bacteria that helped protect your body.” On Reinventing Yourself “…my message number one would be avoid paralysis by analysis. Just don’t just make a rash decision, but don’t spend all your time thinking about it. Because what I will tell you is that if you direct all your energy, the universe will make a way for you. And if it doesn’t, maybe that’s not the direction you should be going. That’s not your path. It took so many things to go right for me to change industries from one industry to another. And it took so many things when I moved from one location to another. If it’s not right for you, you’ll know. If it’s a struggle to get to where you want to be from one career to another, maybe that’s not your path. And as my wife Veronica tells me on repeat, just follow your bliss and do what makes you happy at this point. And so that would be my recommendation: do what makes you happy, but don’t force it.” The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.

Join our group and design your retirement. Six Fridays starting on October 3rd. Learn more here. _________________________ Is there more to a great life than happiness and meaning?  Dr. Shige Oishi thinks so. He’s the author of Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life, and he defines psychological richness as a life filled with diverse, interesting, and perspective-shifting experiences. Unlike the well-trodden paths of happiness (contentment) and meaning (purpose-driven focus), psychological richness is about exploration, challenge, and even taking on uncomfortable challenges —because growth lives outside the comfort zone. And retirement is a catalyst to explore this third dimension of life. Yet, psychological richness doesn’t require dramatic change. It’s quite accessible through small shifts, and by simply trying something new. Try new foods, meet someone new, or change your routine. And seize opportunities to be spontaneous and playful. Listen in and learn more about how psychological richness can enhance your life in retirement. Shige Oishi joins us from Chicago. _________________________ Bio Dr. Shige Oishi is the Marshall Field IV Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life. Dr Oishi is one of the foremost authorities on happiness, meaning, and culture. He is the author of The Psychological Wealth of Nations, and his research has been featured in major media outlets, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. __________________________ For More on Dr. Shige Oishi Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life Website __________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD How to Retire – Christine Benz Make Your Next Years Your Best Years – Harry Agress, MD ___________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _____________________________ Wise Quotes On Novelty “So these results suggest that if you want to make your life psychologically richer, then try to do something new. Break away from the daily routines once in a while, and acting spontaneously. Our life is very much scheduled and planned, I mean adult lives. So I think sometimes going outside of the schedule and the habit and the routines will definitely make our life richer.” On Playfulness “In addition to novelty, another important part is being playful, and as a professional adult most of us have so many responsibilities and things you have to do and master on the list. So essentially we forget about being playful and the importance of being playful. So when we are five years old, we lived somewhere between reality and fantasy. We never cared about any responsibility because you didn’t have one. Like a dog chasing tennis ball, essentially we have to let ourselves be like a dog or like five years old. So I try to be playful you know once in a while and that really opens up a lot of opportunities. I think really it’s important to have some open, you know, spaces and time on your schedule. And that allow us to be spontaneous. Spontaneously decide to take a walk, go to a museum, stop by a Goodwill store and things of that nature. I think that’s really important. And if you’re short of time, then you can change your commute a little bit. In my case, when I go to the lecture hall, of course, the default is the shortest, most efficient way to get there. But when I have like three minutes and I just, take a different ways and I notice the different buildings, different architectures and trees and benches and things. of that nature. So just changing up a little bit actually helps a lot. If you’re commuting by train, try to get off on one station before or after, explore the different neighborhood. There are a lot of ways to enrich your life.” On Taking on New Challenges “I think once in a while we have to sort of say, Yeah, you know, let’s just see how it goes. And I think that’s the attitude. Let’s try to see if it works. It’s a lot better than, Oh, I think it’s too hard. Instead of: I’m not gonna do this, Emma. I’m gonna just stick with what I know. We have to know that we are so trained, habitually moving toward the familiar and easy. So you have to go opposite, right? [Be open to the] unfamiliar, what’s maybe a little bit more difficult.”      

Want to create a retirement your boss will envy? Design it. New group program starts on October 3rd. Six weeks to a new direction. Learn more __________________________ Most of us know about lifespan and healthspan—but have you thought about your joyspan?  Gerontologist Dr. Kerry Burnight is the author of  Joyspan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life’s Second Half. She shares her research and practical wisdom on how to extend not just the years of our lives, but the years we will truly enjoy living. Drawing from her “Joyspan Matrix” and decades of experience, Kerry, a nationally recognized advocate for positive aging, offers a fresh perspective and new thinking on thriving in later life for your consideration. We discuss: The importance of joyspan alongside lifespan and healthspan What she’s learned from her longest running case study (her Mom) Lessons from her grandmothers’ contrasting approaches to aging The four pillars of the Joyspan Matrix: Grow, Connect, Adapt, and Give Why connection is as vital as medicine How purpose can change our biology and well-being Practical ways to spark curiosity and joy through personal projects Kerry Burnight joins us from Southern California. ________________________ Bio Dr. Kerry Burnight, America’s Gerontologist, is sparking a revolution to make older better. Fed up with the fear-driven, anti-aging hysteria, hundreds of thousands of people turn to “Dr. Kerry” for her practical, effective and uplifting approach to navigating longevity. Her approach to aging is based upon a profound truth: the key to good longevity isn’t the length of your life, it’s the quality of your life. Efforts to maximize lifespan and even healthspan don’t address the whole picture. Longevity is meaningless if you don’t like your life. Burnight introduces the critical concept, “joyspan,” based on the science of well-being, contentment, connection, meaning, growth, choice, and purpose. She earned her PhD in Gerontology at the University of Southern California. Dr. Burnight taught Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology for 18 years at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. She was an invited speaker to the U.S. White House at the Elder Justice Summit and at the U.S. Department of Justice. She has appeared on CBS News, NBC News, The Doctors, Money Matters, and The Dr. Phil Show. ___________________________ Joyspan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life’s Second Half Website On CBS Mornings with Gayle King and team (4 minutes) ____________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Thinking Better to Live Better – Dr. Woo-kyoung Ahn Ageism Unmasked – Dr. Tracey Gendron The Joy Choice – Dr. Michelle Segar ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _____________________________ Wise Quotes On the Joy Span Concept        “So the three-legged stool: lifespan, how long you live; health span, how long you live a healthy life; and joy           span, how long you enjoy living. And I think between those three pillars, we really can dig into some really           interesting longevity topics.” On Expectations Shaping Reality It wasn’t because one was just lucky, and it also wasn’t just because of genetics. It was these internal characteristics and a decision on the part of both of them, that what they expected old age to be like was in fact that way.” On Genetics and Lifestyle Choices Some studies show that it is 25%. Others show it as low as 13%. So regardless, what that shows us is that at least 75% isn’t genetic, and that’s where the effort, knowledge, and decision every single day really comes into play.” On Taking Initiative We’ve got to be proactive and you have to kiss a lot of frogs, right, so it takes a few putting yourself out there until you find someone, but the good news is the world is a lonely place and by reaching out and connecting you’re solving the problem of two people.” On Purpose and Giving It could be as simple as, hey I’ve got some extra lemons in my yard, I’m gonna go next door, hand them to my neighbor, maybe strike up a conversation… And that giving is life-changing not only for that next-door neighbor, but equally if not more so for you.” On Embracing Your Age There is so much value in the experience of being older… I’ve been 30, but I’ve also been 40, 50, 60, 70, whatever. And I’m going to reach out. And when you don’t make a big deal about it or when you show up embracing your age, the younger people love it as well.”

September 7th is Grandparents’ Day! Celebrate the grandparents in your life or reflect on your own grandparenting journey. This is a special Retirement Roundtable episode, where we invite previous guests to engage in a conversation with each other. Returning are Ted Page, author of the new book Good Grandpa: Stories from the Heart of Grandfatherhood, and Kerry Byrne, founder of The Long Distance Grandparent. They’re bringing different perspectives on, and experiences with, one of retirement’s most complex yet rewarding roles: modern grandparenting. This isn’t the hands-off grandparenting of yesteryear. Today’s grandparents face unique challenges. They must actively build connections, learn, leverage, and adapt to emerging technologies; and navigate changing family roles and dynamics, walking the delicate line between sharing wisdom and overstepping boundaries. We Discuss: How grandparenting has evolved Why modern grandparenting requires more intentionality How humor and fun create trust and lasting bonds How to navigate different parenting philosophies with adult childrenLeveraging technology while staying mindful of balance The powerful impact of sharing family stories and traditions Ways to create meaningful experiences across generations Kerry Byrne joins us from Toronto, and Ted Page joins us from Vermont. _______________________________ For More on Ted Page Good Grandpa: Stories from the Heart of Grandfatherhood Blog: GoodGrandpa.com – Nurturing the Next Generation _______________________________ For More on Kerry Byrne The Long Distance Grandparent FREE Printable Cheat Sheet to Help you Connect with your Grandchild from a Distance _______________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Long Distance Grandparent – Kerry Byrne PhD Good Grandpa – Ted Page The Mindful Grandparent – Dr. Shirley Showalter _______________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Conversation Dr. Becky ________________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _________________________________ Wise Quotes On Grandparenting ” Be there for them.” – Ted Page On Connection “Having a relationship with a grandparent is not a nice to have. We know from the research, that, you know, having this relationship affects children in a number of different ways from adolescents well into adulthood. And so I think that this is the difference, this intentionality, and this awareness of the importance of the relationship.” – Kerry Byrne On Humor “At one point my grandchild asked, where are Mom and Dad? And I said, Mom and Dad have left to join the circus, but before they left they asked me to tell you that they loved you very much, but what they really want to do is train bears. And I remember my grandkid looking at me with this look of first, he was a bit stunned, but then he kind of shook his head and said, ‘Oh, okay.’ And for me, that was just my sense of humor, but he picked up on it right away. He was two. So I think that sense of fun, having that sense of humor, you got to be who you are. And that starts when they’re just so little. And before you know it, they’re the ones who are, telling jokes and playing around with us.” – Ted Page On Encouragement “So if you come to it with a place of curiosity, and also remembering that the most important role that you can play is as I call it the GEO, the Grand Encouragement Officer. That means like you’re the family cheerleader. And by that it’s a Grand Encouragement Officer requires encouraging and cheering the parents on. as well because they are parenting in a bit of a different context right now.” – Kerry Byrne    

Do you know what you’ll be retiring to? Join us for six Fridays starting on October 3rd and invest in Future You. Learn more here. ___________________________ How much time do you spend working out your body versus working out your emotional health? Physical fitness requires daily practice—hitting the gym once won’t deliver the results you want. But when it comes to our emotions, we often think we’ll “deal with that later” or assume we don’t need to actively work on our emotional well-being. Emily Anhalt, clinical psychologist and author of Flex Your Feelings: Train Your Brain to Develop the 7 Traits of Emotional Fitness, knows this approach doesn’t work. She’s developed a framework for “emotional fitness”—an ongoing, proactive practice of strengthening your mental and emotional health through small, consistent habits that build resilience, curiosity, and communication skills before you need them. In this conversation, Emily shares how emotionally fit people approach life differently, why playfulness is a valuable health practice (with research to back it up), and practical strategies you can implement today. Her insights are particularly valuable and timely for those navigating retirement transitions, when stress doesn’t disappear—it simply changes form. Emily Anhalt joins us from California. _______________________________ We Discuss Why emotional fitness requires daily practice, just like physical fitness How curiosity transforms defensiveness into opportunities for growth Why playfulness can increase creativity, collaboration, and longevity The hidden stress of retirement: identity, relationships, and meaning Setting boundaries: every “yes” is also a “no” to something else The power of “Relationship Retros” for proactive connection Using emojis strategically to improve communication and reduce misunderstandings Building new friendships through your existing network The monthly feedback message that can transform your relationships _______________________ Bio Dr. Emily Anhalt is the author of  Flex Your Feelings: Train Your Brain to Develop the 7 Traits of Emotional Fitness. She is a clinical psychologist, author, and cofounder of Coa, the gym for mental health. For the past fifteen years, Dr. Anhalt has worked clinically with executives, founders, and tech employees, and has conducted extensive research with prominent psychologists and entrepreneurs about how leaders can improve their emotional health. Dr. Anhalt has collaborated with companies like Google, Salesforce, NBCUniversal, NASDAQ, and the NBA. _____________________ For More on Dr. Emily Anhalt Flex Your Feelings: Train Your Brain to Develop the 7 Traits of Emotional Fitness Website ____________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Ditch Your Baggage – Dr. Bob Rosen Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson The Emotionally Intelligent Retirement – Kate Schroeder & Nick Wignall _____________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Emotional Fitness “Emotional fitness is an ongoing proactive practice of strengthening your mental and emotional health. It’s all about small, consistent reps that strengthen skills like resilience, curiosity, communication, before you need them so that you are emotionally strong and can handle whatever life throws at you.” On Growth vs. Avoidance “Emotionally fit people don’t avoid uncomfortable emotions and situations. Instead of saying, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t feel sad about this,‘ they might ask themselves, ‘what is my sadness trying to tell me? What is it pointing to?'” On Playfulness as Medicine “There was one study I read that showed that playfulness increases creativity, collaboration, and connection all around. And there was another study I read that showed that people who play regularly live longer by a significant number of years than people who don’t play regularly. That’s how important it is to our well-being.” On Boundaries and Empathy “A lot of people think that empathy and boundaries are mutually exclusive but they’re actually very important to each other. The stronger your boundaries, the more connected and empathetic you’ll be able to be with people because you won’t get resentful or frustrated over time.” On Retirement Transitions “Stress doesn’t just vanish in retirement. It kind of changes shape. Instead of deadlines or performance reviews, the stress might be about identity—who am I now without my job? The stress might be about relationships—how do I spend more time with my partner without driving each other crazy? Or the stress might be about meaning—what is my purpose?” On Curiosity  “Curiosity can mean a lot of things, but when I talk about emotional fitness, I define it as moving us from a place of defensiveness to a place of understanding. When someone comes to you with difficult feedback, a curious person is going to ask questions, they’re going to stay committed to growth.”

How much have you invested for the financial side of your retirement? How about the non-financial side? Join us for six Fridays starting on October 3rd and get moving on your roadmap. Learn more here. ____________________ Transitions are rarely easy, whether you’re leaving your career or any other life chapter that has helped define you. Cassidy Krug knows this firsthand. A 2012 Olympian in diving, she grew up immersed in the sport—coached by her parents, competing at Stanford, and training for years beyond. When she reached her dream of competing at the London Games, she also knew it was time to move on. In this conversation, Cassidy Krug shares the lessons she learned about navigating major life transitions—from sport to career, and from an “all-in” life to an “à la carte” one. She talks candidly about the identity shifts, the uncertainty of new beginnings, and the importance of reflection, interpretation, and community. Her story offers inspiration and practical wisdom for anyone facing their own turning points, especially those contemplating or entering retirement. Cassidy Krug joins us from Los Angeles. _______________________ We Discuss The emotional challenges of retiring from something when you still love what you do Why we tend to cling too long to what we do—and what helps us let go The critical role of interpreting your story, not just reacting to change How asking for help (and informational interviews) opened new doors in her career Creating an “à la carte” life after diving, balancing career, creativity, and relationships The value of curiosity and trying new things—even when you’re used to being an expert Why investing in community matters so much after leaving a team or workplace The best advice she received (and what she wishes she had) about embracing change _________________________ Bio  Cassidy Krug is the author of Resurface: A Guide to Navigating Life’s Biggest Transitions. She is a former Olympic diver, a writer, and a brand and innovation strategist based in Los Angeles. She graduated from Stanford with an English degree and she won two NCAA diving titles there. ___________________________ For More on Cassidy Krug Resurface: A Guide to Navigating Life’s Biggest Transitions Website ____________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace Strategic Quitting – Julia Keller Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Skill Set for Life’s Transitions – Bruce Feiler _____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Transitions “Change is something that happens to you. Transition is how you choose to react to that change. But the real work is in interpretation—deciding how you want to remember and carry that story forward.” On Redefining Success “First of all, just by asking the question, what does success look like for me? What do I want in my retirement? And it’s not going to be a status quo answer that’s given to you by your career. Maybe for a very long time, you wanted to get the next promotion to get the next pay raise, or to have more responsibility. And all of a sudden, like that ladder is gone and you ask yourself, what does success look like for me now? Maybe success looks like showing up as well as I can and having a positive impact on my family. Maybe success looks like finding people who are still in the workforce and mentoring them and helping them to guide them to make the right decisions. Maybe success looks like making an impact in a totally different sphere, but bringing all the skills that I learned in the workplace to a non-profit or to a different arena. But you really do have to sit and reflect and ask that question of yourself and not expect that the world is necessarily going to tell you anymore what it means to live a successful life.” On Quitting “Every time I’ve quit something, it’s directed my life in ways I didn’t see coming—and that I’m immensely grateful for.” On Moving Forward “Don’t try to replace what you’re leaving behind. Honor it. Then look for the pieces you loved and carry them into your next chapter.” On Interpreting Your Story “And for me, I choose to think back on the Olympic experience as one that I’m really proud of, rather than one that I messed up and I’m regretful for. Absolutely, it takes choice. It takes a lot of reflection. It takes taking the first swell of emotions, whatever that might be, and questioning it, and looking at  from a broader perspective with a longer lens, but I do think that we,  always have a choice in how we interpret our own stories.  And I think it’s so important to get that right according to how we want to feel about ourselves.” On Trying New Things…and an à la carte life “..at first it’s scary because when you have an all-in-one life, so many decisions are made for you. So many choices are just obvious because you have only one thing at the middle. And so when you don’t anymore, the balancing of things, the trying to decide what the right path is, you have all those questions more often. But I think answering those kind of questions constantly –  Am I doing what I want to do? Am I being fulfilled? How do I shift maybe some time and energy away from this and into this other thing? That’s been such a fulfilling part of what my life has been since I started living this à la carte life. In general, I don’t love trying new things. I love being good at things. And so it’s always hard to put myself in that situation where I don’t feel the same level of accomplishment as I did when I was the best in the world diver. That said, for me, once I get into them a little bit, so once, you’re in day two, day three, day four, once I started trapeze and started to feel the process of learning and growing and was exploring new sides of myself, then it grew into a passion for me.”

Six Fridays This Fall to Design What You’ll Be Retiring To Starts on October 3rd Learn more here – Limited to 10 participants. Take the first step toward shaping your future – register now. ________________________ On this episode of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, we’re joined by Carl Landau, creator and host of I Used to Be Somebody. Carl brings warmth, humor, and introspection as he explores the twists and turns of retiring after an entrepreneurial journey. He shares why letting go of your work identity, redefining purpose, and discovering a mix of new creative outlets—like podcasting, documentary filmmaking, and pickleball—can light up your retirement. Carl reminds us that slowing down doesn’t mean stopping, and that reinvention can be both fun and fulfilling. What You’ll Learn How Retirement is an Evolving Process—finding your way takes some time, especially for high achievers Why Setting Boundaries is Key —how to avoid turning hobbies into a new full-time job… and losing your freedom How Letting Go Frees You—who you were doesn’t define who you’ll be next Why Saying “No” is a Game Changer— create space for what truly matters now to you, not for other people’s agendas How to Build Your New Life  — develop a meaningful life plan, not just a financial one for retirement Carl Landau joins us from Sacramento, California. _________________________ Bio Carl Landau is the founder of Pickleball Media. He has been an entrepreneur since the age of 26 and started and sold three successful media companies, published five magazines (software development, winemaking and craft brewing industries). He currently hosts the popular podcast I Used to be Somebody, inspiring 50-plus-year-olds how to build their (un)retirement good life. He’s the co-author of the book, Pickleball for Dummies. ________________________ For More on Carl Landau I Used to Be Somebody Pickleball for Dummies ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Your Identity Beyond Your Job Title – Laverne McKinnon Lessons Learned in Retirement That Can Help You – Judith Nadratowski The Art of a Balanced Life in Retirement – Dr. Marybeth Crane ________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Identity in Retirement “About three months ago, I was playing [pickelball] with this guy and explaining to him how to play a short game…He’s a big time like doctor, and all I had absolutely no idea. And no one makes a big deal what they did. And no one cares. So I think that’s sort of a surprise too.” On Mistakes to Avoid “The other big regret is people don’t think in advance about what they want to do in retirement. In retrospect, they didn’t get give enough thought to it, and  felt like they wasted that first year – and wish that they hadn’t, especially with longevity. If you’re in your 60s, and you’re in pretty good health, there’s a good chance you’re going to  live to 90. It’s a long time. So you want to get the most out of it. We’ve said it a million times: more people think about that two week vacation than they ever think about what to do for the next 25 years. So I think that’s the biggest mistake people make.” On Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone “About four years ago, I saw this ad on Facebook. The local theater in Sacramento, was offering for the first time, a Stand Up Comedy Workshop. And I knew if I thought about it long enough, I would not do it. And this is something that I’ve talked about for a long time. In your family, they’re just rolling their eyes at this point because you’ve said this like a dozen times. So my whole thing is like to do it. So I just paid the 400 bucks to take the workshop. And it was just five classes. And then the final was that we had to do stand up, at least a five minute stand up, for over a hundred people, in a live audience. And mine ended up being 14 minutes. The guy had me close it – and it was incredible. It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. But boy, what a high when it’s done. And Joe, the really funny thing is the guy who taught it, who’s a professional comedian, said, Hey, you’re really good. You should do this. You could do this. And I have zero interest in doing it. I just wanted to try it and do it. And that’s all I needed to do. And that was really nice.”

Don’t leave your retirement to chance. Design It. Join us for six Fridays starting on October 3rd and get moving on your roadmap. Learn more here. __________________________ On this episode of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, we’re joined by Nathalie Martin, author of The Inspired Retirement, an excellent new book that will help you reframe what it means to retire well. In today’s conversation, she challenges the assumptions many people bring to retirement—and shares how mindfulness, clarity, and intention can lead to a more inspired next chapter. What You’ll Learn Why the ‘three plagues’ of aging are avoidable How three non-financial pillars of retirement are gamechangers How mindfulness and movement can enhance your life Why one-size-fits-all approaches to purpose miss the mark—and what to do instead A practical exercise to prioritize what matters most in your life as you plan for retirement Nathalie Martin joins us from New Mexico. __________________________ Bio Nathalie Martin is a chaired professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law, where she teaches mindfulness and law as well as elder law, commercial law, and consumer law. A longtime yoga and meditation teacher and practitioner, she also teaches contemplative practices in varied settings, from hospitals and senior centers to law school classrooms. Nathalie is the author of over forty articles and nine books, including Lawyering from the Inside Out and Yoga for Lawyers, and her legal scholarship has been cited by the US Supreme Court. With The Inspired Retirement, Nathalie brings her decades of experience and expertise to a general audience. __________________________ For More on Nathalie Martin The Inspired Retirement: Purpose and Passion in Your Next Adventure Website: nathaliemartinmindfulness.com ___________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile Happier Hour – Cassie Holmes, PhD Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller ____________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Conversation Being Mortal by Atul Gawande ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Mindset & Joy “And I even quote Dr. Seuss that It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how. And so we really do have to return to that childlike state, when we can remember what it felt like not to have a lot of obligations. So that’s what I think of joy as and also the mindset issue that we talked about, Joe, that it’s so important not to assume that from here on out, it’s just downhill. And that can add years to our lives.” On Mindfulness Practices “I’m going to start by just telling you what the science says are the primary benefits of these practices. I mean the first thing is reducing stress, that’s kind of the entry point for most people. It does calm us, but it also improves brain function. So reduces stress, improves the brain. Second one, increases productivity, so you can get more work done in less time, and who doesn’t want that. And then finally, it helps us learn more about ourselves, and as a result, find more meaning and purpose in our lives. And I’ve benefited from all of these things. I am very Type A by nature and have really learned the hard way that you can miss a lot of stuff when all you do is work. I just felt like something had to change, like a lot of other lawyers and other professionals who just work all the time. So these practices literally changed my life. I mean, they even helped me change my professional life to something that was more suited to what really was important to me. And it’s just been amazing.” On Retirement “Step out of the fast lane and into the vast lane.” _________________________    

Design Your Next Chapter  Joe Tarantino joins us to share his retirement journey – going from balancing family and work responsibilities to embarking on an ambitious cycling goal.  A lifelong learner, Joe opens up about how setting a personal moonshot goal helped him transition into retirement with purpose. He wrote a book chronicling his cycling experiences. He offers candid insights on caregiving, identity shifts, and why it’s essential to replace the structure and social interactions that work once provided. Joe Tarantino joins us from Ohio. _________________________ Bio Joe Tarantino has cycled through all 50 U.S. states, crisscrossing a vast network of roads and trails. With 25 marathons and other endurance events under his belt, he retired from a successful 35-year career in the aerospace industry as a chemist, engineer, and operations manager, in response to God’s call to a different direction in his otherwise comfortable life. While pursuing his cycling, he seeks to inspire others to chase their dreams through his writing. __________________________ For More on Joe Tarantino Pale Pink Roads __________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Unlock Positive Aging with Outdoor Adventure – Caroline Paul Not Too Late – Gwendolyn Bounds The Benefits of a New Challenge – Joe Simonetta Big Goals – Caroline Adams Miller ___________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _______________________ Wise Quotes On the Challenge of Early Retirement “You leave the work site, and you just don’t have the social interaction that you used to.” On Finding Purpose “Don’t settle for all these good things when there’s something great you could be going after. You’ve got all this open time. Make sure it’s spent doing good stuff, even great stuff.” ________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.  

Own your retirement. Design It. Join us for 6 Fridays starting on October 3rd and get unstuck. Registration is open for the next two Design Your New Life in Retirement Groups. The Very Early Bird discount ends on 7/31. Learn more here. _________________________ On this episode of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, we explore the transformative mindset that can reshape retirement from a winding-down phase into a period of renewal and growth. Cyn Meyer unpacks why purpose and energy—not just finances—should drive your post-career life, sharing the Rewire Retirement Method and the neuroscience behind deliberate reinvention. What You’ll Learn Cyn’s backstory that led her to get involved in the retirement space Why your retirement can be a spiral upward, not a slow fade down How her Five Rings of Retirement redefine life after work The science of neuroplasticity and how it supports intentional change How tuning into your inner energy can spur you forward How daily gratitude practices, especially with your partner, can deepen connection Cyn Meyer joins us from California. _______________________ Bio Cyn Meyer is the creator of the Rewire My Retirement program and is a modern certified life coach committed to helping older adults turn their retirement years into their best years, full of purpose and passion. She founded Second Wind Movement in 2018 as a valuable resource dedicated to older adults who are striving for healthy, active, and engaged retirement lives. _______________________ For More on Cyn Meyer The Rewire Retirement Method _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The New Happy – Stephanie Harrison Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile Growing Old, Staying Rad – Steven Kotler _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _______________________ Wise Quotes On Gratitude “When we are in a state of gratitude, fear is obliterated, right? They are polar opposites. The fear cannot exist while you’re in a state of gratitude.  I always say you have your own passions, purpose, and growth path in retirement. Your spouse has theirs, and then you have your couple’s activities together, right? And so sometimes things get intermingled and very challenging. And we feel that we don’t have control over our spousal dynamic, right? Because we have ours, they have theirs, and then, but we’re sharing life together. And so I highly recommend Gratitude Journaling , but gratitude, gratitude journaling about your spouse specifically, because that really changes the dynamic. And you really end up focusing on, you know, the wonderful aspects about them, and it really obliterates the annoyances while you’re in that state. So if we like literally put in our reps and practice that, it changes the dynamic in addition to you doing your own work on your own growth path. That just makes it more seamless I have found.” On Retirement “Retirement is not the end—it’s the beginning of a new growth journey.” On Energy “What energizes you are your authentic wants; what drains you are the external ‘shoulds.’” On Identity “You may leave the workforce, but your uniqueness has never left you.”    

What’s next? Design it. The Very Early Bird discount ends today 7/31. Get unstuck. Learn more here. Register here. ___________________________ What if you stepped out of your comfort zone? Lee Gale Gruen shares her inspiring journey from 37 years as a probation officer to becoming an actor, author, lecturer, dancer, and a Physics Club member in retirement. Initially lost after retiring, she stumbled upon a senior acting class that changed everything—helping her find a new identity, connection, and new pursuits. Her story offers the template for a roadmap for retirees who may be struggling to find purpose by stepping up to try new things, overcoming fear, and staying curious. Because let’s face it,  retirement is not the end of the line — it’s an opportunity to reinvent yourself. You’ll Learn: What it’s like to be a docent How volunteering can unlock new purpose The importance of trying new (and returning to old) interests What to do when fear holds you back How to find opportunities using local resources Lee Gale Gruen joins us from California. __________________________ Bio Lee Gale Gruen (Lee Gale is her first name) lives in the East San Francisco Bay area. She has two children and three grandchildren. She graduated from UCLA and had a 37-year career as a probation officer. After retiring, she became an actress, author, speaker, and blogger. She has appeared in television, films, commercials, theater, and print. She performs regularly at medical schools, portraying patients for student training, and was one of six supporting exercise/dancers in the  Jane Fonda Prime Time Firm & Burn” workout DVD. Her transition to becoming an actress in her senior years has been written about in Time Magazine, the Los Angeles Times newspaper, AARP Life Reimagined, and in Marlo Thomas’ book, which profiles women who have reinvented themselves. Lee Gale has had several articles and short stories published, including in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She is also a public speaker, lecturing on senior reinvention. She has published a memoir as well as a self-help book that complements her public lectures on senior reinvention. She has written a screenplay of her memoir titled the same as the book: “Adventures with Dad.” Lee Gale blogs at LeeGaleGruen.wordpress.com under the same title as her lecture and self-help book, “Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years.” _____________________________ For More on Lee Gale Gruen Reinventing Yourself and Your Retirement Years: Find Joy, Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire Website ______________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Second Fifty – Debra Whitman Make Your Next Years Your Best Years – Harry Agress, MD Retirement Rookies – Stephen & Karen Kreider Yoder _______________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. __________________________ Wise Quotes On Finding a New Direction “Find something that excites you, that sets you on fire. That will motivate you.” On Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone “Try something you’ve never done before. You may discover a whole new world that you never knew about…I had no idea. I stumbled my way through and I discovered all kinds of things. And I hope some of the things that I’ve said today will. help people and encourage people to take that giant step. It’s not a wilderness, it’s full of opportunities.” ___________________________  

I’m Just Asking for a Friend Retirement brings so many questions! Share yours (for a friend….) Click here to leave a voice message or email me at [email protected] ___________________________ It turns out that one of the hardest habits to break in retirement isn’t work — it’s saving. Richard Sheffield joins us to share his deeply personal and sometimes humorous story of transitioning from a performance-driven corporate career to a more intentional and enjoyable life in retirement. A former executive at UPS, and author of Spend Your Damn Retirement Money!: Beat the Spending Fear to Find Your Dream Retirement, Richard opens up about his struggle to shift from a lifelong saver’s mindset to embracing enjoying the money he worked so hard to accumulate. He discusses how outdated retirement plans, old success signals, and societal expectations can lead us astray, even long after we’ve walked away from work. But through self-reflection, rewriting his financial plan, and reconnecting with what brings him joy, Richard found the freedom to spend boldly, live fully, and say yes more often. You’ll discover: Why many retirement plans need to be reviewed periodically – and sometimes reworked The emotional blocks that prevent smart people from moving from accumulating to spending Why your intentional spending matters more in retirement The surprising benefits of getting creative with how you spend Why it can be wise to give now, not just later Richard Sheffield joins us from Miami. ________________________________ Bio Richard Sheffield is a former executive and writer who shares thoughtful essays on retirement, identity, and personal reinvention. After a long career in the corporate world, Richard turned to writing as a way to make sense of his experience — and to help others navigate their own journeys into retirement. He’s a popular contributor on Medium, where his honest takes on life after work resonate with thousands of readers. Now fully embracing a bigger, bolder, and more intentional approach to life, Richard writes about finding meaning beyond metrics and spending in ways that spark joy. ________________________ For More on Richard Sheffield Richard Sheffield on Medium Spend Your Damn Retirement Money!: Beat the Spending Fear to Find Your Dream Retirement __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like How to Retire – Christine Benz Unretired – Mark S. Walton Your Next Years Your Best Years – Harry Agress, MD ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. __________________________ Wise Quotes On Rewriting Your Retirement Plan “I was watching my net worth go up and patting myself on the back — but I realized I was living the wrong plan. It was time to update it. None of the bad things happened. Why was I still playing defense?” On Breaking the Productivity Trap “You have to find a way to break that productivity cycle. Your worth isn’t tied to being useful anymore. Sometimes, it’s okay to just have a day where you don’t do anything.” On Giving While You’re Alive “If someone’s going to spend that money on something dumb, it might as well be you — and it might as well be fun.” _______________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.

What’s next? Make time to design it. Early registration is now open for our next Design Your New Life in Retirement group program. The Very Early Bird discount ends on July 31st. Learn more here. Register here. __________________________ What comes after a long, successful career at the top of your field? More and more, people are redefining retirement—saying No Thanks to a traditional retirement and instead exploring new pursuits. And for some, it’s a chance to dive into something they’ve always yearned to do. In today’s conversation, meet Neal Lipschutz. Stepping away from a distinguished career, he discovered a surprising new purpose—writing fiction. With his debut novel No Write Way to Die just released, Neal shares the lessons he’s learning in a second act. What might your second act look like? Like Neal, you may discover a path that draws on your skills in a new way- and brings unexpected joy. Neal Lipschutz joins us from Ridgewood, New Jersey. _________________________ Bio Neal Lipschutz, a long-time journalist, was formerly a deputy editor-in-chief at The Wall Street Journal. He also previously served as WSJ’s ethics and standards editor. He also at one time was the top editor at Dow Jones Newswires. His short fiction has appeared in a number of publications. “No Write Way to Die” is his first novel and the first in a series of mysteries. _________________________ For More on Neal Lipschutz No Write Way to Die “This debut thriller from award-winning journalist Neal Lipschutz, former deputy editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal, combines a gripping, good old-fashioned murder mystery with the ethical consideration of just how far a person should go to protect their family.” From Headlines to Whodunits ________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Vintage Years – Dr. Francine Toder Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _______________________ Wise Quotes On the Transition to Retirement “The transition – it’s a big one. One of the things I really liked about my plan to go directly from a full-time work in journalism for a big company to being on my own and trying something that no one was asking me to do, was that I didn’t know I would be devoted to the process. And I knew that I would be devoting every day that wasn’t taken up with something else to doing this. So in other words, I believe that for a lot of people contemplating or just entering retirement, at least it would be for me, but I imagine for others as well, there’s that uncertainty about, Okay, I know what I’m doing tomorrow, but what about the next day? What about the next day? And for me, that problem was solved. On any given day, if I don’t have anything else planned, I’m putting in five or six hours of writing or editing or revising, or now trying to do some promotional work for the book now that it’s published. So it’s not that elongated day, but it is a different kind of work too. And as I said, to me at least, there’s some comfort in knowing what I’ll be doing tomorrow and that it’s something I’m looking forward to doing.” On Taking on a Different Kind of Work “I know that there is no traditional retirement, but one thinks of the sort of old fashioned notion of a traditional retirement of going from working full time to a period of time that are almost entirely made up of leisure type pursuits. I knew that wasn’t for me, at least not now. So I thought that looking at it as going from one type of work to another type of work was meaningful for me and I think helped in the transition. Obviously, going from an important role at a big news organization to something where I’m pretty much on my own with a laptop, where I said not exactly anybody cares in a sense if I work that day or don’t work that day. But knowing that it’s something I wanted to do for a long time and saying it’s not “retirement.” It’s switching from having worked a certain way for decades to a different kind of work in a different setting.” On a Second Act “The first thing I would say is absolutely go for it…people are generally living longer and hopefully healthier. So, if you’ve got the wherewithal and you can do it, I think a second act different from what you did much of your career is really worth pursuing. I think whatever it is, whatever you choose, whatever makes sense to you, I think could be extremely rewarding…if there are skill sets that you develop in the working world that with maybe a little bit or maybe a big twist can serve you in that second act, it seems to me that’s a kind of a step up, right?”

What’s next for you? Early registration is now open for our next Design Your New Life in Retirement group program. Join us. The Very Early Bird discount ends on July 31st. Learn more here. Register here. ________________________ Retirement is about so much more than money. But where do you begin to build the life you want after you leave full-time work? Here’s what we’ve discussed with our interesting expert guests: The critical choice you’ll want to make – now – about the years ahead Why retirement is really about creating a new life structure How to use retirement as a catalyst to edit your life The four steps in a reinvention roadmap Why happiness requires knowledge and skill What longitudinal research reveals as the keys to a long and satisfying life How creating a Portfolio Life can open up new possibilities in retirement How your beliefs can affect your longevity __________________________ Want to explore any of these ideas further? Dive into any of the full podcast conversations here: Cynthia Covey Haller Teresa Amabile Elisabeth Sharp McKetta Joanne Lipman Arthur C. Brooks Marc Schulz Christina Wallace Becca Levy ________________________ Explore our Best Books on Retirement __________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ______________________ Wise Quotes On Reinvention  “One of the ways to start actually, and I just wrote a piece in The New York Times about this [is] the idea of thinking about your possible selves. Now that’s a psychological term, but essentially what it means is to imagine what you might be, what you could be, and to go beyond the daydream to take some sort of action on possible selves. So that means if, let’s say I’m pivoting in a career, take a course or shadow someone, or do an informational interview. Don’t just like sit with it and cogitate. You’ve got to  get out of your own brain.” – Joanne Lipman On Purpose & Meaning “Purpose or meaning actually requires challenge and trauma and hardship and pain – and actually requires unhappiness paradoxically. So these are kind of complicated phenomena, but altogether, everybody can get better at getting happy if you’ve got the knowledge and skills.” – Arthur Brooks On Relationships “The finding that we talk about most in our book, The Good Life, is that it’s very clear across this 86 years of research, and hundreds of papers, that the most important predictor of health and happiness throughout the lifespan is the quality of our relationships with others. How connected we are, how much we can rely on other support, and how much we’re able to do that are really key predictors of how happy we’ll be and how healthy we will be. And it’s all kinds of relationships. It’s not just the person who you may have been lucky enough to spend a good portion of your time with. So it’s not just our marital partners or our intimate partners, it’s friends, neighbors, people we work with, people in our communities, it’s all types of relationships that matter.” – Marc Schulz On Creating a Portfolio Life “And so it can be hard in that transition because not only have you lost the routine of what do I do with my day, you’ve also lost the community of here’s who I talk to on a regular basis – and then you’ve lost this identity. How do I describe myself? Who am I when I get out of bed? And as terrifying as it is to go through that transition and losing all three things at the same time, it’s a huge opportunity because for so many people at that cusp of retirement, they’re thinking, I’m not dead yet. I’ve got a whole life ahead of me. I still have something to offer. And, very likely, I saw a lot of things I’m really curious about that I haven’t had space for. So rather than replacing one thing for another, the opportunity here is to really think about your portfolio, literally like your financial portfolio, and you map out what do I need for this chapter? Do I need a community that will challenge me and push me to grow? Do I need that community to be in person versus one that might be online or over zoom? So you start mapping out what you need. And honestly, a lot of times you don’t know what you need until you don’t have it. So sitting in that really awkwardness of those first few weeks or months and saying, oh, I hate this. Why? What are you missing? And then after you map out what you need, you have that same opportunity to say, okay, well what do I want? What comes next? What are the things that I am interested in or parts of my Venn diagram that I haven’t been able to make use of in a while? And then you just sort of, it’s a little bit like a mashup, a mix tape.” – Christina Wallace

Who will you become in your retirement? Registration is now open for the next two Design Your New Life in Retirement Groups. Very Early Bird discount available for a limited time. Take the first step toward Future You today. ________________________ Retirement is not an end — it’s an open canvas. In this episode, Harry Agress, MD, author of Next Years Best Years: Taking Your Retirement to the Next Level, joins us to explore how retirement can become one of the most dynamic, creative, and fulfilling phases of your life. A retired radiologist and passionate photographer, Dr. Agress shares lessons from his own retirement journey — from trying an improv class with 20-somethings to donating his art to hospitals — and offers you practical insights to help you shape a retirement that’s vibrant, purpose-driven, and truly your own. You’ll discover: How self-reflection and worksheets helped Dr. Agress navigate the transition into retirement Why embracing “The Four Freedoms” can unlock a new mindset The surprising benefits of trying new things — even improv! A simple but powerful idea: the 8-minute phone call that can rekindle relationships Why pursuing purpose — especially in service to others — fuels a more meaningful retirement Whether you’re preparing for retirement or already in it, Dr. Agress offers a compelling vision of how to make your next chapter the best one yet. Harry Agress, MD joins us from New York. ____________________________ Bio – Harry Agress, MD Following a 36-year medical career in the field of Radiology, Dr. Agress has been retired for 10 years. He is an experienced teacher and nationally recognized lecturer who takes great joy in passing on what he has learned and experienced both in medicine and in retirement. He has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show,” lectured at the 92nd St Y (NYC) and been featured and America’s Top Doctors. He is a Clinical Professor at Columbia University (NYC) and continues to voluntarily teach medical residents both at Columbia and Weill Cornell Medical Centers. In his new book, Next Years Best Years, Taking Your Retirement to the Next Level, Dr. Agress dives into the many exploits and research that he and others have discovered as they create a new post-career way of living; embracing the emotional, personal and practical side of one of the most unique opportunities of our lives. _______________________ For More on Harry Agress, MD: Next Years Best Years: Taking Your Retirement to the Next Level A Retired Physician Pursues a New Self Portrait in Photography Q&A with photographer Dr. Harry Agress _______________________ Related Podcast Episodes You May Like: The Vintage Years – Dr. Francine Toder Independence Day – Steve Lopez Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile ________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _________________________ Wise Quotes On the Transition to Retirement “It is not a particularly simple transition unless you’ve worked on a lot of these issues before you retired, which I highly recommend. It is a time when actually it is a combination of being very happy, stress is down and everything else. But there’s a grieving process that I think a lot of people have to go through. And you just have to sort of accept it for a while that you have lost something. You have lost your career. You’ve lost some of your friendships on a daily basis and there are ways to to move on past that.” On The Four Freedoms of Retirement “One of the things that does make it easier is what I like to call The Four Freedoms, which is basically taking charge of your fears and anxieties about this new stage in your life and transferring it into freedoms. One of the  the first one is fear of failure – and we don’t have to worry about this anymore! We’re not at work anymore. You can go try all kinds of things. I decided I wanted to try improv. I did it with a group where I was three times older than the average kid in this thing and you know it was intimidating for a little bit, but I really wanted to try it. And it turned out to be fine. But at the end when they’re all signing up for the next semester. I’m out of there and I thought I liked it, I felt good I tried it. One of the good things about improv is you don’t have to memorize lines and then and one of the big points is nobody else cares you know at this stage of our life no one cares if you don’t sing well no one cares. If you don’t write well and you just have this amazing freedom where failure just does not exist. Nobody cares so do  things that you always wanted to. I think this is another great freedom – at this time you don’t have to worry about what other people think.” On Self-Reflection “One of the things you can do to help this along is think about the things you did in childhood that you really loved. And think about the things, what would you have done if you hadn’t done your career? Because the other big point I’d like to make is that this is a very dynamic process that can last for 25% of your life. This can go on for 20 or more years. So it’s not like, boom, this is just a one-time event. You’re gonna change, and I certainly did, in and out of the time that goes by in retirement. So I think it’s always a good idea to refresh, no matter what stage you’re at.”

Retiring? You could wing it…but that’s not you. Be intentional about your future. Registration is now open for the next two Design Your New Life in Retirement Groups. Very Early Bird discount available for a limited time. Take the first step toward Future You today. _______________________ What if  I told you the activities you dismiss as “just hobbies” were much more than just fun – and could be one of the most powerful tools for building resilience and maintaining mental sharpness as we age? Ashley Merryman reveals groundbreaking findings that challenge how we think about leisure time and its profound impact on our long-term health. From doctors now prescribing hobbies as medicine to studies finding that singing in a chorus creates instant social bonds, the science behind recreational activities is remarkable. Merryman shares fascinating research demonstrating that even modest engagement—like cooking something special twice a week—can deliver measurable cognitive benefits. Whether you’re looking to boost your brain health, combat isolation, or to find more meaning in your free time, this conversation will change how you view your pastimes. Discover why hobbies aren’t just fun—they’re good for you, in more ways than we think. Ashley Merryman joins us from Washington, DC. _______________________ Bio Ashley Merryman is a two-time New York Times bestselling author who is a frequent contributor to US News and World Report. She who recently wrote a guest column for YOLO, a US News newsletter for retirees and those thinking about retirement on the science of hobbies – finding that hobbies are a key to a healthier, happier life. ________________________ For More on Ashley Merryman Your Hobby May Be the Secret to a Happier, Healthier Life Website _________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Learning is a Lifetime Sport – Tom Vanderbilt Inward Traveler – Francine Toder PhD Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller _________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Conversation Serious Leisure __________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On the Benefits of Hobbies “The research is very clear. There have been studies, large scale studies, 20,000 people in 15 European countries, 90,000 people in another 15 or 16 countries, and they are consistently finding that hobbies lead to lower likelihood of depression, lower anxiety, better well-being, better physical health, better overall life satisfaction.” On Hobbies & Your Brain “So we’ve got these huge benefits in terms of cognition, well-being, psychology, but researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas decided, Well, let’s see if we can find this in brain scanning. So they did a really interesting experiment with seniors, taking a class either in digital photography, quilting, or some combination of both, and then they had a comparison group which was just doing social stuff. So they would meet every week, and each group were all together, they were spending about 13 to 15 hours a week, so it was a pretty substantial amount of time. For the class, it was about a two-hour class, and then they would practice what they learned. In this social comparison group, they didn’t learn anything, but they would, you know, have a weak theme. Okay, this week, we’re going to talk about travel. So people will just tell us about their stories, about where they’ve been, where they want to go, that kind of thing. Next week, let’s sit down and watch a movie. So mostly focused on social, not learning. And what they found was that both groups within 14 weeks actually showed improvement in their brain development. And the language that the researchers used was that it literally resulted in a more youth-like area of production and functioning of the brain. The difference, though, between those two groups is that high challenge group, the group that was actively learning. You saw this pattern in at least five different areas of the brain. The social group only saw that pattern in one part of the brain. So there was some progress but not nearly as much in that active learning, pushing yourself to figure out how to do something, taking in newer information. But both of them had some progress and they actually saw the same improvement in brain function a year later. So, the stories in terms of, Oh well, after 25, your brain is an inevitable decline, is absolutely wrong, and one of the fastest ways to do that is just to learn a new hobby.” On Singing as a Hobby “Research has actually shown that even perfect strangers, while you’re singing, you’re breathing. and even your heart rate, start getting in sync with the conductor so you’re literally having this joint physiological and emotional experience going along with everyone. Maybe it’s beautiful. maybe you all screw up and have a collective laugh. because Oh wow that was really not what you were looking for but you have this joint shared purpose and this joint shared emotional experience that’s very unique to singing.”    

Volunteering offers a multitude of benefits. And if you end up retiring sooner than you plan to, it can offer a bridge to what you may decide to do next. Yet, it’s easy to take on more than you’re ready for too soon. You’ll want to learn to set boundaries up front to protect your time and flexibility. Lisa Lewis shares her experiences and lessons learned about volunteering with boundaries. Lisa Lewis joins us from Tampa, Florida. _________________________ Bio Dr. Lisa T. Lewis is the Belief System (B.S.) Boss® and Founder of the Belief System (B.S.) Boss® Institute. Through her transformative Belief System training, she empowers individuals to successfully reengineer their belief systems to transform life’s obstacles into possibilities. As an ordained clergy member, award-winning author, TEDx speaker, senior manager, and certified John Maxwell Team Coach, Teacher, Speaker, and Trainer, she brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to her practice, inspiring personal and professional growth in her clients. She formerly served as the Chief Budget and Financial Management Officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) for both the Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) in Lakeland, Florida and the Commissioned Personnel Center (CPC) in Silver Spring, Maryland.  The AOC is best known for the ‘Hurricane Hunters,’ a group of aircraft used for hurricane reconnaissance. They fly through hurricanes to help forecasters and scientists gather operational and research data. The crews also conduct other research projects, including ocean wind studies, winter storm research, thunderstorm research, coastal erosion, and air chemistry flights. Her thirty-six-year federal career began as a stay-in-school student, Clerk-Typist with General Services Administration. Although she studied Business Administration at Barton College, she found her federal niche when she was introduced to federal budgeting and finance in 1991. Since then, she has become the “Olivia Pope” of federal budgeting and finance.  She has enjoyed working at a few cabinet-level agencies: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with the U.S. Surgeon General and National Institutes of Health, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Homeland Security. Aside from her recent retirement from Federal service, a few little-known facts about Lisa are that she holds several professional certifications, has authored/published several books, has completed her first TEDx Talk, has an honorary Doctor of Divinity, and is an ordained Elder in the Christian faith. __________________________ For More on Lisa Lewis  LinkedIn Website Amazon __________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Grace in Motion – Susan Hartzler Your Identity Beyond Your Job Title – Laverne McKinnon The Mutual Benefits of Intergenerational Volunteering – Atalaya Sergi __________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On The Benefits of Volunteering  “The joys of volunteering. for me have been, it helps me not think about myself. And it helps me to be a part of the solution of whatever area I’m involved in. I encourage people who talk about wanting to volunteer, but they’re not exactly sure how they want to do it, to think about what comes up in their mind as a problem area. And they can be part of the solution. Any problem area that you can think about, for the most part, there is an area in which you can volunteer to help be part of the solution to solve that problem.” On Volunteering with Boundaries Because to go from someone who works a 40 hour work week, and I work far more hours in that every week, but to go from a stressful intense work week to zero. is quite a transition. So I definitely understand the emphasis on ensuring you have something else to do when you retire. Volunteering went into turbo speed. So the volunteering  I was doing, I had to manage expectations that I had a little more time on my and hands, but I was able to engage a little bit differently, showing up in person more often than what I was able to when I was working full time. But I was being clear, I’m not trading in 40 hours of a  work week for 40 hours of volunteering. I’m not doing that. So that is, I think the challenge and the pitfalls are one and the same is managing expectations in your time. Because if you want to do something else with the next chapter of your life, and it’s not volunteering 100% of the time, that is the challenge, is making sure that folks know, I’m not the person to call at the 11th hour.” On Mentoring “I am excited and thrilled that a number of people that I have been able to mentor and manage at different points that were interested in advancing their career, all of them now, 36 years later, are in leadership roles. They’re hiring individuals. They’re running their own offices and doing amazing work. So that’s exciting.” On Do’s and Don’ts Do volunteer first and foremost. Go to the internet and use AI to type in things that you enjoy doing and how you can volunteer in those areas. And it will bring back a barrage of places that you may not even thought of where you can volunteer. And call the organizations because trust me, everyone is looking for volunteers. And talk with whoever is responsible for bringing in new volunteers and see whether or not there’s an alignment with what you believe, how you want to serve. And if that’s the case, go for it. Don’t go all in. I know that’s crazy. It may sound a little backward but don’t go all in in the beginning because when you’re volunteering, this has to be mutually beneficial. Don’t over commit initially, try it on for size. And if it’s working well and it’s a good fit, then go all in. Take baby steps and don’t over commit. That’s the worst thing you could do is to over commit and then not be able to see the assignment through a project through to completion.” _____________________________      

Michael Long, author of Taming the Molecule of More and co-author of The Molecule of More,  joins us to discuss the science of dopamine, why we’re constantly chasing “more,” and how understanding brain chemistry can transform our approach to retirement and finding meaning. Michael Long joins us from the Washington, DC area. _______________________ Bio Michael Long is a physicist, writer, and co-author of the international bestseller The Molecule of More (translated into 25 languages, 500,000+ copies sold) and the author of Taming the Molecule of More. As a playwright, more than 20 of his shows have been produced, most on New York stages. As a screenwriter, his honors include finalist for the grand prize in screenwriting at the Slamdance Film Festival. As a speechwriter, Mr. Long has written for members of Congress, U.S. cabinet secretaries, governors, diplomats, business executives, and presidential candidates. A popular speaker and educator, Mr. Long has addressed audiences around the world, including in a keynote at Oxford University. He teaches writing at Georgetown University, where he is a former director of writing. Mr. Long pursued undergraduate studies at Murray State University and graduate studies at Vanderbilt University. _______________________ For More on Michael Long Taming the Molecule of More: A Step-by-Step Guide to Make Dopamine Work for You Website: tamingthemolecule.com Books: The Molecule of More and  Contact: Available through website for book club discussions ______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Stress Paradox – Sharon Bergquist, MD The Science of Longevity – Coleen T. Murphy _______________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Conversation The Molecule of More by Daniel Leiberman and Michael Long _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _______________________ Wise Quotes On Dopamine as the “Molecule of More” “If you’re not familiar with dopamine, you hear it’s the molecule of happiness. It’s the thing that makes you happy. You get that dopamine buzz. And it turns out he’s a psychiatrist, of course. I’m a physicist. We’re both accustomed to analyzing systems, looking at things in a big picture. Dopamine is not about happiness. It’s nowhere near happiness. It is a promise-maker. It is a driver. It is a compound, a chemical in your brain, a neurotransmitter. And that’s what we mean. It’s just a chemical in your brain that drives you toward getting the next thing. And there are evolutionary reasons for this, of course. There are practical effects that happen. But until you understand that, there’s a lot of insights about life that you need. simply can’t quite get your arms around. And that’s what led to this, the molecule of more. We thought if we’re fortunate enough we can change the way people talk about dopamine and they no longer say molecule of happiness, they say molecule of more…We have to be wired for more in order to move through life in the first place. If we were just satisfied with the things around us, I’d never get up out of the chair, you know, and neither would you. We would be happy. But happiness isn’t what moves us forward. Challenge is what moves us forward.” On the Dopamine Buzz “So most things aren’t salient to getting through the day. They’re just wallpaper. But if something appears that is more salient than normal, we better pay attention. And that’s dopamine’s first job. It’s to check for something that is more salient as soon as it gets your attention, and it might be useful, then your brain goes, okay, we better investigate. And that’s that feeling you get. That’s the dopamine buzz for real that says I better go find out what this is because it could be if you’re a caveman Something to eat because I gotta kill and keep I gotta kill and eat in the same day You know or it could be something dangerous that I better avoid I better watch out for that and that worked pretty well for a long time but in the 21st century – Wow! That noise out there in the yard is probably the neighborhood fox running around. I don’t need to get worked up about every new possibility that comes around and yet the 21st century is built on nothing but and if you think about media especially, it’s about nothing. But can I get your attention with the slight promise of something better? That’s the whole point of the internet and and commerce on the internet. That’s the whole point of television commercials I hope one of advertising we’re surrounded by this constant dopamine opportunity and it can drive us mad.” On Neil Armstrong and the Moon Landing “Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and after he got back… someone asked him in an interview how did it feel… to be on the moon. And here’s what he said, word for word, it was something we did. Now we should do something else. You see that the power of this chemical in our brain, it doesn’t matter what you do. My friends, it’s not going to make you happy forever.” On Meaning “Aristotle said, if you want to find a satisfying life, and I can’t believe that this wonderful formula is so easy to articulate, make a list of the things that you like to do. Then make another list. What are the things that you do well? Now, which actions, which skills and activities appear on both lists? Now we have a constructive way to spend our time, okay? But that’s, as we say in physics, I’m not trained as a physicist, as we say, as mathematicians say, it’s necessary but insufficient. Okay, so here’s the other thing we need to do. We need to make a third list, and these are the things that Aristotle called virtues that we need to think about matter to us. And when I talk about virtue, I’m not talking about being good. I’m talking about things like love, truth, liberty, knowledge and its pursuit, grace toward others in the form of forgiveness, kindness. Now, we have a list of things that we love to do that we’re good at, and we have a list of virtues that matter to us. Pick out the two or three that matter most to you. What of those activities advance the virtues that mean something to you? And these are the things that we should do. Now, again, another caveat. If you’re thinking that virtues are all about big ideas that change the world, erase that.”

Susan Hartzler, author of The Peace Puppy: A Memoir of Caregiving and Canine Solace, joins us to discuss her lessons learned in caregiving and volunteering with Therapy Dogs. Susan Hartzler joins us from California. ________________________ Bio Susan Hartzler is a lifelong dog lover and an award-winning writer who has figured out a way to live her life to the fullest as a single woman, not conforming to the social norms of marriage and children. Winner of the Angel on a leash Award from the Dog Writer’s Association of America and the Pawlitzer Prize from America’s most dog friendly city Carmel, CA, Susan has created a life filled with joy that revolves around her dogs and wrote about it in her first memoir, I’m Not Single, I Have a Dog — Dating Tales From The Bark Side. Susan also works as a blogger for hire and writes public relations and marketing materials for a variety of industries. Her current pack consists of two talented Australian Shepherds, Seven and Paige Turner, who Susan has trained to act in commercials and bring their special kind of love to children in the hospital as therapy dogs. ________________________ For More on Susan Hartzler The Peace Puppy: A Memoir of Caregiving and Canine Solace (Dogs in Our World) Website ________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Best Day of My Life So Far – Benita Cooper An Artful Life – John P. Weiss Detach: Ditch Your Baggage – Dr. Bob Rosen _________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Conversation Therapy Dogs International About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast __________________________ There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _____________________________ Wise Quotes On Caregiving “Suddenly here I was single, just coming and going as I pleased, except for my dog. And suddenly I had someone that was counting on me. And my dad was a very dynamic man. So he needed some outlets for socialization and for his creativity. And all these things I had to figure out along the way. So there are things that I would tell a caregiver. It’s not just feeding and doing the physical things that are needed. It’s a lot of emotional support too. So you have to be ready. On Baldwin “I got a therapist who helped me a lot. And my dog, Baldwin, he was a rescue dog that my mom bought for me before she died, so I always looked at him as a sign of her love to me. And you know, it’s just, if things got really intense, if my dad was angry about something, I could just say, I’m going to take Baldwin on a walk and leave and breathe and be in nature and be with my dog and come back and things will have changed. So he really helped me a lot in my emotional journey as a caregiver. And my dad loved him too. He was amusing. We got to watch him do funny things. I taught him all sorts of tricks. He sneezed on command. So my dad liked to watch the tricks. And one time he went to the hospital and he came out and he said to me, ‘You know, it was the best thing about coming home.’ I said, ‘What? ‘He said, ‘Baldwin.’ I would have said that, but that was touching that he felt that way too.” On Volunteering  “I’m a big advocate for volunteering, especially when it comes to dogs. So my mom was a school teacher. And after she died and I moved home to take care of my dad, Baldwin was so smart and he needed a job. So he had the agility going, but a woman that I met in agility, she was an evaluator for Therapy Dogs International. So I said, ‘do you think Baldwin would be a good therapy dog?’ She said, yes. So she helped me train him. It’s not only the temperament of the dog. There are certain training things. Like for instance, let’s say you’re at a hospital and you’re visiting someone and the food tray comes in. You don’t want a dog that’s going to jump up on the bed and start eating the food. Although my dog Bliss did eat the Play-Doh once, but that’s a whole other story. She didn’t pass the test the first time because she had to have a hot dog. So there’s reasons for the training because you don’t want to put a dog in a situation where they’re not going to succeed.” On Therapy Dogs “Baldwin opened up so many worlds for me. He opened up the world of therapy dogs.  I went once a month to County USC with him. And it gave perspective on what was going on in my life. We visited these kids that were going through cancer treatments and they had smiles on their faces, you know? And the thing is you can’t get emotional while you’re there because you’re watching the child, you’re watching the dog, you’re making sure,  if there’s an IV, you don’t want your dog to jump up and hit the IV or you don’t want your dog to eat the Play-Doh. So it’s a lot. You have to really watch what’s going on. But afterwards, I would realize what I had just witnessed. And I call it grace in motion because Baldwin… he just had such grace. He knew, I never planned what he was going to do.” __________________________

It’s time for a recap of our best retirement podcast conversations from earlier this year. As you listen, ask yourself: What if I put this into action? Ready to learn more? Here are links to the full conversations: Stephanie Harrison Jordan Grumet Anne Laure Le Cunff Ethan Kross Bob Rosen Judith Nadratowski Alison Wood Brooks ______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Very Best of 2024 Best of 2023 – Part Three The Very Best of 2022 _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _____________________________

Marc Cooper thinks you have an important choice to make.  Will you become a wise elder or just someone who’s getting older? Marc Cooper joins us from Portland, Oregon. ___________________ Bio Dr. Marc Cooper is a former healthcare consultant, for almost 30 years – at the practice, corporate and organizational levels. Prior to his consulting career, Dr. Cooper was an academician, basic science researcher and practicing periodontist. He felt a shift later in life, leading him to create and lead an organization called the Contemporary Elder Institute. This is a movement to raise awareness around the transformation we all experience as we age – turning knowledge into wisdom – and how it impacts the remainder of our life experience.  On the road to becoming an elder, there are no clear road signs, no GPS to guide the way, and no reliable maps to follow. Navigating this path demands acquiring and cultivating higher wisdom—insights that transcend mere knowledge and shallow appearances. Marc explores a transformative approach to aging in his book Older to Elder: The Thinking and Being of a Contemporary Elder. He rejects our culture’s predetermined and often detrimental path to late age. Marc champions a new path: a path of strength, contribution, and deep self-worth, the path of a contemporary elder. _________________________ For More on Marc Cooper Older to Elder: The Thinking and Being of a Contemporary Elder The Contemporary Elder Institute _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Well-Lived Life – Dr. Gladys McGarey The Pursuit of Wisdom – Ben Lytle The Measure of Our Age – MT Connolly ___________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _________________________ Wise Quotes On Olders and Elders “Older is objective and elder is subjective. Older is defined by the culture. This is what happens when you get old. These are the problems that occur….So there’s a certain element of conventional knowledge that people can expand their lives through their health span, their lifespan… That’s distinct from a cultural viewpoint… You would observe it in their language, and you would observe it in their listening. So another is a listener, and another knows certain principles that are practiced that older does not, and one would be that listening is more powerful than speaking, that you listen in a way that allows for the other person to have safety…. So an elder earns the light on a different area. So if you watch them speaking over the fence, the elder is nodding his head or her head and smiling and being warming and bracing in a certain way of this of this individual, bringing a level of humanity that he or she has accomplished, and that is welcome, refreshing, and longed for in the older person.” On Switchbacks on Your Path “One of my teachers once said, if you see your steps clearly on the path. it’s the wrong path. If you’ve ever done some hiking, there’s things called switchbacks. And then you keep on climbing and then there’s a switchback and you keep on climbing and there’s a switchback. But I’ve had a lot of switchbacks. And my switchbacks have taken me places that were unexpected. So although having a professional health care career, I also was enmeshed in the Native American Aboriginal world for a while, where elders were present. And so I was able to generate relationships inside of that context, as well as to develop my professional relationships and success in here. And what I saw was missing here was available here. And what was available here wasn’t available there. There was something that was was not linked. So I spent time with elders. And then I trained with a shaman, and his older to elder, when I was not older yet, was in my 50s.Now I think that’s really young. It’s just a spring puppy. In my own consulting arena, I brought that particular set of distinctions there. And then I saw it in myself. I began to see the impact that it had when you’re engaged in different sets of inquiry and questions and understandings.” On Discovery versus Protection “Elders are in discovery. I think holders are in protection. How do I protect my assets? How do I protect my health? How do I sit there? There’s a certain shell that older has, that elder has taken off.  People don’t listen as an open element. They already have surmised much and know much….And part of the elders’ beauty is to live in a world where you don’t know. So you’re in wonderment. You take walks and you go in nature and your mind stops and the beauty grabs you and there’s stream water and all of that. And all there knows how to get there in the daily life to be in that arena in that moment where they don’t know. And life’s a mystery. But they’re smart, because they’re learners too. They’re going for deeper understanding, not to protect themselves, but to understand themselves and the world better.”    

You’re more than your job. Much more. But it takes some time to transition once you retire. It can be especially challenging if you were forced to retire. Laverne McKinnon knows what it’s like to process job loss and what it takes to move forward. Laverne  McKinnon joins us from Los Angeles. _______________________ Bio Laverne McKinnon’s journey reflects a sincere commitment to helping individuals and organizations rediscover their capacity for impact and creativity. She balances multiple hats, integrating her experience and expertise as both a Career Coach and Grief Recovery Specialist with her extensive background as a Film & Television Producer. With an understanding that unaddressed setbacks and grief can erode resilience, Laverne specializes in guiding people and companies to reconnect with their core strengths and aspirations. Her approach is grounded in the belief that clarity of values and purpose lies at the heart of fulfillment and meaningful impact. As an adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s MS Leadership for Creative Enterprises program, Laverne’s highly regarded course on Persuasion & Pitching stands out for its experiential nature, pushing students to engage actively and think on their feet. She imparts the philosophy that pitching is not a contest to be won, but a connection to be made, emphasizing that people invest in individuals before ideas. This philosophy stems from her background as a television programming executive. A significant portion of Laverne’s career was spent on the corporate side, notably as Senior Vice-President of Drama Development at CBS and Executive Vice-President at EPIX. Her involvement in the CSI and CRIMINAL MINDS series highlights her ability to identify and develop highly commercial and financially lucrative franchises. As the inaugural programming chief for EPIX, she earned the platform its first Emmy nominations. Her tenure as Head of Television at Charlize Theron’s production company, Denver & Delilah, further showcased her ability to bring projects to life including three direct-to-series orders. As the Executive Producer of the Netflix series GIRLBOSS and co-founder of K&L Productions with filmmaker Kay Cannon, Laverne’s passion for championing marginalized and underserved stories and communities is informed by her Japanese heritage and growing up in a lower-income household. Laverne’s academic foundation, encompassing a BS in Radio-TV-Film from Northwestern University and an MBA from Pepperdine, underscores her commitment to being a lifelong learner. Along with certifications as a coach and grief recovery specialist, she’s also a practitioner of cognitive behavioral therapy and neuro-linguistics. ________________________ For More on Laverne McKinnon Moonshot Mentor ________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Working Identity – Herminia Ibarra The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta ________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _________________________ Wise Quotes On Grief from Job Loss “I mentioned having worked at CBS for 10 years. And that was an incredible ride. I was promoted every 18 to 24 months and then wound up being the head of drama development, was part of the team that developed the CSI franchise and Criminal Minds. And then I was fired and I did not see it coming. And that was a really rough and abrupt transition. And I also know from talking with people and many of my clients that they’ve also felt an experienced transitions where they’ve been pushed out as opposed to making a choice. And sometimes it also looks like early retirement as well. And that was honestly like my first awareness of like, whoa, transitions can be really challenging and bring up a lot of emotional stuff. And for full disclosure, Joe, I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t understand my emotional experience. And it took me about 10 years to realize that I was grieving the loss of my job.” On Visible & Hidden Losses “In my work in helping people with what I call career grief, also known as professional heartbreak, is that we have visible losses and then we have hidden losses. So the visible losses, I lost my job, I lost my title, I lost my parking spot, I lost benefits. But underneath that are those things that you’re talking about, Joe, about people’s sense of belonging, confidence, esteem, identity, dreams, hopes. And it’s those hidden losses that I think in many ways are more piercing than the visible losses because, yes, I went on to a lot of other fancy pants jobs. But even with those jobs, I still had lost who I was, my identity. It’s like that was ripped away from me. And so I’m so glad that you spotlighted that because it’s one of the first things that we do when we start to look at how do I mourn a career setback is to really examine what are the visible losses and then what are the hidden losses.The first thing is to really recognize that career grief is real, professional heartbreak is real. You and I are not making this up. Bereavement experts actually have a term for this. It’s called disenfranchised grief. And it’s any type of grief that is not publicly acknowledged, socially validated. mourned by a community and And again, this is very anecdotal, but I think that retirement it can have a component of disenfranchised grief If not all of it where some people might say oh How wonderful that you’ve retired without really understanding the losses that come with that whether it’s by choice or or not?” On Processing Grief “it’s agency, and tell me, Joe, if I’m defining it in the same way that you are, it” just like, is regaining a sense of control that I actually can make decisions and choices on my own. And so that is, if there are tasks to grief, so there are no rules to grief, everyone grieves uniquely, but there are tasks which are like the acknowledgement of the loss, actually giving oneself permission to mourn, having a mourning process, and then regaining agency. And so some people are head grievers, some people are heart grievers. So heart grievers, I’m a heart griever, I talk about my emotions, I journal, I love to be in group, but I do all sorts of things that allow me to spout out how I feel. Head grievers are less inclined to talk about how they feel. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. There’s no rule. There’s no part of the task of grief that says that you have to talk about your feelings. However, like head grievers will take action in order to help process and to mourn their loss. And in doing that, that’s also regaining agency as well. And so that could be something small, it could be something big, it might be, you know, and these are all things that you’ve talked about quite a bit in your podcast, but it’s, you know, anything from volunteering, from deciding to unretire, it could be finding purpose in a hobby and family and friends. So there’s so many different ways for us to take action and regain a sense of agency.”    

Retirement is what you make of it. Do you have a second-act story as an entrepreneur in you?  Connie Inukai, author of  Retirement: Dream Big, Take Action, Make Money: 10 Amazing Second Act Entrepreneurs Tell Their Story, shares her experience in her second act as an inventor and “Grandmapreneur.” Connie Inukai joins us from Maryland. _______________________ Bio As a serial “Grandmapreneur®”, Connie Inukai speaks to retirees or soon-to-be retirees on the benefits of pursuing entrepreneurship in retirement. Retired from teaching Technical Writing at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University for four decades, Connie Inukai became an award-winning inventor at the age of 68.  Featured in Entrepreneur magazine, “6 Reasons to Pursue Entrepreneurship in Retirement,” Connie encourages Baby Boomers to have an active retirement through business or social entrepreneurship. She is the creator of Write Your Selfie®, where she inspires people to write their life stories in a fun and easy-to-read format so grandchildren and future generations will enjoy turning the pages to learn about their ancestry and life lessons. She is passionate about working with dementia sufferers and their families to preserve the memoirs of this “invisible” population. _______________________ For More on Connie Inukai Retirement: Dream Big, Take Action, Make Money: 10 Amazing Second Act Entrepreneurs Tell Their Story Website –  Grandmapreneur: Inspiring Invention, Ideas, and Impact  _______________________ Mentioned in this Podcast Conversation SCORE Mentoring Program _______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Heart of Grandfatherhood – Ted Page Is Semi-Retirement the Best of Both Worlds? – Liz Weston Unretired – Mark S. Walton ________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn ________________________ Wise Quotes On Being a Second Act Entrepreneur “SCORE is very helpful because when I started, when I retired, I was 68 years old and then I was fumbling around with my invention. I knew nothing about anything, but I did learn how to invent a product and I went to SCORE because I had no idea what to do and they’re very good with newbies and I think they didn’t expect a newbie to be my age, but I think I’m older than my SCORE mentor, but he was wonderful and the first thing he did was he told me to write a business plan. Most people who write business plans just use a template and copy it and do nothing with it, but he inspired me, so I wrote a business plan that would actually lead me on my path to my business. I actually have two businesses and now a third business. I have one that I want to be a speaker because I gave a TEDx talk, another for Tip and Split, which is my invention. And the business plan shows how I’m going to develop it.And my third one is for, my third business plan is how I’m going to develop my third product, which is called Write Your Selfie. So I actually used my SCORE mentor to help me write my business plans…If you hire a mentor, they’re very expensive. SCORE is free. So, they’re not doing it for money. They’re doing it because they want to help you.” The Benefits of Second Act Entrepreneurship “The main reasons are, first of all, it keeps you mentally active to have a business. And it keeps you physically active. And it keeps you socially active. There are six things, six reasons why it’s good to start a business. The main thing is it keeps you young.” On Shark Tank – and Why It’s Never Too Late “So I took an Amtrak to audition for Shark Tank. Now, if that isn’t dreaming big, I don’t know what is. The reason I went there is because I thought this is my time. Because Shark Tank is more than the product, it’s about the person’s story behind the product, and I’m going to compete. There were about 1,000 people pitching, and I assumed I was the oldest one there. I thought, Yay me!, and why not? All I can do is have a good time, meet a lot of people, and have the time of my life. I’ll tell you the hardest thing about the pitch was, I had to stand in line for two hours waiting for a wristband, and I can’t stand up that long. So I bought a folding stool, and I thought, what does every great inventor do? They solve a problem. If I can’t stand up, I was afraid to sit down on the ground because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back up. So I thought, okay, let me find a solution. So I went on Amazon and I found this great folding stool. And it was actually a great idea. It wasn’t my invention. A lot of people thought that was my invention. No, that’s just something I used. So people think small, no, think big. Because at this age, we’ve been through so much. We’ve had successes, we’ve had failures, we’ve had everything in between. We have nothing to lose. So why not go for it?  I’m 77 and I’m still planning my next invention. I have two more in my head that I’m going to do and they’re going to be great. Is it ever too late? I think that’s old-fashioned. That’s the way people used to look at retirement, that you’re too old and we we can put ourselves on a shelf. Nobody’s putting me on a shelf. Okay, so I think that if you think you’re too old to do something, well don’t talk to me about that. I would encourage you to talk to anybody except me about that.”  

Is stress bad for you? Yes, but so is too little stress. Sharon Bergquist, MD, author of The Stress Paradox: Why You Need Stress to Live Longer, Healthier, and Happier, shares her research on how good stress, in the right amount and at the right time, can enhance your well-being and longevity. Dr. Sharon Bergquist joins us from Atlanta. _________________________ Bio Sharon Horesh Bergquist, MD, is the author of The Stress Paradox: Why You Need Stress to Live Longer, Healthier, and Happier. She is an award-winning physician, innovative healthcare leader, and visionary researcher renowned for spearheading a science-based approach to applying lifestyle as medicine. She has helped lead numerous clinical trials, including the Emory Healthy Aging Study and the NIH-funded Emory Healthy Brain Study. Dr. Bergquist is widely published in peer-reviewed journals and has contributed to over 200 news segments, including Good Morning America, CNN, ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR. She hosts The Whole Health Cure podcast and her popular Ted-Ed video on how stress affects the body has been viewed over six million times. She received her degrees from Yale College and Harvard Medical School. _________________________ For More on Sharon Bergquist, MD The Stress Paradox: Why You Need Stress to Live Longer, Healthier, and Happier Website _________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Tiny Experiments – Anne-Laure Le Cunff Shift – Ethan Kross From Cravings to Control – Revamp Your Habits – Dr. Jud Brewer ________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn __________________________ On Good Stress and Bad Stress “You can tell a lot about the difference between good stress and bad stress by looking at studies on retirement because there’s such a discrepancy between the studies, some showing that some people live longer and live better when they retire and some people actually do better if they work past retirement age. And when you look at the difference, it really comes down to the nature of their job. If people are working in jobs that are joyful, purposeful, very reward driven, they tend to do better working past retirement age. And people who feel chronically stressed, overwhelmed by their work, there’s no joy, low reward, they tend to do better to retire. And that begins to tell you a lot about good stress and bad stress.” On Stress “So essentially, good stressors are stressors that are mild to moderate. In terms of intensity, they are generally brief or intermittent, where you are exposed to the stress and then there’s a period of recovery. And their nature is that they’re aligned with your belief system, they’re meaningful, they contribute to a greater good. And the bad stressors that are harmful, in nature, they’re more intense. They can be very overwhelming. Their duration is usually chronic, it goes on continuously. And generally, they’re the ones that drain you, there’s not as much of a sense of purpose or reward. And they leave you feeling exhausted and burnt out.” On the Benefits of Good Stress “We have this natural ability to heal our bodies, to regenerate. And good stress is the mechanism that signals our body to activate these healing systems. The benefits of good stress I think are really having come to light in mainstream because we focus a lot on how we need to reduce our exposure to things that are harming our health. So in our Western environment we know that processed foods, sedentary, loneliness, chronic stress are all factors that are chipping away at our health and there’s tremendous focus on reducing these exposures. What we don’t talk enough about is that we have the ability build health to counter the effects of these harmful stressors in our lives. And that’s what good stressors are trying to do. So I think of it as building a bank account. So these harmful stressors are withdrawing money out of your bank account. And the good stressors are making deposits because they’re repairing the damage. They’re helping you build reserve and resilience.And that in turn helps reduce your risk of disease. It also slows your aging process. So those are the fundamental benefits. And so much of disease and the aging process is rooted in decline in our repair and regenerative systems. And that results in cellular damage. So we have this ability to kind of slow that process with aging to slow what happens to these repair mechanisms from the exposure that are occurring from our daily life and live such a happier and longer life.” The Five Good Stressors “The five key stressors that we know that can activate our repair and regenerative systems and help us live longer and disease-free are plant chemicals that mildly stress our cells, exposure to brief intervals of high intensity activity, thermal stress from heat and cold, fasting stress, reducing incoming nutrients in a pattern that aligns with our circadian biology and good mental and emotional challenges that help us thrive.”

Ted Page, founder of the blog Good Grampa, has a new book Good Grandpa: Stories from the Heart of Grandfatherhood coming out on Grandparent’s Day. We catch up on what he’s learned from others about grandfatherhood today and his own experiences as a grandfather. Ted Page rejoins us from Vermont. _____________________ Bio Ted Page is a storyteller and performer. His nonfiction stories have appeared in Boston Magazine and the Boston Globe Magazine, and his comedy screen credits include work with John Cleese and Florence Henderson. His blog for grandfathers –GoodGrandpa.com—has been featured in The New York Times. Ted’s book of true family stories, The Willoughby Chronicles, was published in 2017. Ted is a founding partner of Captains of Industry, a leading boutique marketing consultancy, and a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He lives in New England and has a bunch of grandchildren. ___________________________ For More on Ted Page Pre-order Good Grandpa: Stories from the Heart of Grandfatherhood Blog: GoodGrandpa.com – Nurturing the Next Generation __________________________ Missed Ted Page’s first visit? Listen here __________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Long Distance Grandparent – Kerry Byrne PhD The Mindful Grandparent – Dr. Shirley Showalter TALK: The Science of Conversation – Alison Wood Brooks __________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn ________________________ Wise Quotes On the Evolution of Grandfathers “That story begins about 30,000 years ago, and it was when early Paleolithic humans were on the rise, and scientists believe that a shift started to take place where the very earliest grandparents started peering on the scene. Now these were grandparents in their over the late 20s, but life at the time has been described as, you know, brutish and short. People just didn’t live very long. And all of a sudden, there was the grandparents gradually appearing on the scene. And they were able to teach, for example, you know, how do you plant seeds? So to have the better chance of a successful crop. As one example, I’m sure there was all kinds of things like hunting and so forth. And they were the first ones who were being there for their grandkids and instilling the wisdom required to help lead a successful life. So that was the genesis of this. And this is all that was from an article in Scientific American. But that got me thinking about my own grandfather, and I was fortunate to have one grandfather who had this huge influence on me, called him Gramp. And I knew him in the 1970s when I helped him and my grandmother clean the rental cottages on the family’s farm in Vermont, and the number of lessons I learned from him just through being there.” On Today’s Grandfathers “That sense of distance from being a grandparent is changing. You know what, I think if you were an involved parent, as I was, like a really involved dad, you’re more likely to be an involved grandfather as hopefully I am. But I think the biggest difference was, and again, I can’t say this is universal. My wife points out that her dad was different with our grandkids. My grandmother would never miss a family gathering without saying how much she loved her grandkids, loved, loved, loved her grandkids and how much it meant to her. My grandpa, well, we’re not doing that. Never once did I hear him say, Teddy, I love you. But my grandpa, as well as my father and a lot of the dads, the grandfathers that I spoke with, showing your love was by working.” On Forever Letters “A guy reached out to me. His name is Bob Halperin. He was a former director of the MIT School of Executive Education, very bright guy. And he reached out after reading the story in the blog. And he said he was doing something that these days is called a forever letter. In ancient Jewish traditions, going back to the time of the Bible, it was called the ethical will. So it was the practice of writing a letter that would only be read by future generations. And he had a letter written to him by his grandfather, a grandfather that he never met. But this grandfather had big influence on him because of what he wrote.” He took an ancient tradition and he updated it to the time of email. And he’s writing dozens of emails, and he gave the email address to his kids, and he says, I want you to give these to the grandkids at certain ages.”

Use retirement as a catalyst to detach from unhealthy attachments that may be holding you back from living life the way you really want to. Life is shaped by our attachments. Things like security, pleasure, and validation are healthy, but they can be overdone and become a drag on our well-being. Dr. Bob Rosen’s new book Detach: Ditch Your Baggage to Live a More Fulfilling Life offers antidotes to 10 unhealthy attachments that can weigh people down. Dr. Bob Rosen joins us from Virginia. __________________ Bio Dr. Bob Rosen is the author of the new book Detach: Ditch Your Baggage to Live a More Fulfilling Life. Bob is a world-renowned thought leader on healthy people and healthy organizations. As a psychologist, New York Times best-selling author, researcher, and preeminent business advisor, his work in personal and organizational change is recognized worldwide. In 1988, he founded Healthy Companies and has interviewed or advised more than 600 CEOs of world-class companies. Over the years, Dr. Rosen has written eight books helping others to learn and grow. Bob is a frequent media commentator who has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek, the Financial Times, Time, Chief Executive Magazine, and more. Bob’s books also include  the New York Times Bestseller Grounded®, and the Washington Post best-seller Conscious, Just Enough Anxiety, Global Literacies, and the Catalyst, The Healthy Company, and Leading People,  He is also in demand as a global keynote speaker with a special focus on the psychology of self-improvement. Bob graduated from the University of Virginia. He subsequently earned a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. Bob teaches in executive education programs, and has been a longtime faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University’s School of Medicine. ____________________________ For More on Dr. Bob Rosen Detach: Ditch Your Baggage to Live a More Fulfilling Life Website _______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Shift – Ethan Kross Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Self-Healing Mind – Gregory Scott Brown, M.D. _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn ________________________ Wise Quotes On Anxiety “One of the first things I help people with is to distinguish between too little anxiety, which is the face of complacency, and too much anxiety, which is the face of chaos, and how to find just the right amount. And we have to get comfortable living with just the right amount of anxiety, because that’s really how the world operates. So the key here is learning to be agile.” On the Choice of Two Paths ” [It] is really all about thriving in change. And it’s especially true in retirement. Well, if we just put this in the context of retirement, I’m a firm believer that when we enter the third trimester of life, we can walk on one of two paths. One path is really about having an open mind, it’s about greater introspection, being less anxious and cynical, being more empathic, less self-centered with more gratitude, with fewer attachments. And the other path is really one of fear, of anxiety, of sadness, of boredom, of feeling unhappy and really a path of regret. And we choose consciously or unconsciously which path we want to lead down. Now the problem is, is that we can’t control everything and the serenity prayer of accepting what we cannot change, embracing what we can and having the wisdom to know the difference is so important in retirement because there are many things that we can’t control. We were taught to shape our environment but the reality is lots of things are outside our control and it gets in the way of executives too because they micromanage, they mistrust and they can’t control things sometimes – but the same is true in retirement. And so I think the key here is to allow yourself to be vulnerable, allow yourself to be more trusting that things will work out okay and sometimes they don’t, but that’s okay.” On How to Detach “We created a 40 item assessment that you can take online and it will assess based on your answers to questions which attachments are most relevant to you. And then what we do is we take you through a four-part process that starts with awareness and acceptance in terms of what’s going on inside of you and what’s going on outside of you. The second step is to discover your attachment and the why underneath the attachment. What is driving that attachment in particular for you? The third step is the aspiration, which is: what is your vision of your desired state? What do you want to get rid of and what do you want to embrace? And then the last step is action.”

What retirement regrets lie ahead? You can learn a lot from other people’s experiences and avoid some retirement regrets that have derailed others. Our guest, Noah Sheidlower of Business Insider, joins us to discuss what he learned from a recent series on retirement regrets he and his colleagues reported. Noah Sheidlower joins us from New York. ______________________ Bio Noah Sheidlower is an economy reporter with Business Insider. He joined in June 2023 and covers retirement, immigration, and employment trends. Noah led a 17-story retirement series on regrets older Americans have about their lives and worked on a video about what six older Americans would tell their younger selves. He led an eight-month story about how eight families benefited from basic income initiatives. He has also reported extensively on how Americans have navigated unemployment, what compels Americans to move, and how mass deportations could impact the economy. He has appeared on SiriusXM Business Radio and CBS News to discuss his reporting. Before joining Business Insider, Noah received his Bachelor’s in Sociology and English from Columbia University. Noah has covered the restaurant industry, transportation, retail, and markets for CNBC, NBC News, CNN, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ____________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Good Life – Marc Schulz Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile The New Happy – Stephanie Harrison _____________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn ______________________ Wise Quotes On Meaning & Purpose “…we heard from a lot of people who kept mentioning meaning and purpose. This is something that we have heard many, many times from people saying, even though I retired, even though I stopped my 9 to 5 job, I still have found purpose, whether it was volunteering, whether it was going back to work part time, whether it was finding some kind of project in the home. We heard from a lot of people who said that they have worked on interior decorating projects or have built homes completely anew. And then we heard from a lot of people who said that focusing on health was a big one. You don’t even want to know how many 80 and 90 year olds I talked to who said I go to the gym every day. They make the trek to go to the gym, run a mile around the track every day. So definitely there were plenty of silver linings.” On Professional Regrets “We heard a lot of professional regrets. We heard from people who said, I did not maintain my professional connections enough. So I had a layoff when I was 60. I couldn’t quite retire. And well, my resume is not updated. My skill sets aren’t up to date. What do I do? And that’s another thing that I heavily report on it is older Americans in the workforce. And we’ve noticed from a lot of people saying I’ve applied to 500, a thousand jobs.” On Happiness in Retirement “…people who said that they worked very low paying jobs throughout their career and have not a lot of money in their retirement and are actually very content, probably a lot happier than most people in retirement. And that was just shocking for me to hear at least seeing that my grandparents, my grandparents had very successful careers and they said, well, my friends who weren’t as successful during their careers are nowhere near as happy as I am.” On Purpose in Retirement “…purpose seemed to be a guiding principle for a lot of these people. Obviously not everyone was equipped to retire, but for the people who were lucky enough to have the financial resources to have successful retirements, one of the main things that they preached was I discovered my purpose. I found meaning, and it wasn’t in ways that you would potentially expect. It was a lot of people saying, Well, I’m poor and I’m relying on Social Security, but my purpose is caring for my dog or seeing my grandchildren. We talked to people who said my purpose was going back to work. We talked to a woman who worked and ran a winery for much of her career and then was like Well, I can’t do this anymore. It’s too taxing on me. So, I’m going to be my village’s trustee. And so, people taking more of those types of civic positions. We heard from people who said, Well, I’m not going to retire. I’m just going to keep working and working and working. We talked to somebody who’s 87 and is still going to business meetings in Boston and is still putting on suits and ties to go talk to people and have coffee chats. And he was saying, Well, my brain’s a muscle. I don’t need my brain to atrophy. I don’t need to be sitting and withering away.”    

This podcast covers the non-financial aspects of planning for retirement. But make no mistake – you have to get your money right. Lane Martinsen is the author of 5W Retirement Blueprint: Maximize your Retirement Income through Holistic Planning, which describes his approach of holistic retirement planning. Lane Martinsen joins us from Arizona. ______________________ Bio Lane G. Martinsen is a Certified Financial Fiduciary®, an Investment Advisor Representative, and a Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP®). Lane is the Principal of Martinsen Wealth Management, LLC located in Tempe, Arizona. Lane is an Ed Slott Elite IRA Advisor and a member of the National Ethics Association (NEA). Lane has a diverse background within the financial services industry that first started in 1988. In addition to serving his own clients, Lane has trained and mentored hundreds of other financial advisors from all parts of the country. Lane id the author of 5W Retirement Blueprint: Maximize your Retirement Income through Holistic Planning and of the Amazon bestselling book  The Holistic Retirement Planning Revolution. He’s also the host of the popular educational YouTube channel The Financial Fast Lane. Lane and his wife Tara met in college and recently celebrated their 31st anniversary. They have 5 children and 6 grandchildren. In 2010 (before any grandchildren were born) they fulfilled a dream to live with their kids in a foreign country. Lane and his family lived near the beach at Playa Conchal in beautiful Costa Rica for one year 2010-2011. During this time they formed many treasured memories and were able to provide humanitarian services to the local Tico people that they grew to love deeply. ________________________ For More on Lane Martinsen 5W Retirement Blueprint: Maximize your Retirement Income through Holistic Planning The Financial Fast Lane You Tube Channel Martinsen Wealth Management _____________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile How to Retire – Christine Benz The Key Decisions for Retirement Success – Wade Pfau _____________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _____________________ Wise Quotes On Holistic Retirement Planning “Holistic planning is not traditional. Most Financial Planning is kind of transactional in nature and it’s specific to a certain transaction or a certain goal. But when you when it comes to retirement planning and we’re going to plan for decades, right? The quality of the planning becomes much more important and holistic planning is taking in all the aspects. So it’s certainly much more than investing right? You’re looking at the tax implications over time,  healthcare, and will my money run out? The five W’s are the five key areas of wealth management so it’s it includes investment planning, it includes income planning, tax planning, health care planning and legacy or estate planning. So there’s a kind of the five big areas and you can’t really neglect any of those. So if you’re leaving one or two of those off, you really don’t have a complete plan.” On Risk and Holistic Retirement Planning “A lot of times people don’t understand sequence of returns risk for one. And a big reason for that is because they’ve never had to deal with it.  All during their working years, there is no sequence of returns risk. It’s only as they get close to retirement and then in those retirement years. And people don’t really know how that works and what is the risk. And so that’s one big area where we like to educate them. You really can manage it well when you have a strategy to do so, but if you don’t have that strategy. then there’s more risk than you should take. Inflation, of course, losing buying power every year is something you have to account for. And a lot of times people aren’t really thinking through that. RMDs that kick in and can cause additional taxation. We call them tax triggers. It’s like you kind of think you kind of know what the tax brackets are and then, Oh, wait a minute. Now I have some extra tax on this or my Medicare goes up. And so there’s little surprises like that. We like to shine a light on and make sure we’re not doing things that cause our money to be depleted prematurely.” On Market Volatility “We don’t ever like to make predictions. But one prediction I can make is that there will be volatility in the markets. There always is. It’s in the nature of the markets and you just you’ve got the timeframes and you’ve got the right strategies. It’s nothing to be feared. Lack of preparation is something to be feared.” _______________________

Retirement is a big transition. And for some, there’s another to navigate: becoming an empty nester. Dr. Rachel Glik, author of A Soulful Marriage: Healing Your Relationship With Responsibility, Growth, Priority, and Purpose, sees it as an opportunity to reset, recalibrate and strengthen a marriage. Dr. Rachel Glik joins us from St. Louis. ______________________ Bio Dr. Rachel Glik is the author of A Soulful Marriage: Healing Your Relationship With Responsibility, Growth, Priority, and Purpose. She is a licensed professional counselor with a doctorate in counseling and a Masters in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Known for her compassionate yet challenging approach, she has counseled individuals, couples and families in private practice for over 30 years. Dr. Glik gets to the heart of what we deal with every day… and that is our relationship with ourselves and with each other. She passionately strives to empower her clients to connect to their truest self, which forms the foundation for the niche she has carved in strengthening relationships. ______________________ For More On Dr. Rachel Glik A Soulful Marriage: Healing Your Relationship With Responsibility, Growth, Priority, and Purpose Website _____________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Go-Giver Marriage – Ana Gabriel Mann Shift – Ethan Kross Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller _____________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _________________________ Wise Quotes On Friction “When they get scared because their conflict or emptiness or disconnection has reached such a level and they they everything they’ve tried just keeps them stuck. And so the friction, one of the first things I tell couples which you just said something like Oh, we have conflict is that it’s actually a good sign. It’s not a bad sign. It depends on how you handle the friction and the conflict but we’re the premise is that we’re here to grow and that’s what keeps the true spark is an element of being invested in your partner’s growth and true care and respect for them as a human being. You aren’t just trying to get your needs met but you really care about their betterment, and your own betterment, and your closeness betterment.” On Wisdom “It’s not this is tearing us apart. It’s bringing us together. This is a big opportunity and it strikes me that well I know for a fact that we are looking for wisdom these days as the promise of technology and and stuff is not answering all the questions that we’re asking. There’s so much wisdom and ancient wisdom that’s been helping people for thousands of years. Why not tap into that? And it’s really practical too is what I have found.” On Ego and Soul ” I love the work of Daniel Kahneman who wrote Thinking Fast and Slow. And I actually learned about the book through my Kabbalah teachers. And it really emulates the same or mirrors the same idea that we learn in ancient wisdom that we have two systems, we have the ego and the soul. And the more we’re aware of those two and work to negotiate the the relationship between the two.And the ego is the one that’s going to want to have fast relief. It’s it’s survival oriented, so of course it’s not to judge ourselves for having it though. It’s inherent and it’s a good thing, but as we convert from that voice to the soul’s voice which has a bigger picture perspective.Then that’s when we start to have freedom.And it’s hard. It will always be hard. It will never it’ll get harder. The tests have to be there.It’s inherent in the design of the universe that we have to put in effort. So if we conquer one level of empowerment or self-mastery, then it will it will get another one.”  

You’re working on your physical fitness, but how about your emotional fitness? Dr. Ethan Kross visits with us to discuss his new book Shift: Managing Your Emotions — So They Don’t Manage You.  Ethan Kross joins us from Michigan. _______________________ Bio Ethan Kross, PhD, is one of the world’s leading experts on emotion regulation. An award-­winning professor in the University of Michigan’s top-­ranked Department of Psychology and its Ross School of Business, he is the director of the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory. Ethan has participated in policy discussions at the White House, spoken at TED and SXSW, and consulted with some of the world’s top executives and organizations. He has been interviewed on CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper Full Circle, and NPR’s Morning Edition. His pioneering research has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Science. He completed his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD at Columbia University. ______________________ For More on Ethan Kross Shift: Managing Your Emotions–So They Don’t Manage You Website ______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Thinking Better to Live Better – Dr. Woo-kyoung Ahn Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer Happier Hour – Cassie Holmes, PhD ________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode Chatter & Your Inner Voice – Ethan Kross WOOP – Gabriele Oettingen Implementation Intentions – Peter Gollwitzer _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _________________________ Wise Quotes On Emotions “Emotions are responses to things that happen in the world or in our minds that we judge to be meaningful. And when we perceive meaningful things, it activates a loosely coordinated response within our minds and our bodies that is designed to help us manage the situations we find ourselves in. So just to make that concrete, if my view of what is right versus wrong is violated, and there’s an opportunity for me to fix a situation, I’m going to experience anger. Anger is an emotion that motivates me to approach, get in there and try to fix the situation. If there’s a threat on the horizon that is important to me, I’m going to experience some anxiety. I’m going to have a fight or flight response that’s going to motivate me to zoom in really carefully on the situation so I can plan for it. Those are emotions. And when they’re experiencing the right proportions, not too intensely or too long, they’re vital tools that we have that we use to navigate the world. The big problem, of course, is that sometimes those emotions are triggered out of proportion. And when that happens, that can be a big problem. And that’s what my book Shift is all about, how to manage emotions in those circumstances.” On Purpose & Meaning “Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist living during World War II and just experienced massive loss, lost his family, his livelihood, his career. yet he was able to muster through the atrocities of World War II and concentration camps by finding meaning and purpose in his daily life. And his book always really stood with me, stuck with me, because it was an illustration that as bad as times can get, and hopefully they’re not too bad for you who are listening, but if they are, there’s always the possibility of finding meaning and purpose in life. And so I think thinking about that, being flexible and how we construct meaning and purpose is really useful. Lots of us find meaning and purpose from our jobs if we’re lucky, but we can also find meaning and purpose in our families and in our communities. And so I think taking the time, if your retirement is one where you truly are stepping away entirely from a vocation that is to find your life, think about where else you can find meaning in your life and then dive in to those spaces. Because those will provide a kind of compass that steers you through the next phase of your life. Thank you. Well, we evolve the capacity to experience negative emotions for a reason. They help us manage situations that are important to us.” On Perspective “Well, the best way to sum up perspective is as follows. I think many of us have the intuition or understanding that we have the ability to change the way we think, to change the way we feel. We can focus on the bright side, we can adopt a more objective stance. The problem is that it can be really hard to do that when you’re in the heat in the moment. It’s often easier said than done. What perspective does is that perspective shifters are tools we can use to step back and focus on our circumstances from a different point of view that often makes it a lot easier for us to change the way we think, to change the way we feel. One example of a perspective shifter something I call linguistic distancing. So trying to think through in a situation, give yourself advice using our own name and you. All right, Ethan, what do you think you should really do here? What that does when you refer to yourself using your own name and you, it shifts your perspective. It gets you to relate to yourself like you’re relating to someone else. And why is that useful? Well, it’s a lot easier to give advice to other people than it is to take our own advice as we often know. And so that’s one example of a perspective shifter. And this is a very useful category of tools because sometimes you have to stare a problem in the face. You can’t get time away from it, which we know can often help people with their emotions.”        

After a successful, demanding, and high-stress career, how do you shift gears to a new, more balanced life in an early retirement?  Marybeth Crane shares her story and insights. Dr. Marybeth Crane joins us from Texas. _________________________ Bio Dr. Marybeth Crane is a retired board-certified podiatric foot and ankle surgeon. She specialized in sports medicine in private practice for over twenty-five years and successfully built a multi-million-dollar private practice from humble beginnings. In her spare time, she completed more than twenty marathons, a dozen or so Half-Ironmans, and two Full Ironman Triathlons. She’s the author of the book Drop the S: Recovering from Superwoman Syndrome. She believes that exercise is the most powerful drug physicians can prescribe and that choosing a healthy lifestyle will help combat the aging process. ____________________________ For More on Dr. Marybeth Crane Drop the S: Recovering From Superwoman Syndrome Website Blog _____________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Power of Reinvention – Joanne Lipman Strategic Quitting – Julia Keller Is It Time to Break Up with Busy? – Yvonne Tally ______________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _________________________ On Identity in Retirement “I actually found that’s a real thing. My husband was very concerned because I’ve been Dr. Crane for 30 years. And now all of a sudden, I’m Marybeth. And I will tell you that probably for the first six months to a year, it was hard to meet someone new and say, Hi, I’m Dr. Crane. No, it’s a Hi, I’m Marybeth. And I would have to change it because I didn’t want to sound like some arrogant jerk. Oh, by the way, I’m a doctor. So it’s a real thing. But you also start to think about who is Marybeth versus Dr. Crane, because Dr. Crane was like a different entity. In fact, my husband would tell me when I came home, could you turn the doctor off? Because I was running the practice and my name’s first on the door, it’s my way of the highway kind of thing. And you’d come home, and now you’re a team. And I’m not the captain of the team necessarily every day. So in retirement, you start to actually be more your authentic self.” On Structure in Retirement “You learn to figure out what your priorities are for getting through your day –  the things that you want to get accomplished, the things you can get accomplished, the things you really don’t feel like getting accomplished, and maybe can take off the to do list, versus you’re running a company you have a strict schedule that you’re going hour to hour to hour. In my case, every 15 minutes there was a different person in my room, and whether you wanted to do it or not, they were there whether it was a good day or a bad day, they were still there. So, flexibility is probably the best thing, but the more you get to decide what’s important, your priorities definitely change. I feel like I was running a marathon as a sprint. When I was practicing, you’re just going, going, going. And we have an entire generation that glorifies the grind – the more you grind, the more money you make, the better off your life is. Well, that’s not what it is. It’s really, can I fulfill the things that I can do out there that somebody else can’t, can I do the things I want to do, and not what I have to do?” On Purpose “If I can help just one person, then that’s my purpose. If you think that your purpose is to play golf every day, I would tell you no. But there is a purpose to that too, because you’re out there, you’re having fun with other people or other couples, you’re enjoying the outside, and you’re delving into their retirement, because most of them are retired or thinking about being retired. And you’re helping them get through those those building blocks to what does the rest of your life look like?”  

In today’s complex, fast-paced world, what can we learn from philosophers? John Kaag thinks we can learn a lot. He’s created an audiobook Spring Training (for the Rest of Your Life), discussing his ideas highlighting Thoreau, Emerson and William James. He’s also the co-founder of Rebind, an AI company transforming classic literature into interactive, guided experiences. Rebind pairs books with original interactive commentary from some of today’s greatest thinkers who serve as expert guides,  featuring conversations, personal anecdotes, historical context, and reflections. Rebind was named to Fast Company’s prestigious list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025 and was a TIME Magazine “Best Invention of 2024.” John Kaag joins us from Massachusetts. __________________ Bio John Kaag is a distinguished philosopher and author, widely recognized for his deep knowledge of Henry David Thoreau’s classic Walden. He has authored several books, including American Philosophy: A Love Story and Hiking with Nietzsche, both of which were New York Times and NPR Best Books of the Year. In 2023, he published Henry at Work, a thorough examination of Thoreau’s philosophy as it relates to post-pandemic work habits. Kaag has contributed to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Harper’s Magazine, bringing timeless philosophical insights to a wider audience. ________________________ For More on John Kaag Spring Training (for the Rest of Your Life)  Rebind Try Rebind – Discount offer _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Living for Pleasure – Emily Austin, PhD The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD An Artful Life – John P. Weiss _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _________________________ Wise Quotes On Philosophers – and AI “I think it’s interesting. I think that when it comes to the perennial questions of philosophy, like why am I here? What is the good life? Why is life worth living? These questions typically are answered in very personal settings, between friends, between family members, between, I teach at UMass Lowell, so my classes are relatively small within a classroom setting. But I think what’s interesting is that when like lots of readers and lots of thinkers don’t have the chance to interact with others in a sort of active way. My mother was one of these individuals. She retired when she was 68, and she lived until she was 76. And during that time, she spent quite a bit of time online, reading online, but she really missed human companionship. And what’s interesting with this time of AI and artificial intelligence is that we have the ability to scale one-on-one tutoring interactions. Many people have talked about the use of Chat GPT and asking Chat GPT questions and getting responses. But what I find really interesting is that we have the chance to use AI to dynamically distribute original human comments and commentary into conversation.” On William James, Action and Emotion “William James…was the founder of empirical psychology at Harvard, the founder of American Pragmatism, which is one of the two major philosophies that was born in the United States in the 19th century. William James, in his empirical studies of psychology, discovered that there’s a real relationship between action and emotion. And we often times think that we’re happy and therefore we smile. But William James, and it’s it’s termed the James-Lange theory of emotions instead of saying that we smile because we’re happy. James said the other way around. He said, we are happy because we smile. So anybody who’s been down in the dumps and gone for a walk and felt better or anyone who’s even tried a little bit of yoga, sort of the beginning sun salutation, where you point your hands up to the ceiling and point your chin up to the ceiling. Looking up has this transformative power on our emotional landscape. And James was the first to discover this. It’s going back to my mother. She declined very precipitously when she could no longer walk and her emotional state sort of declined very rapidly as well.” On Habits “William James was pretty smart about habits. He said, following the ancient Greek Aristotle, that habits form ourselves. So if you think about who you are as a person, you are sort of defined by what you do in a habitual way, and your body actually takes the shape of the habits that we participate in. James, however, unlike Aristotle, was interested more in our ability to break habits, to unfix the beliefs that might have been given to us by our conventions, our society, our histories, and trying to overcome those. For James that was the task of life. If we think about cases where we reach our limits, or our habitual limits in life, and then overcome them and explore possibility, risk, uncertainty, what philosophers call indeterminacy, the sort of shakiness where the universe is not what we just expect, those are chances for us to both risk and lose something in some cases, but also to test ourselves and to discover who we are beyond the sort of normal constraints of everyday life. And James was interested in both thinking about life as a risk, but also as a reward, and both of those are equally ours when we explore them at the limits. And and I found that to be pretty instructive when I was reading James or rereading James for the umpteenth time and thinking about my mom being like, oh, man, I wish she could still get around. And what is interesting is that James suggests that even when our mobility and our actions are inhibited, we still have the ability to do small actions. And those small actions do matter for our emotions and for how we’re feeling. So I take that as pretty interesting.” On Rebind “[On Rebind] you get to go read Walden with me or you’ll be able to read The Tale of Two Cities with Margaret Atwood or Salman Rushdie doing Candide. And you’re basically getting a one-on-one masterclass with an expert about a classic book. And you get to ask any questions that you want and you’ll get pretty good answers. And thankfully, they’re originally and authentically sourced from the commentary that we’ve gotten.  There are 13 books up on the site. There’ll be 27 by the fall. Well, I’ve learned that it takes that AI has this. a very, very bad rap that it is not particularly popular and people are very suspicious. And people don’t mind interacting with a generic AI bot if they’re dealing in insurance, if they’re insurance agencies or maybe they’re pharmaceutical companies, they just wanna get answers about their drugs or something. But they don’t want to hear a generic AI bot wax eloquent about great books or poetry or things that we really care about. And that’s where the authenticity really matters. And I had to convince these authors, John Banville who won the Booker Prize, Marlon James who won the Booker Prize, Atwood, Rushdie, Elaine Pagels who gave us the gospel or gave us commentary on the Gospels.I really had to convince these participants and commentators that we weren’t pirating anything and that we were distributing their words know, useful in authentic ways. So that was one thing. The second thing is that people like to talk about books. There are 50 million people involved in Bible study, and we’re going to put out the Bible this spring in this form. There are five million people in book clubs, and people like to hear other people’s thoughts about reading. And that’s something that I’m hopeful about in terms of turning this into a genuine group reading experience.”    

Ed Hajim shares his remarkable journey from a tumultuous childhood—moving through foster homes and orphanages after being kidnapped by his father—to becoming a successful businessman and philanthropist. Hajim explains how his experiences became advantages later in life, teaching him adaptability, resilience, and self-confidence that fueled his success at the University of Rochester and beyond. Now dedicated to giving back, he focuses on helping young people through scholarships and education initiatives, guided by his philosophy that “anything is possible, education is the solution to everything, and never be a victim.” Hajim offers powerful insights on finding purpose in later life stages through volunteerism, mentorship, and philanthropy, emphasizing the profound satisfaction that comes from helping others succeed. _______________________ Bio Ed Hajim, the son of a Syrian immigrant, is a seasoned Wall Street executive with more than 50 years of investment experience. He has held senior management positions with the Capital Group, E.F. Hutton, and Lehman Brothers before becoming chairman and CEO of Furman Selz. Hajim has been the co-chairman of ING Barings, Americas Region; chairman and CEO of ING Aeltus Group and ING Furman Selz Asset Management; chairman and CEO of MLH Capital; and chairman of High Vista, a Boston-based money management company. In 2008, after 20 years as a trustee of the University of Rochester, Hajim began an eight-year tenure as chairman of the university’s board. Upon assuming that office he gave the school $30 million—the largest single donation in its history—to support scholarships and endow the Edmund A. Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Through the Hajim Family Foundation, he has made generous donations to organizations that promote education, health care, arts, culture, and conservation. ______________________ For More on Ed Hajim Island of the Four Ps: A Modern Fable About Preparing for Your Future Website On the Road Less Traveled: An Unlikely Journey from the Orphanage to the Boardroom ______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller How to Live a Values Based Life – Harry Kraemer ________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn __________________________ Wise Quotes On Reviewing Your Interests “Go back and look at your passions. If you left some passions behind, did you really want to paint or play the piano? Or had you always wanted to find out about France or Belgium or Argentina? Well, the passions you left behind, and now you have to really have the time and the energy to pursue them. One of my passions, as you’ll see in my book, is to help people do better than they thought. And that’s a lifelong passion because no matter what you’re involved in, if you can pursue that, you’ll get a great response. So you have to go back and look at your passion and maybe in an athletic experience. And I do believe this concept of taking time to reflect. I like to take the holidays at the end of the year and sit down and spend time to do a really deep dive and ask questions. Now, passions are not only my interests, my likes, my dislikes, my talents, and also contextual. You may be in a situation where I don’t know how long it’s going to take California to come back, but you can commit yourself to getting involved with the problems there. That could take five years of your life if that’s what excites you.” On Testing Your Pursuits “Start writing early as possible, write things down and look at them monitor them. Sit down and write down here’s what I want to do.  And then I think every once a year, do a very simple dive, to say that I accomplished it. And every three years, do a real deep dive, maybe I’m on the wrong path. I wouldn’t question every year where I’m at. I mean, it takes you by mind three years to see whether this thing is good enough, but write it down, but also spend time in what I call contextual sense. Think about what the world, where the world is going, like AI or biotech. You don’t have to be really knowledgeable, you just get interested in them. What are the trends in Alzheimer’s? A friend of mine runs it, has been involved in Alzheimer’s. And he’s got a foundation, which he’s now working to solve the problem. But write it down, write it down. Go back to some of the old things you did once. There are a lot of places, or finding another organization that fits something you’re really interested in.” On Purpose “Well, finding the new purpose is more difficult. You go through life and your first purpose will be to be financially independent and my second purpose was to have a family that I could support. The third purpose was to be successful in business and so forth. Older people in my mind, you have to reach back and find a purpose that you want. The fourth part of life is community, giving back.  It’s pretty easy to find a purpose in giving back. The other purposes are material, and they’re ephemeral by the way, too.”

Will your next phase be your time? If you’re a people-pleaser, or know someone who is, you’ll want to hear from Hailey Magee, author of Stop People Pleasing and Find Your Power. It’s time to set better boundaries, advocate for your needs and priorities and start living the life you’ve imagined. Hailey Magee joins us from Seattle. ______________________ Bio Hailey Magee is a certified coach who helps people around the world break the people-pleasing pattern and master the art of self-advocacy. Holding a credential from the International Coaching Federation and certified by Erickson Coaching International, Hailey has worked with over 500 private clients, helping recovering people-pleasers rediscover not only their power and agency, but their pleasure, joy, and sense of wonder. Her debut book, Stop People Pleasing and Find Your Power, was released by Simon & Schuster in 2024. Hailey’s refreshingly nuanced perspectives on boundary-setting and self-advocacy have captured the attention of millions on social media. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Gottman Institute, Business Insider, and Newsweek, and she has facilitated workshops in partnership with WeWork, Women In Music, and a variety of other companies and organizations. Hailey is dedicated to offering her clients clear, research-supported strategies for change. She resides in Seattle, WA. ______________________ For More on Hailey Magee Stop People Pleasing and Find Your Power Website ______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Power of Saying No – Vanessa Patrick, PhD The Joy of Saying No – Natalie Lue Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta _____________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _______________________ Wise Quotes On People Pleasing “It’s really just the act of putting other people first at our own detriment, chronically. So unlike regular generosity, which can feel really great and benefit our relationships, people pleasing tends to be a chronic pattern of behavior that really negatively affects us over time. And the costs are high. First of all, because we’re always centering other people and putting them first, we become really disconnected from ourselves. So we struggle to access our own dreams, our own desires, our own needs, and that can lead to life feeling kind of hollow and one dimensional. On top of that, our emotional health can suffer because we’re often over committed, burned out, resentful and disconnected.” On Boundaries “I think of these as the growing pains of strengthening a new muscle of learning how to prioritize ourselves. Like with any new workout, there’s some soreness after. But what we can do is we can find some reasons that might make that guilt or selfish feeling feel a little bit worth it. And for me, the best way to flip the script and really become more confident prioritizing yourself is really just to remember that over commitment and lead to resentment in our relationships and really harm them over time. So if you’re over-committed spending too many hours watching your grandkids, you might begin to resent your kids for asking so often. And if you’re over-committed to a certain volunteer organization, you might slowly begin to resent the people at the organization, because you’re so burnt out and taxed from all your giving. So what I like to remind us is that our boundaries, learning how to prioritize ourselves, are not anti-relationship. They’re pro-relationship because they create the distance at which you can really love and appreciate a person or an organization without resenting them. And I say in my book, research actually shows, which I found this so, so reaffirming, that people who practice healthy selfishness, quote unquote, which basically means those who have a healthy respect for their own needs and health, actually report having more positive relationships and more loving attitudes toward others, because they’re not constantly fatigued and burned out. So this really helps us flip the script.” On Fear “…the common thread is there’s fear. I’m doing this because I have to and I’m afraid. And that’s so different from kindness, which is really just, I’m doing this because I want to. I’m doing this because I want to help. And if you’re listening to this and you’re like, I’m still not sure, which one is it? The simplest little question you can ask yourself to discern which one is happening is just ask right now, do my insides match my outsides? Because when we’re being kind, they match our outside, smiling and giving and generosity is matched by an inner sense of just goodwill and contentment. But when we’re people pleasing outside, we’re smiling and happy and giving, but inside we’re shut down or resentful or frustrated or overwhelmed. And so that dissonance is what you want to watch out for.”    

We spend a lot of time each day in conversation. What if you could get better at it? Alison Wood Brooks, author of the new book, Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves, shares her research and tips on how to master conversation, become a better listener, navigate difficult discussions – and what makes an effective apology. Alison Wood Brooks joins us from Massachusetts. ________________________ Bio Dr. Alison Wood Brooks is the O’Brien Associate Professor of Business Administration and Hellman Faculty Fellow at the Harvard Business School, where she created and teaches a course called TALK. As a behavioral scientist, she is a leading expert on the science of conversation. Her award-winning research has been published in top academic journals and is regularly cited in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and NPR. Her research was referenced in two of the top ten most-viewed TED talks of all time and depicted in Pixar’s Inside Out 2. In 2021, she was named a Best 40 Under 40 Business School Professor by Poets & Quants. “TALK: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves” is her first book. _________________________ For More on Alison Woods Brooks Read Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves Website Workbook __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Our New Social Life – Natalie Kerr & Jaime Kurtz Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile Big Goals – Caroline Adams Miller The Ritual Effect – Michael Norton _________________________ What Will Your Next Story Be? Stay in the Loop with once a month updates on featured conversations and noteworthy articles. Wisdom Notes keeps ideas coming your way once a month to help you create it. _________________________ Best Books for Retirement _________________________ Wise Quotes On Boomerasking “Asking questions is magical. It’s why there’s a whole part of the acronym is about asking. But Boomerasking, which is named after the outgoing and incoming returning arc of a boomerang, is sort of a boundary condition on the power of question asking, because it’s like this. It would be like, I say to you, Joe, have you ever been to Nepal? And you say no, and I’m like, let me tell you about the time I went to Nepal. It’s almost like you’re thinly veiling your egocentrism and sort of self-centeredness, your desire to disclose about yourself. You’re kind of masking it with this insincere question. And you hear it all the time. And what we find in our research is that when I say, have you ever been to Nepal, first of all, that question is so specific, you’re already on high alert. You’re like, oh, God, here comes a story about Nepal. But even if I were to ask you, like, how was your weekend, and then I let you answer, and even if you were excited to answer that, and then I bring it right back to myself immediately without following up on your answer, it makes you feel like I wasn’t interested to begin with. And that’s a really bad feeling. In the end, conversation needs to be sort of ping pongy back and forth, where both people are sharing about themselves, but also feeling affirmed and validated and listened to as we’re playing this ping pong game. And so if you bring it right back to yourself in boomerask, it undermines the healthy ping ponginess of a conversation. Thank you. Follow ups and callbacks do exactly the opposite. So whereas Boomer asks are a villain and you’re doing, you’re bringing it too much back to yourself, which people do all the time. Follow up questions, keep the focus on the other person. So anytime someone gives you this great gift of a disclosure, you share anything about your weekend. Or if I say, have you been to Nepal and you say, no, but I’ve been to Tibet or whatever.If they’re giving you any sort of sharing, some disclosure, some information about their perspective, that is such an amazing gift. That is the greatest gift that humans can really give to each other. And so a follow up question shows, hey, I value the gift you just gave me. I want to hear about your time in Tibet. I want to hear about your weekend. I actually care about your perspective and I want to learn from you. So follow up questions are superheroes.” On Listening – and Mind Wandering “The idea of listening seems so simple on its surface. It’s sort of deceptively simple. The human mind, unfortunately, and fortunately, was not built to focus on one person and one idea at a time. Our brains are amazing. And so they were more built to wander, right? They’re we’re constantly drawing connections between adjacent and unrelated ideas. We’re thinking so much, you know, even while I’m talking to you, I might for a fleeting moment, remember, oh, I got to pick up my kid in like an hour and a half, right? That’s not bad, per se, doesn’t mean that I’m a bad listener. But it is bad if I’m pretending to listen to you, and I’m actually thinking about something else. And it means that we aren’t actually exchanging the information that we believe we are exchanging. If we’re constantly pretending to listen to each other, and we’re not actually hearing each other, that will become a problem. You know, if you disclose something important about yourself to me, and I don’t hear it, but I pretend to hear it, that’s not going to go well. So we studied we studied this tendency by having hundreds of people come together and have conversations. And we interrupted them every five minutes. And we said, Okay, were you just listening to your partner? 24% of the time, people self reported that they were not listening to their partner, that their mind was wandering elsewhere. And we suspect that is a pretty massive underestimate because we all know that it’s embarrassing to admit that you weren’t listening. There’s this very high social expectation that you listen attentively. So we suspect that our minds are wandering even more frequently than that, and that’s already a very high number. This isn’t a bad thing. It’s not a criticism about the human mind, but what can be helpful about it is realizing, oh, my mind is wandering a lot of the time, your mind is wandering a lot of the time. What can we do to make sure that we actually are hearing each other, that we’re actually exchanging the information we think we are, that we’re making each other not only feel heard, but making sure that we actually are heard. I want to allow your mind to wander and also have a successful conversation. And so I think that’s a very helpful thought experiment of what can we do? First of all, we can give people more grace, when they don’t hear something, like it’s not because they’re not interested all the time, often it’s because they’re doing, they’re so interested that they’re probably elaborating on something you already said earlier. And being a little bit more direct and overt about admitting when we haven’t heard someone, right? Like, oh, I missed that thing. Did you mean this or this? Can you repeat that? These little repair strategies can be very, very helpful.” On Difficult Conversations “So my teaching and research on conversation has been incredibly empowering for me and for anyone who is nervous or conflict averse, because it made me realize that first of all, as we were talking about earlier, whole conversations aren’t hard and bad and scary and hostile. It’s just like little moments. And that’s what we talk about in the book. It’s called, it’s not like difficult conversations. It’s moments of difficulty. And moments of difficulty can crop up even in conversations that are supposed to be fun, right? Like you think about gathering with your family at Thanksgiving or going out on a date or having a gathering with friends. You never know when a little moment of a little rift is going to happen. A little moment of difficulty crops up that was unexpected. And even more sort of troublingly, I worry that we often sort of poke barbs into each other in ways that we never even know that that moment of difficulty has come and gone. That someone that you’re talking to might ruminate about later and you didn’t even know that you said something hurtful. But let’s set that aside. In the moments when you do know that things have gotten difficult, these moments of difficulty can occur for any, for any number of reasons. And in the book, we talk about a model, like layers of the earth. And above the surface, these are the words and gestures that you can see during the conversation. We might simply be using the same word to mean different things, or we might use different words to mean the same thing, or we’re just sort of talking past each other, we misunderstand each other. Those sorts of coordination problems can cause all kinds of moments of difficulty during a conversation. Just below that at the sort of surface of the earth are our emotions. So let’s say you’re feeling really calm, but I’m like stressed out. And I need you to like be there for me more intensely that can cause conflict, or I’m really excited and want to have a good time and you’re feeling sort of sleepy and want to be peaceful. We’re going to have a bit of a emotional clash there. Beneath that are our beliefs. So I believe the truth about something, I believe some data about vaccines, you believe different data about vaccines. We disagree and are we going to confront that and discuss it? Are we going to avoid it? It’s up to us beneath that we have differences in motives.” ___________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You

Can an experimental mindset help you navigate your transition to retirement? Anne-Laure Le Cunff, author of the new book Tiny Experiments, discusses how to become a scientist of your own life and unlock new habits, interests, and behaviors for your next phase of life. Anne-Laure Le Cunff joins us from Austin. ________________ Bio Anne-Laure Le Cunff is the author of Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World.  She’s a neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and writer. A former Google executive, she went back to university to earn a Ph.D. in Psychology & Neuroscience from King’s College London. As the founder of Ness Labs and author of its widely read newsletter, she writes about evidence-based ways for people to make the most of their minds, navigate uncertainty, and practice lifelong learning. Her work has been featured in peer-reviewed academic journals and mainstream publications such as WIRED, Forbes, Rolling Stone, Fortune, Entrepreneur, and more. ________________ For More on Anne-Laure Le Cunff  Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World Ness Labs ___________________ Best Books for Retirement ___________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Tiny Habits Can Lead to Big Changes – BJ Fogg Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans Growing Old, Staying Rad – Steven Kotler _________________ Get Wisdom Notes Once a month updates on featured conversations and noteworthy articles. What Will Your Next Story Be? Wisdom Notes keeps ideas coming your way once a month to help you create it. ________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn ____________________ Wise Quotes On Becoming a Scientist of Your Own Life “An experimental mindset is one where we have both high ambition and high curiosity. This is really embracing the fact that you need both if you want to grow in life. And if you want to achieve more than what you think is currently possible, if you want to achieve more than what is within the realm of your imagination with what you know today, you need hard work, sure, but you need to keep some doors open for exploration, surprises, serendipity, and those kinds of collaborations that we can’t really plan for. And an experimental mindset is really about becoming the scientist of your own life, treating everything, every challenge and uncertainty in general as an opportunity to experiment and to learn something new.” On Reframing Retirement “I think retirement is such an amazing phase in life for experimentation. But unfortunately, because all of a sudden, everything we knew, all of the routines and the ways of working are changed for lots of people overnight, we find ourselves in that liminal space, that space of uncertainty. And so we might tend to have one of those three automatic responses. Because we might experience cynicism, escapism, perfectionism, instead of experimenting. Some of the key benefits of embracing this experimental mindset are really to use this phase to discover new things that you might want to do. To maybe reconnect with things that you were curious about and had to pause or put aside because you focused on your career or on your family or on any other projects. And it’s really considering that time as a time of possibility. All of a sudden, you don’t have someone else deciding what your calendar and schedule is supposed to look like. And you have this newfound freedom, which, yes, comes with a lot of uncertainty. We can also come with a lot of creativity.” On Tiny Experiments So tiny experiments, as I described them in my book, are inspired by the scientific method. But you don’t need a lab, you don’t need equipment. You certainly don’t need to apply for funding. You can just run your own tiny experiments by designing your protocol. And I call this protocol a pact because it’s a commitment to curiosity. The way you design a pact is by choosing an action, something you’re curious about, and committing to performing that action for a certain duration. And again, it’s inspired by the scientific method where when you conduct an experiment, you say, these are the number of trials we’re going to conduct, and this is how we’re going to collect data. And to choose on an action, it always starts with, again, with curiosity. So you can use this magic word, maybe. Maybe if I did that thing, I would feel more creative. Maybe if I did that thing, I would be more productive. Maybe if I did that thing, my garden would look better. Maybe if I did that thing, I would meet new friends. And so you start with maybe and you, that’s basically the hypothesis. That’s your hypothesis. And then you say, okay, what is the thing? So let’s say you kind of want to grow your professional network after you’re retired, you want to meet other people who maybe are retired and working on interesting projects and you want to connect with them. So you say, maybe if every Monday I reach out to someone I admire, someone whose work I enjoy on LinkedIn, I send them a message and I do that for six weeks. So that’s your pact. I will reach out to a new person every Monday for six weeks. That’s your data collection. That’s your pact. And the great thing is again, same as scientific experiments is that you withhold judgment until you’re done. A scientist doesn’t stop the experiment in the middle and say, I don’t quite like what I’m seeing here. Let’s stop. No, they collect the data and then the assess it. So you finish this, you send your six messages on LinkedIn over the next six weeks and at the end of the six weeks, you ask yourself, did that work? Was my hypothesis correct? Did that help me grow my professional network? Did I meet interesting people? And do I want to keep going? And if yes, that could even turn into a habit. Thank you. There’s a completely different definition of success and failure when you design experiments.”

Our guest today notes that “retirement is a little bit like life. It’s likely to be different than you think it’s going to be.” David Horton, MD shares the story of his life wife Dee Dee, and carrying on her mission and legacy. He discusses her book, Layer Upon Layer, which he helped complete. David Horton joins us from Washington State. _____________________ Bio David Horton, a retired oncologist turned book editor, spent his career driven by a deep passion for science and genuine connection with his patients. After completing his residency, he moved to the Pacific Northwest, where he met his wife, DeeDee. Known for his patient-centered approach grounded in respect, empathy, and the art of deep listening, David founded RadiantCare Oncology, building a practice that aligned with his values as both a doctor and a person. David and DeeDee shared 32 years of love, self-growth, and adventure, creating a steadfast partnership. Now retired, David is dedicated to honoring DeeDee’s mission by publishing her book, Layer Upon Layer, to continue her message and legacy _______________________ For More on David Horton, MD Layer Upon Layer book Website ____________________ Best Books on Retirement ____________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Well-Lived Life – Dr. Gladys McGarey Ride or Die – Jarie Bolander On My Way Back to You – Sarah Cart _____________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _____________________ Wise Quotes Redefining Yourself in Retirement “Retirement is a little bit like life. It’s likely to be different than you think it’s going to be. I think of retirement as quitting the structured daily routine of your week. Mainly, we’re keeping that because we need work to provide us with financial stability. The beauty of retirement is the opportunity to redefine yourself, realizing you’ve grown so much since you chose a career and started things. And so the first thing is you have to pay attention to the financial aspect early on, if you want the freedom to redefine yourself earlier while you have better health and you have more flexibility to integrate into the world and how it’s changed. And I think that’s so essential now because technology and things has taken over so much. The earlier you get on that, the more significant you can redefine yourself with retirement.” On Layer Upon Layer by Dee Dee Horton “A lot of the things described in Layer Upon Layer are things that Dee Dee either experienced herself or observed in her years of growing up as an athlete, as well as being a teacher and ultimately a coach. And I think one of the things that always bothered her was more the idea that the attention related to sports and being quote unquote successful in our society was a little bit of an easier journey or a lot of an easier journey for the males in our society. And that was always something that I think bothered her. And what also bothered her was whenever she did see in the media stories that were related to female athletes, it wasn’t about the female athletes working hard and striving and giving up things and discipline and all of that, which is the true sporting experience. Instead, it seemed to be the female athlete that was giving up the sport for either the love of a man, or it would be the male coach or the male boyfriend that came in and said, somehow motivated her and turned her into something more as opposed to having done it herself. And so I think she having a love of writing and things like that, she decided to write a book to I guess try to make people pay a little more attention to those issues. Well, interestingly, that was something that she picked very early on. And she loved it.” On Purpose “I do feel like retirement is a chance for people to redefine themselves and recognizing how much we’ve grown from the time we chose our profession and to where we are now. And in many ways, a huge part of my initial decision to retire was because my father had passed young, he was 61, and when I got to be in my early 50s and had a doc examine me where I had a little neurologic thing. And I went to see the neurologist and basically said to me goes, Well, Dave, don’t worry, this is one of two things. It’s either ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, which that’s one of the worst, that’s a bad bad when you get or it’s or it’s nothing. And the light went, wait a minute, I could be my dad so easy. So that was my chance to break away from an extremely, extremely intense, busy profession of providing cancer care for a large region in western Washington. I had spent my life, not only taking care of tons of patients, but planning out how to build clinics that it made it easier for patients to get in for treatment. And I said, Wow, this will be my chance to spend more time with Dee Dee and and continue to do more of the things that we could do together. And also free her to explore some things that she wanted to go into because she had been tied down to me being in a fixed location. And that’s the way it started. But it, of course, as we talked about retirement is going to be different, just life is going to be different than you think it’s going to be. For me, I guess what I’ve done is the heartbreak of losing Dee Dee has given me a purpose. I really felt satisfied with the gift that I had left my community, feeling like I’d made my community a better place and made a contribution.”    

A lot will change once you retire and you may need build a new a social circle. Natalie Kerr and Jaime Kurtz join us to share research-backed strategies you can use to build and strengthen meaningful relationships from their new book Our New Social Life: Science-Backed Strategies for Creating Meaningful Connection. Natalie Kerr and Jaime Kurtz join us from Virginia. ______________________ Bios Natalie Kerr, Ph.D., is a social psychologist and award-winning professor at James Madison University, where she studies social connection and loneliness. Her work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Personality and Individual Differences, and Social Influence. She is co-author of the book Our New Social Life: Science-Backed Strategies for Creating Meaningful Connection. She also designs community programs for people who want to cultivated deeper connection in their lives. Jaime Kurtz, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at James Madison University. Her research focuses on strategies for savoring and well-being and has been published in journals such as Psychological Science, the Journal of Positive Psychology, Emotion, and Developmental Psychology. Her work has been published in journals such as Psychological Science and the Journal of Positive Psychology. Most recently, she is the author of The Happy Traveler: Unpacking the Secrets of Better Vacations. She is also the co-author, with Sonja Lyubomirsky, of Positively Happy: Routes to Sustainable Happiness, and she regularly presents seminars on mental health to continuing education health care professionals nationwide. _________________________ For More on Natalie Kerr & Jaime Kurtz Our New Social Life: Science-Backed Strategies for Creating Meaningful Connection _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like How to Make New Friends in Retirement – Dr. Marisa G. Franco The Laws of Connection – David Robson The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. ________________________ On Social Connection “So, as humans, we have a fundamental need for social connection. We live happier, healthier, and longer lives when we feel deeply connected to other people. And while we might experience and express this need in different ways, the need for social connection is really universal. It’s so fundamental that we have built-in biological mechanisms to encourage it. When we’re socially isolated, our brain triggers cravings for human contact, in much the same way that it triggers cravings for food after a few hours of not eating. So, we literally crave connection. And that’s why so many of us felt starved for connection during the pandemic. The problem is that in everyday life, many of us simply ignore the craving or we deny it. We treat socializing like an indulgence rather than an essential health behavior, and we fail to prioritize it. We recognize the importance of sleep, exercise, and healthy eating, and we take steps to maintain them. But going out with friends, going to Happy Hour, Trivia Night, these things often take a backseat. Somehow, they feel less important when in reality, they’re just as vital to our health and well-being.  So, we really need to shift our mindset and see social connection as an essential need rather than a want.” On Meaningful Conversations  “But keep in mind that that signal, that inner kind of guidance can go a little awry with a season of extended isolation. So it can become very cyclical. So just be on the lookout for that when you tune in. I love this question because I absolutely hate small talk, and I’m always looking for opportunities to go deeper. Small talk is the norm in everyday conversation. Unfortunately, it just is. And breaking away from that can be a little scary, but there’s some research that suggests that maybe we shouldn’t be as afraid as we are.  Let me tell you about one study real quick. So they had participants engage in both shallow and deep conversations with strangers. And the shallow conversation, they answered questions like, how’s your day going so far? And in the deep conversation condition, they went a little deeper. They disclosed more personal information by answering questions like, if you could undo one mistake you have made in your life, what would it be – and why would you undo it? So pretty deep, especially with a stranger, right? Well, they had people predict how they would feel about the conversations, how much they would enjoy them, and then they reported on their actual experience. And what they found was that people expected to prefer the shallow conversation, but they actually preferred the deeper one. And they felt closer to their deep conversation partner than to the shallow conversation partner. And the deep conversations were not as awkward as they thought they would be. Sure, they were a little bit awkward at first, but not as much as they thought. They liked the deep conversations better.” On Attention “For me, one of the practices that I’ve really tried to put into my life, in addition to going deeper in conversations, is really being aware of where my attention is when I am interacting with people. I’ve just noticed how good it feels to be the focus of someone’s attention, and being able to give that back is a really valuable gift, especially in these times when our attention is so limited, and being pulled in a million different directions. We all know how crummy it feels to be in an interaction, and somebody just picks up their phone and starts looking at their phone, or just looks away, and you can tell they’re not with you. I try my best to really give people my attention, and realize how valuable that is.  It also underscores a point that we make in the book, too, that I think a lot of people think to be liked, and to have a rich social life, you have to be incredibly charismatic, you have to have a great sense of humor, or all these stories to tell. And sure, those things help, but just being with someone, truly with someone, and giving them your attention, even if you’re quiet about it, that can also really boost connection and relationship quality. I’ve been trying to just be more aware of where my attention is, focused. So part of it, just with any habit, really starts with awareness.”

A great retirement takes work – and learning. In her seventh year in retirement, Judith Nadratowski joins us to share her lessons learned so far in her retirement journey – lessons that can help you plan better for yours. _____ Bio Judith Nadratowski is her seventh year of retirement after a 40-year career at Cleary Gottlieb, a top international law firm based in New York where she was most recently Manager, Partnership Resources & Executive Committee Matters. You can read more of Judith’s insights, ideas and reflections on retirement on her blog Retirement Commentaries. ______________________ For More on Judith Nadratowski Judith Nadratowki’s Retirement Commentaries ______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Life After Work – Brian Feutz Retirement Rookies – Stephen & Karen Kreider Yoder Strategic Quitting – Julia Keller The Vintage Years – Dr. Francine Toder _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. _______________________ Mentioned in This Episode Yes Man – Jim Carrey _______________________ Do Your Homework Explore summaries of the Best Books on Retirement ________________________ Wise Quotes On Being a Beginner “…being a beginner and learning to build things from scratch. I really went into my retirement thinking I would just really easily slip into my life. And now I could do all the things I never had the time to do. And that was exactly the reason I chose to retire. I wanted to take advantage of time. I was still in my early 60s and wanted to do new things and things I had done during a very demanding career. And I also wanted to search for a new focus. I knew I needed –  I dread using the purpose word, but that sense of purpose is something that I definitely felt I needed. And I knew that I wanted to search for something that would fill that, that I could really sink into…Retirement life takes some work and it’s not going to just happen and you have to be the catalyst. You have to figure out the gaps and start filling them in…you can really seriously think that you could try something new. So what I meant by being a beginner was I had to shed all of my sense of knowing everything and really strip down to get things that would bubble up, that would be of interest to me and to really that start from scratch. Design from the bottom up. And that wasn’t so easy when you’re used to mastering your job for quite some time.” On the Transition to Retirement “But the hardest thing for me, the challenge really was that my life wasn’t just that change in schedule. But it was [when] I realized how many intangibles my job gave me that I missed. And I wasn’t even able to articulate them at first. But as I started to think more deeply about them, I realized that my job really shaped so many things about me and was always in the background. It was how I saw myself, it was how I even chose to spend my free time. It was based around my job and how much time I would spend and even sometimes how I viewed other people. It was just so much a part of me that I never realized it was so entrenched so that when I started thinking about it, I knew that I was choosing my retirement. I was enthusiastic about it, but I felt lost. I couldn’t really figure out what those things were. And when you, if anyone were to ask me, well, what do you want to do? I couldn’t really come up with good ideas. I was really pretty lost that way. So I guess I would say how I met the challenge was one baby step at a time. I really just regained perspective. I felt that first I was kind of anxious and upset about it, but I just realized how fortunate I am to be in that position. And that helped a lot. It controls your emotions. And then I just took it in baby steps. I knew what I didn’t want to do. So I could start there, even if I didn’t know exactly what I did want to do.” On Saying No “When I stepped into retirement, my default was going to be yes. And that worked. That was good in the beginning, but it’s not necessarily the approach you can follow for a long time. And so what I’ve learned is that saying no isn’t a bad attitude and it isn’t it’s not necessarily that you’re being ungrateful or…being lazy about it. It’s really you saying on track, and for me, especially when I was in more kind of emotional or feeling like if I was unoccupied or a little frustrated and not getting where I wanted to be quick enough, if I had opportunities that really didn’t work or even ones I tried that I knew they weren’t working, I would almost default to yes, because I would think, Well, I don’t know, maybe it’ll be better. But deep down , really, I knew these were not working. So what I’ve learned is that having that kind of mission statement of what your values and goals are – and I mean goals in a very broad way – just what matters, how you want to spend your time – and if you have that as sort of your benchmark, it helps you,. It’s your framework, and it’ll help you make decisions. So saying no is a very positive thing is what I’ve learned.” On a Weekday Mindset “I think they would say it’s flexible within its structure and well-balanced and I think the part they would probably notice the most is that I’d like to keep a Weekday Mindset. I found what worked for me when I retired was I didn’t like that notion of every day is Saturday – that was like Oh my gosh! That was dreadful to me and I needed to put myself back on a weekday schedule. I’m certainly not strict but what I mean is that I use the mindset of the Monday through Friday rhythm and I like that. My work – and I put it in quotes ‘my work’ – which would be like my projects, my writing scheduling, meetings and things like that I do on a weekday schedule. Saturdays and Sundays, the weekends, are my time for leisure and fun activities and even desserts. So it works for me.” On Advice to Friends on Planning for Retirement “I know a friend who has said to me my retirement is just going to be sitting on the beach with a book. That might be what you think, but it really won’t be. I just want them to think about it as a lifetime and so I’d recommend reading to them. Think about why they wanted to retire. It’s not just about taking a vacation or stopping work, but what is beyond that? What does it mean to you? Think about what they think they might miss about their job. There will be some gaps to fill and there’s ways to do it, but you need to know what they are before you can start to do that.  I think also that there are retirement coaches and career coaches who are very helpful and can help you even a year out, I would say even more, but a year out would be a nice time…Even if you don’t know exactly how you’re going to do,  just build some awareness because I think that was something I lacked was that awareness. It’s very important to me and why my blog was born is to build some awareness. And the other thing I would tell them though is not to get too caught up in thinking you have to have all the answers. Because you want to,really be in the time and get to know who you are and what matters to you.”  

What’s the current stage of retirement and aging in the US? And how did we get here? James Chappel discusses his new book Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age, the impact of The Gray Panthers and why The Golden Girls is “the most important TV show in the history of American aging.” James Chappel joins us from Durham, North Carolina. ___________________ Bio James Chappel is the Gilhuly Family Associate Professor of History at Duke University and a senior fellow at the Duke Aging Center. He’s the author of the new book Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age, a history of aging, health, and disability in the USA from 1920 to the present. It appeared in November 2024 and has been widely reviewed in outlets like The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times. He received his PhD from Columbia University. At Duke, he works on the intellectual history of modern Europe and the United States, focusing on themes of religion, gender, and the family. He has published two books and published widely in both scholarly and non-scholarly sites (The New York Times, The Nation, and more).. He is currently co-chair of the Prison Engagement Initiative at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and founded the Duke-in-Prison lecture series. _______________________ For More on James  Chappel Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age by James Chappel _______________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode The Simpsons clip (2:45) _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy – Teresa Ghilarducci Life in Retirement: Expectations & Realities – Catherine Collinson Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller ______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. __________________________ Wise Quotes On The Gray Panthers “Actually, the 60s was a lot more intergenerational than people remember. There are a lot of older activists. And there also was a lot of old age activism. So what the finally winding back to your question, they’re kind of like the 60s for old people. Obviously the name, right? So the Great Panthers, it’s obviously a play in the Black Panthers. Black Panthers are, among many other things, kind of the more radical wing of the Civil Rights movement, just as the Gray Panthers were the more radical wing of the old age movement. There was a kind of mainstream old age movement, which was in favor of things like Medicare, which was great, you know, they succeeded. The Gray Panthers are more like the talented movement. They are more like less dramatically reoriented American society towards older people. And so they do a lot of amazing things that I think ought to be remembered. And I think that in 2025, what’s most striking about their activism is how, in today’s words, we’d say it’s very intersectional. So they don’t think about old age by itself. They actually think about old age and environmental justice. They think about old age and how to have like a greener society. They’re already doing this in the 1970s. They’re thinking about old age and racial justice. They’re paying a lot of attention to communities of color. They’re paying a lot of attention to nursing home residents. This is that period when the mainstream discussion of the AARP groups like that were paying very little attention to nursing. But the Great Panthers said, no, we have to pay attention to the most needy of us. We need to pay attention to nursing home residents. Let’s empower them. Let’s organize them. Let’s organize nursing home workers to improve their conditions and wages. And so I think that if we’re thinking in the 21st century about a [vision], which maybe not all of your listeners are, but I think it’s an important thing, a kind of more radical transformative vision for old age and old age policy, I think the Gray Panthers are the most interesting kind of recent group for things like that.” On The Golden Girls “A show like Gracesand Frankie, I don’t know what would the viewership numbers are,  probably a couple of hundred thousand people or so, whereas The Golden Girls, this is 30 or 40 million people watching it. I guess a lot of your viewers probably skew older if they might remember that world, but any younger listeners, which, might not know or even remember that once upon a time, a TV show could actually matter, because it’s watched by so many people. And The Golden Girls is one of those shows. So I think the Golden Girls is the most important TV show in the history of American aging. In the early days of TV and film, you do not see that many older people represented. And after World War II, when older people are represented at all, it’s mainly a negative portrayal.  Then the Golden Girls comes on the stage in the 1980s. And it’s a great show. It’s very funny. But what makes it revolutionary is that it’s a show about older women living alone. It’s basically about congregate housing. I can experiment in congregate housing for older women in 1980s Miami. That’s the show. It’s four older people, they aren’t even that old – three of the four characters are in their mid fifties, and one of them is in their mid seventies. And they have like kind of low status jobs, they’re substitute teachers and social workers, things like that. It was kind of interesting is that these are either single or divorced women in low status, low paying jobs. You would think a show like that would be like a depressing show. And that was always seen as like the worst case scenario. Here we have like retired unmarried school teachers, that’s like the neediest population of older women. And their children do not help them. But this is not a sad show. It is a happy show about what old age can be in late 20th century America. And so the show is a comedy. And if you watch the show, they do all kinds of things like they are like, it’s a very sexually liberated show. All four of the women are sexually active, like outside of marriage. They are doing lots of jobs. And so even though they’re, they’re really like in their over the course of the show, they’re kind of in their late 50s, early 60s.” On Retirement “Some of it is financial. Some people need to stay in their job. But a lot of people, including people in my own family, they don’t know what to do without their job. So they stay in their jobs, which has a numerous kind of negative consequences for the firms and also for younger workers, mainly because they don’t know what to do with retirement. And so I think that, I don’t know, a bigger public conversation about what retirement is, I think that we’re overdue for such a conversation.”

Are you thinking big enough about your retirement? You’ll have time for the things you always wanted to do but didn’t have time for in your full-time working years. With a blank canvas to work with, what are the meaningful personal goals you’d like to pursue now? How you start can make the difference. Caroline Adams Miller joins us to discuss her new book Big Goals: The Science of Setting Them, Achieving Them, and Creating Your Best Life  and how you can use a research-backed method to set challenging but attainable goals – and make this year your best year. Caroline Adams Miller joins us from Maryland. ________________________ Bio Caroline Adams Miller is a globally renowned expert in positive psychology, with a special focus on goals and grit. For over 30 years, she has been a trailblazer in advancing these fields, helping individuals and organizations reach their most ambitious goals and improve overall well- being. She was among the first to earn a Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006, a program pioneered by Dr. Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology. Caroline also graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, laying the groundwork for her future achievements in psychology and personal development. She is a black-belt martial artist and a Masters swimmer. Caroline is the author of nine influential books, including:  My Name is Caroline (Doubleday 1988, Gurze 2000, Cogent 2014), a pioneering recovery memoir that has given hope to countless individuals battling eating disorders. •    Getting Grit (SoundsTrue 2017), which explores the science of perseverance and was recognized as one of the “top ten books that will change your life” in 2017 and one of the “top 25 books that will help you find your purpose” in 2023. •    Creating Your Best Life (Sterling 2009, 2021), a #1-ranked book on goal-setting that combines the science of success with research on happiness and was the first mass-market book to bridge these fields using Locke and Latham’s goal- setting theory. •    Big Goals (Wiley, 2024), which offers an accessible, updated framework for achieving significant goals, incorporating modern research on mindset, grit, artificial intelligence, and resilience. It provides practical strategies for both personal and organizational success, grounded in 15 years of new research in positive psychology. This book is destined to change the way people view goalsetting and has been selected as a must-read for The Next Big Idea Club. Her books have been translated into multiple languages, including German, Korean, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Italian, reaching a global audience. Caroline’s impact on positive psychology has earned widespread recognition. Dr. Martin Seligman highlighted her work in Flourish, and Angela Duckworth, a leading researcher on grit, praised Caroline’s profound insights and practical applications of grit research, saying, “No one has thought more than Caroline about how to apply the scientific research on grit and achievement to our own lives!” A sought-after speaker, Caroline has presented at prestigious venues such as Wharton Business School’s Executive Education program and delivered a TEDx talk titled “The Moments That Make Champions,” resonating with audiences worldwide. Her work has been featured in major media outlets like BBC World News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, and CNN. She has consulted with high-profile clients, including Morgan Stanley, lululemon, Coldwell Banker, American Bankers Association, Blizzard Entertainment, RE/MAX, Booz Allen, Harvard Law School, The World Bank, and Swisse Wellness, helping them pursue ambitious goals and create environments that foster success and well-being. Caroline’s memoir My Name is Caroline details her personal journey of overcoming bulimia and demonstrates her belief in the power of grit and goal setting. She emphasizes that pursuing hard, meaningful goals is one of the most fulfilling paths in life, leading to deep personal and professional growth. Through her books, speeches, and consulting, Caroline Adams Miller continues to inspire and empower people and organizations around the world to harness grit and positive psychology, achieve their highest potential, and transform their lives. ________________________ For More on Caroline Adams Miller Big Goals: The Science of Setting Them, Achieving Them, and Creating Your Best Life For More on Big Goals Website ________________________ Podcast Episodes You  May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile How to Begin – Michael Bungay Stanier Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Think Big – Dr. Grace Lordan __________________________ Wise Quotes On Why Goals Matter “….it’s interesting that when you stop testing yourself, when you stop seeking novelty, when you start to think that taking risks is going to a new restaurant, then you start to die while you’re alive.  And for women in particular, what happens is we’re finding that women are dying more and more in midlife from diseases of despair because they have not reinvented themselves or found a new purpose for themselves because many of them get divorced, their bodies change, their children have moved on, or they’ve been primary caretakers, or even secondary caregivers. For women, it’s a very different phase of life and you need to surround yourself with a tribe of people who want to see the world the way you should be seeing the world.” On Why SMART Goals Aren’t Very… Smart “…there is a real science to it and that SMART goals is not science. In fact, SMART goals qualifies for jargon mishmash syndrome, which means that acronym and those letters mean different things to different people. So it’s lost its power. But many of the definitions of it are attainable or realistic. And if you’ve had any kind of brush with Goal Setting Theory, you know that Locke and Latham said, if you want the best possible outcome with your goals, they have to be challenging and specific. So attainable and realistic goals are what’s called low goals. You do not get best outcomes from that. And unfortunately, in 1982, this dude who was running a workshop came up with it and it’s sticky. And the scary thing is you go into any form of artificial intelligence from Claude to Perplexity and if you ask about goal setting, it shoots back SMART goals. So I’m very aware that this inconsistency between the science and this kind of ‘Zombie Goal Theory’ that should be dead by now, but it’s not.  It’s still alive walking around. I’m very aware that it has caught on to the point where people think it’s real. And I’m up against the tide of people who think it’s real, but it’s time we have access to the research.” On the Heliotropic Effect ” So the Heliotropic Effect…this is Barbara Fredrickson’s wonderful work showing that all living beings, human beings and plants and flowers, all open up and become our best selves when we’re around the warmth of the sun, Helios’s sun. And when we’re around people who shine their warmth of approval, kindness and support on us, that’s when we become our best selves.  That’s when we thrive. And if you don’t know who those people are in your life, it’s important that you know Shelly Gable’s research showing that the one way to tell if someone will have the Heliotropic Effect on you and your goals is if you float a trial balloon, some fake good news or some big dream of yours and you watch how they respond. And if they don’t respond with two things, curiosity and enthusiasm, they have just told you who they are. And the dangerous thing is you’re likely to abandon your goals in the next week. If you share that good news or that dream with somebody else. Shelly Gable, the researcher, said, it’s like hitting the red button on the smoke alarm. You’ll know and just see who has your back.” ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn  

What’s your purpose now? It’s a big question, an important one – and one that many people get stuck on when they retire. Dr. Jordan Grumet believes we need to change how we think about purpose. He rejoins us to discuss his new book The Purpose Code: How to unlock meaning, maximize happiness, and leave a lasting legacy. Jordan Grumet joins us from Illinois. _________________________ Bio Jordan Grumet, born in Evanston, Illinois in 1973, found the spark to become a doctor after a deeply personal event reshaped his life’s trajectory. The unexpected loss of his father, an oncologist, ignited a passion within him to practice medicine and instilled a unique vantage point that later melded seamlessly with his financial expertise. This convergence of roles has spurred him to explore profound notions like wealth, abundance, and financial independence with a thoughtful and critical lens. Completing his studies at the University of Michigan, Jordan earned his medical degree from Northwestern University before embarking on a journey in Internal Medicine in Northbrook, Illinois. Presently, he serves as an associate medical director at Unity Hospice. With a profound understanding of both medicine and finance, Jordan unveiled his thoughts through blogging, specifically focusing on financial independence and wellness. This passion culminated in the launch of the Earn & Invest podcast in 2018. His dedication bore fruit in 2019 when he was honored with the Plutus Award for Best New Personal Finance Podcast, followed by consecutive nominations for Best Personal Finance Podcast of the year in 2020 and 2021. In August 2022, Jordan’s literary pursuit took shape as his book, Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor’s Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life, was published by Ulysses Press. His second book, The Purpose Code, was published by Harriman House Press. Jordan’s journey intertwines medical insight and financial wisdom, resonating deeply with those seeking a balanced, meaningful life. _________________________ For More on Dr. Jordan Grumet The Purpose Code Website Our first podcast conversation with Jordan Grumet on Taking Stock _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. __________________________ Wise Quotes On Purpose “The studies show that purpose in life is associated with health, happiness, and longevity, very clearly in tons of studies. On the other hand, I found other studies that show that up to 91% of people get anxious when it comes to purpose at least some point in their life, they feel frustrated and thwarted and depressed. And so the big question is how could it be both? And what I really came to the conclusion is purpose is not one thing but two. And one of those versions of purpose, what I call big P purpose, is more associated with anxiety while the other, what I call little p purpose, is probably more associated with that happiness, longevity, and health. And so I wrote this book to help people pursue that better version of purpose.” On Purpose Anchors “People think purpose is this big thing that either they find, it falls on them from the sky, or they don’t find it.And if they find it, life is great. And if they don’t find it, everything’s miserable. And I often argue that you don’t find purpose, you build purpose.  You have to have these inklings, these beckonings, these interests to start building a life of purpose around. I call those purpose anchors. And so really the first step is to  get in touch with what your purpose anchors are, so that you can then build a life of purpose around them.” On Building Purpose “The first step is to really get in touch with what your purpose anchors are so that you can then build a life of purpose around them. So there are lots of different ways to do this. There are a few that I really love – a big one is regret. So I deal with dying patients all the time, and they talk to me about their regrets. Regret in a dying patient is sad because they don’t have agency to do anything about it. But if you have regrets when you’re much younger, when you’re not on your deathbed, you can actually turn those around into a purpose anchor. For me, writing a book would have been a deathbed regret if I had never done it. And so I knew, Okay, I have to start building a life of purpose around that. That’s one of the easy ways – regrets. Another way is the joys of childhood. Look, almost all of us have things we loved as a child when we did things that were really purposeful, that we didn’t worry about what society says or what we were supposed to do for a living. We just did them because we enjoy them. And then we got older and we tend to drop those things not because we didn’t love them anymore. Usually we just got too busy. So the joys of childhood are a great way to find some purpose anchors. Another great way is what I call the artist subtraction. You can look at your job and get rid of everything you don’t like, what’s left. I did this with being a doctor. Hospice medicine was left when I got rid of everything I didn’t like. And so I knew that was a purpose anchor. And last but not least, I talk about the spaghetti method all the time. Look, throw a bunch of stuff against the wall, see what sticks. That means try things you don’t normally try. Hang out with people you don’t normally hang out with. People will say yes more often and see if you like any of it. ”

What mindset are bringing to this winter season? Kari Leibowitz joins us to discuss her book How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days with interesting and useful ideas on how to make this winter special. Yes, special. Kari Leibowitz joins us from Amsterdam. ____________________ Bio Kari Leibowitz, author of How to Winter, is a health psychologist, speaker, and writer. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Stanford University, served as a US-Norway Fulbright Scholar, and taught the “Mindsets Matter” Stanford Continuing Studies Course. Leibowitz combines scholarly expertise with practical strategies to help people understand and harness the power of their mindsets and find joy in winter. Her writing on the power of the wintertime mindset has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, and many other publications have reported on her work including The Guardian, The Financial Times, BBC, and The Telegraph. She has taught winter workshops to businesses, universities, non-profits, and organizations around the world. ______________________ For More on Kari Leibowitz How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days Website ______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Happier Hour – Cassie Holmes, PhD Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Joy Choice – Dr. Michelle Segar _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn ______________________ Wise Quotes On Slowing Down “…it’s objectively true that winter is the darkest season, it’s the coldest season, it may be the wettest, windiest season, depending on where you live. But I think that there are so many opportunities in the cold and in the darkness. And I think one of the things that we can really appreciate is winter as a time of year when we get to slow down, and when it really can feel good to slow down. So I think a lot of people who struggle with winter are struggling with feeling the effects of the darkness on their energy with feeling more tired, or maybe less motivated or a little bit down. But when we see this not as a problem, but a natural response to a change in our environment, we can really embrace that as winter as a time for being cozy at home for reading that file of books on our nightstand or catching up on our TV shows or artistic pursuits, cooking and baking. So I think part of what we need to do to rehab winter’s PR image is to start appreciating the season for what it is and asking what feels good when it’s dark and cold out and how can we help people embrace and enjoy those activities for this time of year?” On Mindset “So a lot of listeners might be familiar with Carol Dweck’s work on the growth and fixed mindsets about intelligence, whether our intelligence is something sort of set or fixed about us or whether it can grow with effort. And another of my mentors at Stanford, Aliyah Crum, who runs the Stanford Mind and Body Lab, has really expanded on that work to look at mindsets in health and mindsets in performance and mindsets in wellbeing. And, I think it’s really easy to look at mindsets as something magical. I adopted this mindset that winter is wonderful and all of a sudden my life changes and the season changes and everything is sunshine and rainbows. But what I love about Carol’s work and my mentor, Aliyah Crum’s work, and really being a psychologist who studies mindset is that you can unpack of the mechanisms by which mindset influences our health and well-being. So our mindset influences things like our attention, what we notice. So when we make an effort to try to have a more positive mindset about winter, to see winter is full of opportunity, then rather than attending to every time we feel cold or having to shovel our driveway when it snows or how tired we feel when the sun sets earlier, we might attend to different things. We might attend to how beautiful the world looks in the snow or how the cold air can feel crisp and refreshing and sort of wake us up in the morning or you know make us feel more ready to come in and get cozy and get ready for bed at night. We might notice how the darkness is an opportunity to eat dinner by candlelight or have intimate conversations with family or friends. And so when we start thinking about cultivating a more positive wintertime mindset, it changes what we notice, which is then going to change what we’re motivated to do, how we interact with the world around us, which is going to change how we experience the season.” On How to Winter “What are the things that maybe I don’t have time for in other seasons or things that feel good in the darkness or in the cold. I would recommend leaning into those things and prioritizing them because when you have things that you look forward to doing that feel special to the winter they really help you reclaim the season. I think that doing this with just a little bit more intention and with a little bit more of an eye towards trying to embrace and celebrate the season can really change your experience of these winter months. The first step of cultivating one of these more positive mindsets is to just notice your mindset about winter and set that intention to start noticing things a little bit differently and trying to attend to the parts of winter that you find enjoyable.”  

Happy New Year! What will make you happy this year? Our guest today, Stephanie Harrison, author of New Happy, believes that it’s time to retire the old beliefs about happiness. If you’re moving on from full-time work, you’ll want to hear her research-based ideas to reimagine what happiness will be like in this new phase of life – and how to move on from the “old happy.” In addition to her book, I highly recommend her newsletter, and join over 1 million people who also love her work. Stephanie Harrison joins us from California. _______________________ Bio Stephanie Harrison is author of New Happy: Getting Happiness Right in a World That’s Got It Wrong and the creator of the New Happy philosophy and an expert in the science of well-being. Her company, The New Happy, teaches millions of people around the world how to be happier every day. She has a Masters Degree in positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was later an instructor. Previously, she was the head of Learning at Thrive Global, where she directed the development of science-backed programs for well-being that reaches millions of employees at Fortune 500 companies around the world. ________________________ For More on Stephanie Harrison Read New Happy: Getting Happiness Right in a World That’s Got It Wrong  The New Happy website Sign up for the free weekly Newsletter ________________________ Mentioned in This Episode How To Become A Wiser Person _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Happier Hour – Cassie Holmes, PhD Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman The Power of Fun – Catherine Price The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn ________________________ Wise Quotes  The New Happy vs. Old Happy “I now define happiness in a very different way than I did when I was younger…It’s the state of being connected to yourself, others, and the world around you. That’s how I would describe the experience of it. And then I define the pathway to getting that as having these two pillars of being who you are and then using who you are to help other people. So that, which I just said, is the New Happy. And then Old Happy is what society teaches us about happiness – what we need to do and achieve and become in order to experience that state of well-being that we’re all looking for. And Old Happy tells us that if we want to be happy, we have these three core tasks that we have to accomplish. We have to perfect ourselves, essentially optimize ourselves in every possible way. We have to achieve certain societally approved goals, things that are venerated or celebrated in our society. And three, we have to do everything alone. We are separate from other people and we have to do these things without leaning on them, without asking for help, without being a part of a community.” On Retirement & Identity  “…if your identity is entirely centred upon your workplace role and your title, then of course it feels incredibly destabilizing if that’s taken away. It’s like you’re trying to live in a house with the foundation ripped out. It’s not going to work very well. And I think that there are different things that you can do depending on what stage you’re in, whether you’re approaching retirement or already in a state of retirement. But if you’re already retired and you’re experiencing that loss of identity, what I would tell you is that you have so many wonderful, amazing gifts that just need a new location to be used. They don’t have to be used in the same way that they were before. So if you were working at a job and you had this amazing career and you developed all of these skills and talents, then that gives you something to use. And those things are very much needed in the world, in our communities, in nonprofits, in our families and all of these different environments. And so what I would say to you is separate yourself from the job, identify the skills that you now possess through all of that work, and then think about where could I use these? Where could I be of service and use these to support other people? And that’s going to help you to rediscover who you are, but also to bring you that sense of meaning that often disappears with retirement.” On Purpose “I think purpose is inextricably tied to happiness. I’m not sure that there’s a real experience of happiness that’s divorced from purpose. I say that because scientists often break up happiness into these two different dimensions. There’s hedonic happiness, which is essentially pleasure, feeling good and then there’s eudaimonic happiness, which is what I’m talking about. And that’s essentially  living at your fullest capacity and cultivating yourself in a way that contributes also to the world around you. And if you’re doing that, then you’ve inevitably found some sort of purpose in your life. And I think that the purpose is what gives us a much more stable experience of happiness.  Your purpose is something where it drives you every single day. It provides you with meaningful feedback and the opportunity to grow, and the chance to see how your efforts matter and make a difference. We can find purpose in our jobs, of course, but there are so many other venues that it can be found in as well, whether that’s through sharing your knowledge and your wisdom with people who are younger than you, who desperately need it, who are looking for these answers and don’t know where to find it.”

Thinking of retiring? Start here with our Best Books on Retirement summaries. _____________________ Before we move on to a new season of the podcast, let’s catch up on our best conversations with a question in mind: Which one of these retirement lessons can I apply in 2025? Click the links below for the full conversations: How Not to Age – Dr. Michael Greger The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace The Balancing Act in Retirement – Stew Friedman The Fourth Quarter – Allen Hunt Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile Changing Lanes to Make a Difference – Jennifer Jacobs _______________________ Other Best Of Episodes Best of the Retirement Wisdom Podcast 2024 – Part 3 Best of 2023 – Part 3 The Very Best of 2022 The Best of 2021 – Retirement Wisdom _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn

Make 2025 your year! Free 2-part Workshop to build 3 new habits January 3 and 10th  – 12 Noon Eastern – 1 hour via Zoom Sign Up here _________________________ While we focus on the non-financial aspects of retirement here, your money clearly matters. With a new year around the corner we check back in with economist Larry Kotlikoff, author of Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money,Less Risk and a Better Life, for his views on what may lie ahead, common mistakes to avoid with Social Security, how you can Maximize (Your) Social Security, why Roth IRA conversions make sense for many people and his retirement planning software MaxiFi. Larry Kotlikoff joins us from Rhode Island. _________________________ Bio Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a William Fairfield Warren Professor at Boston University, a Professor of Economics at Boston University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., a company specializing in financial planning software, a Research Associate of the Gaidar Institute, and a Research Fellow of the Goodman Institute. Kotlikoff is also a New York Times Best Selling author. The Economist Magazine ranked Kotlikoff one of the world’s 25 most influential economists. Professor Kotlikoff received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1977. From 1977 through 1983, Kotlikoff served on the faculties of economics of the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale University. In 1981-82 Professor Kotlikoff was a Senior Economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Professor Kotlikoff’s writings and research address personal finance, inequality, taxation, Social Security, climate change, investing, healthcare, deficits, and insurance. Professor Kotlikoff is author or co-author of 20 books, hundreds of professional journal articles, and a multitude of op eds and blogs. His most recent books are Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money,Less Risk and a Better Life, You’re Hired, Get What’s Yours – the Revised Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security (a NY Times Best Seller co-authored with Philip Moeller and Paul Solman), The Clash of Generations (co-authored with Scott Burns), The Economic Consequences of the Vickers Commission, Jimmy Stewart Is Dead, Spend ‘Til the End, (co-authored with Scott Burns), Generational Policy (MIT Press), The Healthcare Fix, and The Coming Generational Storm (co-authored with Scott Burns). Kotlikoff’s columns have appeared in The NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Hill, The Financial Times, The Times of London, Forbes, CBNC, Bloomberg, PBS NewsHour, The Dallas News, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Seattle Times, Vox, Fortune, Seeking Alpha, Yahoo.com, VoxEU, Huffington Post, and other leading media. Kotlikoff has served as a consultant to the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Harvard Institute for International Development, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Swedish Ministry of Finance, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Italy, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the Government of Russia, the Government of Ukraine, the Government of Bolivia, the Government of Bulgaria, the Treasury of New Zealand, the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Joint Committee on Taxation, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The American Council of Life Insurance, Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Investments, AT&T, AON Corp., and other major U.S. corporations. Kotlikoff has provided expert testimony on numerous occasions to committees of Congress including the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Budget Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee.  Kotlikoff’s company markets economics-based financial planning software, including maxifiplanner.com, maximizemysocialssecurity.com, and analyzemydivorcesettlement.com. __________________________ For More on Laurence J. Kotlikoff MaxiFi financial planning software Maximize My Social Security, Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money,Less Risk, and a Better Life Website: Kotlikoff.net Follow on Twitter @Kotlikoff ___________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Retirement Savings Time Bomb – Ed Slott An Economist’s Take on Retirement Planning – Larry Kotlikoff The Key Decisions for Retirement Success – Wade Pfau _____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _____________________ Wise Quotes On Social Security Mistakes “Well, almost everybody’s taking Social Security as soon as they can, or as soon as soon as they retire. And so we’re talking about probably 90% of people taking it before 65 or at 65. And that’s for almost everybody way too early. So we have, and when we’re talking about the typical American household leaving $182,000 on the table by taking the wrong benefits at the wrong time. And so going too early, not knowing about all the benefits that they have available, not running optimization software. I have a software company that has a $49 tool, which is called Maximize My Social Security, which for 49 bucks, you can figure out what to do in terms of raising your lifetime benefits. And it can be, for some people, we’ve raised their benefits with our tool, just that alone by $600,000. If you talk about a high earning couple, both of whom want to take benefits, retire at 62 and take benefits at 62. Well, rather than 70, when their benefit would start 76% higher adjusted for inflation. This is like the dumbest thing in the world. If you’re cashflow constrained, you should borrow steal or beg from your brother to give you money to get by to let, and then pay them back when you get this much higher benefit because it’s fantastic return to patients. And a lot of people are doing this because they’re being focused. by the financial industry by Wall Street on life expectancy. Hey, your life expectancy is only this, you better take your money because if you don’t take it, you’re going to lose it. So if you don’t take your Social Security at 62 and you die at 63, where are you going to be? You’re going to be in heaven, right? And you’re not going to need any money. So the idea that you’re going to lose it, well, you’re not going to lose it, okay? What you’re really going to lose is the insurance protection. When you’re 98 and you’ve lived that long and you’ve had to pay for yourself that whole way, not having a 76% higher number every month coming in to your bank account. So Social Security is longevity insurance. And if social security, which is our largest insurance company in the world, would take off all these life expectancy calculators on its website and it’s like having a health. It’s like having a homeowners insurance company putting onto their website a calculator that says what your expected loss from a fire is. And they’ll show everybody that it’s not that big and not that many fires. So therefore don’t buy full coverage. Let your house burn down and because it’s not going to happen on that often. Yeah, but you only have one house, right? You only have one life. You’re not going to die on time. Nobody dies on time. You can’t count on dying on time. So you have and then you also have people with this psychology that if they think about living to 100, they’re going to die the next morning, if they’re going to jinx themselves. Well, OK, but they do think about their house burning down and they ensure against it, right? It doesn’t it doesn’t lead to their house burning down, but and that’s money well lost if your house doesn’t burn down, right having paid that premium.” _______________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified

Make the New Year Your Best Year Free 2-part Workshop to build 3 new habits January 3 and 10th  – 12 Noon Eastern – 1 hour via Zoom Sign Up here _______________________ As the year winds down, it’s time to reflect – and look ahead. Carol Orsborn, author of the new book Spiritual Aging: Weekly Reflections for Embracing Life, explains why it’s a wise move to continue that practice  with weekly reflections to tune into the spiritual side of aging. Carol Orsborn joins us from Tennessee. _______________________ Bio Dr. Carol Orsborn is the best-selling author of over 35 books including her forthcoming Spiritual Aging: Weekly Reflections for Embracing Life. Her body of work includes The Making of an Old Soul: Aging as the Fulfillment of Life’s Promise.  Older, Wiser, Fiercer: The Wisdom Collection  and 2015 Gold Nautilus Book Award winner in the category of Consciously Aging: The Spirituality of Age: A Seeker’s Guide to Growing Older (with Robert L. Weber, Ph.D.) She has recently launched the Spiritual Aging Study and Support Group (SASS) at Spiritual Aging@ Substack.com.  She founded the Conscious Aging Book Club in conjunction with Parnassus Books and now housed at CarolOrsborn.com, and the Sage-ing Book Club run in conjunction with the leading organization in the field Sage-ing International Carol is curator of Fierce with Age:  The Archives of Boomer Wisdom, Inspiration, and Spirituality, housed at CarolOrsborn.com and a leading voice of the conscious aging and spirituality and aging movements.  For the past decade, she has also blogged about the Boomer Generation for Huffington Post, BeliefNet.com and PBS’s Next Avenue, among others. Dr. Orsborn received her Masters of Theological Studies and Doctorate in History and Critical Theory of Religion from Vanderbilt University with post-graduate work in Spiritual Counseling at the New Seminary in Manhattan. She is an internationally-recognized thought leader on the fulfillment of the human potential through all life stages. For the past forty years, Dr. Orsborn has been a leading voice of her generation, appearing on Oprah, NBC Nightly News and on The Today Show among many others. Her blogs have appeared regularly in Huffington Post, Beliefnet, NPR’s Next Avenue and McKnights, among others.  She has been  a frequent speaker at conferences and events such as the American Society of Aging, Sage-ing International Conference, Boomerstock, the Positive Aging Conference, Omega Institute and the American Academy of Religion. Dr. Orsborn established her reputation as a generational expert as co-founder of the first global initiative by a top ten PR company dedicated to helping brands such as Ford, AARP, Prudential and Humana communicate with Boomers. She has brought her talks and retreats on resilience, spirituality and aging to such venues as Omega Institute, American Society of Aging, Positive Aging Conference, Vanderbilt University Hospital and many other aging, healthcare, spiritual and religious groups. Dr. Orsborn received her Doctorate in History and Critical Theory of Religion from Vanderbilt University, specializing in adult development and ritual studies, including intergenerational values formation and transmission. She has served on the faculties of Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount and Georgetown Universities.  Dr. Orsborn lives in Nashville, Tennessee and Toronto, Canada. ________________________ For More on Carol Orsborn Spiritual Aging: Weekly Reflections for Embracing Life Website Substack ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Vintage Years – Dr. Francine Toder Slow Living – Stephanie O’Dea From Role to Soul – Connie Zweig Getting Good at Getting Older – Rabbi Laura Geller ________________________ Thinking of retiring? Start here with our Best Books on Retirement summaries _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn _______________________ Wise Quotes On Purpose “…my doctorate is in History and Critical Theory of Religion. And I looked at the phenomenon of meaning and religion and spirituality through every academic lens that there is – sociological, anthropological, philosophical. And when I came to the end of all of the scientific explanations, there was something that I think William James called something more. What is the something more? There’s always something more that you can’t explain. And that is the world of spirit. Some people are more comfortable with the word spirit than spirituality. But I think we all know what it means to, to have your spirit intact, to feel like there’s something more, and that you’re here for a purpose…And if you’re aging, my favorite theory that I practice is that aging is not just a problem to be solved. Aging itself is a spiritual experience. So where is that something more?” On Unretiring “But why I ended up unretiring three times now is because after a long period of time of having freedom, having quality relationships with my friends, going slower, sitting by the river, reading the classics, whatever it is I wanted to do, I would hear a voice in my mind that I recognize as being called. And I was called to write three books. And so I came out of retirement for each of the three books. And I’m really proud of these three books, but the most recent time was the current book, Spiritual Aging: Weekly Reflections for Embracing Life.” On Solitude and Freedom “I was alone, but I wasn’t lonely. And what I was was practicing solitude, a contemplative lifestyle. And what we are in society is uneducated about the things that are unpopular or not talked about much in society, how they can be held differently. And there’s vast literature out there about the joys of solitude and the benefits of it. And some for short term and some as a lifestyle. And what we have to do is stop judging ourselves and judging others. And I go to Ram Dass who taught me, there is no right or wrong way to age. There’s only your way. So if I am finally giving myself permission to spend long periods of time alone, you know, not trying to be popular, not going to every party, and not worrying about fear of missing out. What a blessing to me. That’s freedom.” _________________________  

Make the New Year Your Best Year Free 2-part Workshop to build 3 new habits January 3 and 10th  – 12 Noon Eastern – 1 hour via Zoom Sign Up here  _______________________ It’s a great time of year to slow down. But what about next year? Is it time for slow living? Stephanie O’Dea, author of Slow Living: Cultivating a Life of Purpose in a Hustle-Driven World, shares her personal experiences with slowing down, the benefits of living a different lifestyle and how to get started. Stephanie O’Dea joins us from California. __________________ Bio Stephanie O’Dea is a New York Times best selling author, host of the Slow Living Podcast, and a mom of three. She writes, coaches, teaches, and speaks about all things Slow Living. In 2008, Stephanie made a New Year’s resolution to use her crockpot slow cooker every day for a year and write about it online. This simple idea resulted in 10 books, a spot on the New York Times best-sellers list, and a job that she loves — and one she can do at home, in her pajamas. Stephanie has appeared on Good Morning America, The Rachael Ray Show, featured in Real Simple Magazine, Woman’s World, and Oprah.com. She is a contributing editor to Simply Gluten Free Magazine and is featured in the infomercial for the Ninja Cooking System. For a more comprehensive press listing, please visit her online home at stephanieodea.com. _______________________ For More on Stephanie O’Dea Slow Living: Cultivating a Life of Purpose in a Hustle-Driven World Website Podcast _______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Power of Saying No – Vanessa Patrick, PhD We’re All Ageing. Are You Up for a Bolder Approach? – Carl Honoré ________________________ Wise Quotes On Habits “And so if you have a long list of New Year’s resolutions or things that you want to change about yourself or habits you want to start or habits you want to stop, that’s okay. If for some reason, you have ‘fallen off the wagon’ on March 1st, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It just means that you’ve taken a little bit of a pause. And so I’m a huge fan of like 30 day challenges and things like that. But what I joke with my coaching clients is who cares if it took you 45 days to meet a 30 day goal in the great big, huge scheme of things and the trajectory of your life, it’s just a teeny, tiny blip. So I don’t want people to think that they’ve failed when they’ve really just stumbled in real life. There’s there’s ups and downs and all arounds and we’ve got hurricanes and natural disasters and the roof blows off and and and that’s real life.” On Creating Your Mood “…Mindset + Action + Consistency = Success. So when you’re in a good mood, that’s mindset, For me, I like… journaling, yoga, going on long walks, spending time in nature. That’s how I get myself in a good mood. And it is different for everybody. Although I will say that if you’re getting yourself in a good mood by a vice that might not be healthy for you in the long term, pay attention to that. Find your good mood in healthy ways. And then ask yourself these open-ended questions. And the answers that come back are the action steps to take. And then consistency is doing the things you told yourself you would do on a consistent basis. And it also means that sometimes you might not want to do those things, but you sort of convince yourself to do them anyways. Real life. Lots of variables that you can’t control. So humans like to feel as if they can control things. So in order to get that sort of feeling of control, many times the first step is s to sort of declutter things that aren’t working for you. And it could be physical items in your home if they’re creating kind of this brain noise every time you look at your desk, it makes you feel stressed out. Okay, that’s something to pay attention to. It could be too many obligations on your calendar. And that means that for a while you need to declutter and start saying no to things just so you have a little bit more space in your day-to-day. It could also be particular people and relationships that you need to declutter. And maybe not forever, but maybe you hit the pause button and no one needs to know either. And then later, when you start to feel calmer and more, quote unquote, in control, you can begin to add things back into your life.” On Redefining Success “It’s a great question because I think sometimes markers are of success. People are looking for external validation. And so, if you’re a doctor or a lawyer or something like that, you’ve quote unquote made it in life. and you’re successful. I would ask for you and your listeners to write out what their version of success looks like. For some people that’s living in a high-rise in Manhattan. For some it’s living on a farm with some sheep and goats and walking the property every morning and feeling the dew on their boots. The accolades have to come from within. I would like for you to climb into bed each night feeling content and feeling at peace and knowing I did my best. Maybe there’s no one to see it but if there’s food in the fridge and happy kids and happy relationship and I can crawl around on the floor with my grandchildren great that’s success.  You may never be internet famous. You may never have a Tesla. And that’s OK. You get to decide what success looks like for you.” On Starting Now “I know since you talk about the idea of retiring into something instead of leaving, it’s not this like clear, thick, dark line, like this was Former Me and this is Future Me. I would want you to start to envelop your new habits now while you’re still working. So, if you think, Oh, when I retire, I’m going to start doing yoga every single day, okay, great, but you can also start doing yoga now and see if you’re even interested in it. 10 minutes and 20 minutes completely counts when you’re trying on a new habit or hobby for size.” _______________________ Thinking of retiring? Start here with our Best Books on Retirement summaries _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. Connect on LinkedIn        

It’s time to catch up on any of our best podcast conversations you may have missed this fall. Listen to any of the full podcast conversations below: Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile The Good Life – Marc Schulz The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD Passion and Purpose – Jim Ansara How to Retire – Christine Benz __________________ Other Best Of Episodes: Best of 2024 – Part Two Best of 2024 – Part One Best of 2023 – Part Three _______________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.        

Retiring? Don’t drift into the lazy river. Design Your New (active and interesting) Life. Learn More _______________________ In days gone by, people used to think they were done – and headed off to retirement. Not any more. Now, the questions to ask yourself  are what’s my potential for the likely decades that lie ahead? And how can I live well – and wisely? Ben Lytle, former CEO of Anthem, and author of The Potentialist: The Pursuit of Wisdom, believes that wisdom and potential are our ideal adaptive responses for the interesting times we’re living in today. He also believes that wisdom and untapped potential reside in everyone, waiting to be released. Ben Lytle joins us from Scottsdale, Arizona. __________________ Bio Ben Lytle is a self-made serial entrepreneur and CEO known for being ahead of the curve. He is the author of “The Potentialist: Your Future in the New Reality of the Next Thirty Years,” a guidebook for success during the fast-changing, turbulent, and opportunity-rich times ahead. His new book in the series is The Potentialist: The Pursuit of Wisdom. Ben is best known as the founding CEO of Anthem, Inc. (NYSE), one of the leading US health plans with a market capitalization placing it in the top tier of the Fortune 500; and Acordia, Inc. (NYSE), which became the world’s sixth-largest insurance broker. He cofounded three companies with his entrepreneurial son, Hugh, and invests in technologies that address New Reality challenges, such as increasing productivity to offset declining populations, caring for the elderly, and preserving human legacies. Ben has extensive public policy experience at the state and federal levels and has held board leadership roles in a wide range of industries. His contributions have been recognized by numerous awards and in books and periodicals. He has been a speaker and university guest lecturer on health, healthcare policy, entrepreneurship, and human potential throughout his career. Beyond his career, Ben’s passions include his family of three adult children and eight adult grandchildren, along with lifelong avocations for physical fitness, travel, reading, human potential, the future, and education. ________________________ For More on Ben Lytle The Potentialist: The Pursuit of Wisdom Website – potentialistfuture.com ________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode The Many Ways WSJ Readers Use AI in Their Everyday Lives ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD Turning the Page in Retirement – Stephen Riggio Your Next Act – Robert B. Tucker __________________________ Wise Quotes On Refining, Not Retiring “…this started about 20 years ago. I had recently stepped down. I’ve never really retired. I have refined and I’ll explain that. But I had stepped down from Anthem and I was asked to write an article about what it was like to be running this gigantic enterprise and then suddenly go be doing startups and all other kinds of things, wilderness hiking and all kinds of things. And I wrote the title of the article, and ended up being in search of a phase name because I felt that at that time I didn’t have the word yet. But I said, you know, I don’t see anybody retired in the industrial age concept. The concept was you work, you retire and then you die about three or four years later, but you have a few years there. Well, it’s not that way anymore. First of all, we live a lot longer. And so we’re essentially increasingly changing careers or changing our direction in life in in midlife, almost midlife or at the two-thirds point. You’re not down within the 10 yard line. And so it’s really changed. And so it does need a new definition. And so it hit me a few years ago about when I was writing the first book, the word refinement and to me, Joe, refinement means this is the age of discovery.” On Experimenting “Earlier in life we expect we can just do it because we want to do it. Find out what lights you up. Find that creative core. And then you have to be patient when you have to experiment. I experimented with a whole bunch of things before I found what I was going to do in this next part of my life. And it’s okay, but I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that. You know what? Okay, I like this. Take risks. One of the most beautiful things about this stage in life is I hope all your listeners hear, I know I am, I don’t care what anybody thinks.” On Wisdom “Wisdom to me is a very clear process. First of all, you can just clear off the table what it is not. It is not age. We speak of people wise beyond their years. We say out of the mouths of babes. So even children can express wisdom and that’s science. It’s also not knowledge. Like age, knowledge helps because you do get some barnacles just by living. You learn a little bit. That doesn’t make you wise. And we all know some older people who are definitely not wise. But it’s not knowledge directly either. Some people who are very simple people have a way of seeing life as it really is and living life as it really is. And they may be very uneducated, but they’re wise. And I know some of them very well. And they’re actually fascinating people. It’s not IQ. It’s not traditional measures of success, money, fame, power, social status. We can find fools in all of those. But what it is, it is what I love. The classical definition for wisdom is so beautiful. It’s poetic. It’s the art of living well. Is that fabulous? It’s the art of living well.” On Living Well and Wisely “Well, then that begs the question, how do you live well? You make wise decisions throughout your life, wiser than most other people, wiser than you would have ever made had you not pursued being wise. Okay, that’s good. Well, then how do you make wise decisions? It’s got two parts to it. One, if you develop the capacity for wisdom, that’s the preparation for wisdom. That’s where you can actually learn this stuff. So you develop this capacity for wisdom your entire life and you get wiser and wiser as you’re accumulating. And that’s where knowledge can play a part. But then in the moment of decision, you have to be free of those things that will cause you to act unwisely. And that formula right there is what causes even wise people like Gandhi to have made bad decisions at times, unwise decisions – not bad, unwise. Because our church here, they were incredibly wise people, but in the moment of decision, something got them and they got or distracted them and they didn’t act wisely. So what is the capacity for wisdom then that we’re developing? That’s perspective, learning to get above the day to day, the bird’s eye view, see the forest instead of the trees, look back in time to how I got here, look at today clearly, see reality clearly, and look forward. That’s perspective. That’s really important. I would say that’s the biggest missing element in most people when they act unwisely. The second is seeing reality. You think, Wow, I see reality. What are you talking about? Well, hang on a minute. Our good old ego, our not so good old ego, the negative part of the ego has around 20 plus distortions that it gives us to look at life through. So see the lens you’re looking at. Address those, either by your experiences or somebody helping you, or you can actually go out and read about them.” ______________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

It’s Thanksgiving here in the US. And there’s always a lot we can be grateful for – if we’re paying attention. This Best Of episode spins through a few of our guests who shared their experiences, insights and wisdom about gratitude. Often they found gratitude to be extremely valuable in times of adversity in their lives. I think they just might inspire you to keep gratitude going long after your tryptophan-induced nap on Thursday. If any of the clips on gratitude intrigue you, click on the links below to listen to the full conversations. Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving! _____________________ Mentioned in This Episode Get ready for that relative coming to your Thanksgiving table who sees the negative in everything: Whatever It Is I’m Against It _____________________ Links to the Full Conversations Kristi Nelson – Wake Up Grateful Brad Aronson – Changing the World One Small Act at a Time Steven Petrow – The Joy You Make Michael O’Brien – My Last Bad Day ______________________ retirementwisdom.com Check out our recommended Best Books on Retirement

Is 2025 your year? Join our Design Your New Life in Retirement Program – two new groups start in January. Early registration discount ends November 30th | Only a few spots left. Learn more ______________________ When you’re retiring, you think of what you’re leaving. Your work. Your paycheck. Your office. Your colleagues. But what’s next? There are many benefits to taking on something new. Something that’s challenging, and maybe even out of the box. Stephen Riggio shares his experience. Stephen Riggio joins us from New York. _______________________ Bio Stephen Riggio is a visionary leader and former CEO of Barnes & Noble, where he played a crucial role in its transformation into the largest bookselling chain in the United States. His extensive career in the book industry, spanning over four decades, includes pioneering work in e-commerce and publishing. Beyond corporate endeavors, Riggio is deeply engaged in philanthropy, working with organizations like the National Book Foundation and the National Down Syndrome Society. In recent years, Riggio has turned his focus to translating and promoting classic Sicilian literature, especially the “Sicilian Avengers” series. _______________________ For More on Stephen Riggio Sicilian Avengers: Book One Sicilian Avengers: Book Two _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile Passion and Purpose – Jim Ansara The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD Unretired – Mark S. Walton _______________________ Wise Quotes On Turning the Page and Taking On Something New “I think what you can let go of is, fortunately, you let go of the stress. And you get all of the adrenaline of something that is new. When I refer to stress, I don’t mean the type of stress that is debilitating. People would often ask me when I was in business, it’s an age-old question, Steve, what keeps you up at night? And I would say a good book because business was an all consuming thing, but there’s a point where you do have to let it go to take care of your personal life and your family, your wife and kids. But I think it is true that once you do turn that page, you can let go of that stress. And it’s a type of freedom that is very uplifting. And then if you happen to be fortunate enough to find something that you can latch onto and dig into, then that adrenaline is something that is different than you experienced in work.” On Taking On Something New Together “A tragic event was the cause of me learning and getting back into the language. All happy families who are alike, all grieving families, breathe in their own way. What I was looking for was a way for my wife, Laura and I to move forward. It was a year or two after that that I came up with the idea of both of us studying the Italian language together. It would be something to do together, to jump into, and we did it.” On Opening New Doors “It does open up a new door to your life. In some respects, when you have a career, you’re pointing in a direction. Usually people like to climb the career ladder. They want more responsibility and greater financial rewards. In this particular case, it was a door that I opened that I didn’t know where it would lead. So with the idea of something that is a little bit uncertain and unexpected there’s a serendipitous aspect of it that I think is very appealing. When I started taking lessons with my wife, we did it together, we didn’t know that we would discover my ancestry going back 400 years, that we would meet distant relatives, they’d become very close to us that I would discover things about my family I never knew, and then that I would translate a book. So it’s a door that was open and I don’t know where it would lead.” _______________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.  

Your retirement? You could wing it, but that’s not you. Design Your Future.  Join our Design Your New Life in Retirement Program – two new groups start in January. Learn more _______________________ To retire or to work longer? There’s another option that may be just right for you – semi-retirement. We catch up with Liz Weston, who retired from NerdWallet earlier this year on how its working for her – and what you can learn from her experience. Liz Weston joins us from California. _______________________ Bio Liz Weston is an award-winning personal finance columnist, speaker, commentator and author of several books about money. She earned the Certified Financial Planner® designation in 2016. Her question-and-answer column “Money Talk” appears in newspapers throughout the country, including the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, Palm Beach Post and the  Oregonian. Liz Weston’s  book “Your Credit Score” is a national best-seller now in its fifth edition. The New York Times called one of her other books, “The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy,” a “wonderful basic personal finance book…supportive of people struggling to understand these topics and trying to make ends meet.” You may have heard Liz Weston on public radio as she’s contributed to American Public Media’s “Marketplace Money,” and NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” and “All Things Considered.” She’s appeared on “Dr. Phil,” “Today Show” and NBC Nightly News, and was for several years a weekly commentator on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” ________________________ For More on Liz Weston Ask Liz Weston _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile The Balancing Act in Retirement – Stew Friedman The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace The Joy You Make – Steven Petrow _______________________ On Deciding to Retire…and Joy “I think what surprised me the most is how fun this is. That was what I was really worried about – what would retirement be like? So many people are rushing towards it, and they don’t really think about what life will be like afterwards. And I was thinking a lot about how I would spend my time, what I would do, what the challenges might be, and what’s caught me by surprise is just this feeling of joy. I feel like a kid on the first day of summer vacation, and I know this won’t last. Everything changes. This is kind of the honeymoon period, but yeah, it’s really fun.Well, I’m incredibly blessed and lucky that the financial stuff was in place. It was taken care of, and it allowed me to retire a little bit earlier than the norm. But again, the other thing that surprised me was how hard that decision was to make, because I really loved what I did…And then a friend and former colleague of mine died in a car accident. And he was only 61 and we’d spent a lot of time talking about what we were going to do in retirement. And it brought home the fact that we don’t have infinite time.” On Semi-Retirement – and Off-Ramps “I think it’s the best option, especially, if you like what you do, and you have skills that can continue on in retirement where you don’t need to work full-time. I had really wanted an off-ramp from my job at NerdWallet, and they didn’t support working part-time. So that was kind of a difficult thing to wrap my head around and realize, okay, I don’t have this option, so this was the next best. A lot of companies, though, do have some kind of off-ramp, and I think it helps people a lot because you keep your foot in the workplace, you can have continuing, you know, because social interaction is so important, you can have that part of your identity still remain intact so you have that sense of purpose. You’re making some money, which for a lot of people is really important to make their money last, but you’re starting the process of exiting. And just as a rant on the side, if somebody listening to this is part of a company and has decision-making power, please think about it. This because you’ve got a lot of talent sitting there that’s on its way out the door that might have a lot of institutional knowledge. You might be able to squeeze a few more years out of them if you give them that option where they can just slowly ratchet down their work commitment. If you can offer benefits even better that’s another big stumbling block for those who are looking at early retirement. But you know there’s a lot of us out there with a lot to give and we’d like to stay on a little bit longer. If you offer that option I think they will really take advantage of it. I think a lot of companies would find that out if they experimented with this option.” On Purpose & Community “And there was also a learning curve or training period that had to be gone through. So taking a look at that thinking about the options before you retire is really important – thinking about your sense of purpose, how you’ll get that. But you don’t develop relationships overnight. So it’s important if you don’t have a lot of friends or all your friends will still be working to start building those opportunities to meet more people, and it doesn’t have to be these, you know, incredibly intense friendships that you develop all over the place. So just you know doing things that you enjoy that other people enjoy can be a way to have those little interactions throughout the day that can make you feel more attuned and more connected to your community.” _______________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

Take Charge of Your Future. Imagine Possibilities with Design Thinking – and Test Them. Join our Design Your New Life in Retirement Program – two new groups start in January. Learn more _______________________ Getting older brings questions. Debra Whitman, PhD, the Chief Public Policy Officer for AARP, had questions, too. Her research led her to write the new book “The Second Fifty: Answers to the 7 Big Questions of Midlife and Beyond.” You’ll benefit from her insights from interviews with experts and takeaways from cutting-edge research across a range of topics including brain health, an older workforce, caregiving and retirement. _______________________ Bio Debra Whitman is the author of The Second Fifty: Answers to the 7 Big Questions of Midlife and Beyond. She is an economist and expert on aging issues with an extensive background in policymaking and research. As EVP and Chief Public Policy Officer for AARP, Debra leads a team of 150 experts in all aspects of policy development, analysis, research, and global thought leadership to produce policy and research insights and solutions that help communities, lawmakers, and the private sector improve our lives as we age. Debra serves as an AARP spokesperson on a diverse set of issues including long-term care and caregiving, financial security, health and longevity, and engaging a multi-generational workforce. She connects with a range of stakeholders such as the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Forbes and the Aspen Institute. Previously, as staff director for the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, Debra worked across the aisle to increase retirement security, lower health care costs, protect vulnerable seniors, make the pharmaceutical industry more transparent, and improve our long-term care system. Before that, she worked for the Congressional Research Service as a specialist in the economics of aging and  served as a Brookings LEGIS Fellow to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Debra is a public speaker, mom, and an advocate for those whose voices need to be heard. _______________________ For More on Debra Whitman The Second Fifty: Answers to the 7 Big Questions of Midlife and Beyond LinkedIn @policydeb on X _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Measure of Our Age – MT Connolly Breaking the Age Code – Dr. Becca Levy Ageism Unmasked – Dr. Tracey Gendron Lifestyle and Financial Decisions As We Age – Marjorie Fox, JD, CFP® ________________________ Wise Quotes On the Big Questions of Midlife & Beyond “So I’ve been working on aging for the last 25 years at the Social Security Administration, running the Senate Aging Committee and then here at AARP, but I realized when I was about to turn 50, I didn’t have the information I wanted at my fingertips. I had books like What to Expect When You’re Expecting and Social Security for Dummies and lots of other great resources, but nothing that just comprehensively looked at all of the things that I was curious about. And so I wrote down a list of questions, everything from the most basic: How long will I live? Will I be healthy to more practical things like How long will I work or Will I have enough money? And then some tough questions like Will I lose my memory? and How will I die? And so those became the chapters of the book, but one of the things that happened as I was starting to put this together was my husband had a major heart attack at 48. And I’ll get a little bit emotional talking about it, but he was hiking by himself and had what they call the Widow Maker, which, being his wife, is not a great term when I heard it. And luckily Boulder Mountain Rescue raced up the mountain and carried him down before his heart stopped. And that experience, Joe, just helped me to think that even though I spent all my career planning for aging and a long life, we really don’t know how long we’re going to live. And so it also makes me really appreciate every day that I have – and I certainly appreciate him a lot more.” On Zip Codes & Genetic Codes “And so women, we live in the United States six years longer than men. I spent a month trying to figure out why. I know that people with a college degree live seven years longer in the United States and related to a college degree, people with the highest 1% of wealth, men live 15 years longer, and women live 10 years longer. That’s decades of extra time. And if we look across the country, we also have huge disparity. So your zip code is more important than your genetic code in how long you’re going to live. And so not where Boulder is, but Summit County, Colorado, where Breckenridge is, is the longest lived county in America. And people there live about 20 years longer than people in Ogallala, Lakota County in South Dakota. And so when you see these huge differences in how long people live, it’s not because we as humans are different, it’s because of the physical exposures we have, the access to good healthcare, the ability to take care of ourselves, all of these things play out. And it’s, to me, kind of not fair that everybody in America can’t hope for a good and long life.” On Habits and Attitude “So, the research shows, and that’s probably not surprising to you and your listeners, there’s five healthy habits that we can do that can give us as much as a decade more of health. The five healthy habits are eating a good diet, exercising, not smoking, not drinking, and then maintaining your weight. And even if you do one of those, you can live an additional two years. But I think what I was surprised about was how your mindsets and your behaviors also really impact how you how long you live and how healthy you are. So I know you had a Marc Schulz on recently talking about The Good Life, and their research has really shown how having really strong relationships matter in order to have better health later. And we know social isolation is is about the same as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It’s toxic. So having good relationships is really important, important. Having a sense of purpose and purpose can come from our work from caring for others from volunteering. It could be coming from your pets, but having some reason that helps you see value in your life. And then the last one, and this is Dr. Becca Levy’s research from Yale, is your mindset about aging. So if you have a positive view on what your future is going to be like, and I know you try and cultivate that through this podcast, you live seven and a half years longer. Your risk of heart attacks go down. Even your risk of dementia and cognitive decline go down. And so, to me, these lessons are I need to exercise but even more important maybe have a meal with friends. And even more important, I’ve always had a positive view on aging, but how do I really enhance that and have a sense of purpose? So those are those are the things I really took from the book.” _______________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

Is it time to work on what you’ll be retiring to? Join our upcoming Designing Your New Life Group Program Choose from two groups: Thursday (6pm ET) or Friday (12 pm ET) starting in January. 🔹 Limited Spots Available! Each group is capped at 10 participants. Don’t miss your chance to join at a discounted rate. Kick off 2025 with a supportive community of others designing their new life in retirement. Learn more ____________________________ Happiness and meaning have long been considered the foundations of The Good Life. But there’s a key third element that’s  overlooked in what constitutes The Good Life: the interesting. Life is simply richer with experiences that captivate our minds, our thoughts and our emotions and have the power to shift our perspectives. Emerging research is highlighting the importance of  “psychological richness” as a key component of a well-lived life through experiences with novelty, complexity and challenge. Lorraine Besser, PhD joins us to discuss her research and her new book The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It. In addition to the research base of the book, she shares practical ideas we can use to develop the skills to make our lives more interesting – without having to make sweeping changes.   Lorraine Besser joins us from Vermont. ______________________ Bio Lorraine Besser is the author of the new book The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It. She earned her PhD in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has MA degrees from UNC and the Claremont Graduate School, and a BA from Tulane University. Before joining the philosophy department at Middlebury College, she held positions at the University of Waterloo and Stanford University. Professor Besser’s research focusses on the nature of happiness and well-being. She specializes in moral psychology, value theory, and the philosophy of David Hume. She lives in Vermont with her family and dogs. ________________________ For More on Lorraine Besser The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It Website ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD Not Too Late – Gwendolyn Bounds Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Why Settle for Happiness in Your Retirement? – Emily Esfahani Smith _________________________ Wise Quotes  On Psychological Richness “So psychological richness, describes the set of experiences that tend to be novel, complex, and challenging, and they’re unified in that they have a particular impact on our mind. So when we engage in these kinds of experiences, we stimulate new thoughts, we have new emotions arising. And the cumulative effect of this kind of rich state of mind leads us to shift our perspective even just ever so slightly after a really psychologically rich experience. We find ourselves somehow changed. And this is the kind of richness that I think we can bring to our lives. And so psychological richness is this much needed third leg of the stool. It taps into a different part of our minds than meaning – it’s the part that is curious, that brings wonder to our experiences, that finds things interesting. And it allows us to really harness our mind’s ability to create that state inside of ourselves.” On Not Pursuing the Interesting “We think about what we want out of an experience. We think about what we’re going to get. And those expectations in that plan really dictate how that experience goes for us. Because we’ve set it up. There’s this goal that I need to get to, and I will focus on that and then judge that experience based on whether or not it meets my expectations. And that’s the kind of mindset that really focuses and structures us, but it eliminates the possibility for us to open our minds up and take in new different things. So one of the really helpful things we can do to pursue the interesting is to learn more about it and then understand that it is something that we need to learn how it feels on the inside arising – and pursue it by really identifying that feeling, and letting that feeling blossom. If we pursue it through plans and trying to get to an interesting experience, we set ourselves up. We don’t set ourselves up for success very well. So I think we can pursue it, but it’s got to be indirectly through learning what it is and allowing us to feel it in our minds and let it stimulate us.” On Openness to Experience “And openness to experiences is really important to psychological richness, because we got to take in the new experiences and embrace them. It’s going to be a little different for everyone depending on their level of openness to experience. And so I think that the way to think about your current state of openness to experiences and the way you are open to experiences or not, is both towards thinking about how you can develop more openness – even by little things like trying something different for dinner. Whatever it is that you find yourself kind of closed off to, start to chip away at that. The little things will really help. And the second thing is that just recognize that openness to experience is the way in which we can find these interesting experiences. And so even if your degree of openness looks very different than my degree of openness, all that means is that it’s going to take different things to find something novel. And we shouldn’t think about any of these personality traits as things that we’re destined for. And certainly here, regardless of where you stand on the spectrum of openness to experience, you can chip away at becoming more open and you can just learn to work with that to find what will make something novel for you, what counts as something complex for you.” __________________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

What’s Next?  Get in front of your life in retirement. Early Bird registration is now open for our upcoming Designing Your New Life Group Program Join a supportive, dynamic community to reimagine your path and create a meaningful retirement. Choose from two groups: Thursday (6pm ET) or Friday (12 pm ET), both starting in January. 🔹 Limited Spots Available! Each group is capped at 10 participants. Don’t miss your chance to join at a discounted rate—secure your place now and start 2025 with intention and connection. Learn more ___________________ How can redirect your skills and expertise in different ways following your career? AARP Purpose Prize winner Jennifer Jacobs, CEO and co-founder of not-for-profit Connect Our Kids,  shares her inspiring story of how she made a shift to improve lives. Her story highlights how encountering problems that your skills and experience can help to solve may lead you to a second act endeavor. Jennifer Jacobs joins us from Virginia. ____________________ Bio 2024 AARP Purpose winner Jennifer Jacobs, PhD is the CEO and co-founder of Connect Our Kids, a technology non-profit revolutionizing the way America finds families for children in foster care. Under her leadership, Connect Our Kids has developed innovative tools that help child welfare professionals use advanced family search and engagement technology to find and engage extended family members and other caring adults for children in need. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Dr. Jacobs served as an officer in the United States Army, where she honed her leadership skills and deepened her commitment to service. The military’s core values of duty, integrity, and selfless service continue to influence her approach to transforming child welfare systems nationwide. Dr. Jacobs earned her PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of New Mexico, where her research focused on the intersection of technology and social services. _____________________ For More on Jennifer Jacobs, PhD Connect Our Kids AARP Purpose Prize  _____________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like  The Best Day of My Life So Far – Benita Cooper Changing the World One Small Act at a Time – Brad Aronson Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller Passion & Purpose – Jim Ansara _____________________ Wise Quotes On Redirecting Skills & Expertise “So, I’m a physicist and a nuclear engineer, which is a natural segue, of course, to the nonprofit world. I was working in counterterrorism, as I did for most of my adult life after leaving the Army. And at that time read an article in Time magazine about foster care. This was about 13 years ago. And in reading that article, I noticed a similarity in what it turned out foster care professionals need to do to find families for the kids in their care. And what I already knew intelligence analysts do to find and track terrorists. They’re both needing to find and visualize networks of people in order to influence and interact with that those networks. The difference is just that one is centering around a terrorist and one is centering around a child. And because they’re similar processes, I thought I would find that they were using similar tools. Instead, what I found out was that while the national security space has multi-million dollar software with data search and management capabilities, as I knew, the foster care space was doing practically the same work with Post-it Notes and Microsoft Excel. And that didn’t seem right to me. So I spent the next six years trying to understand why we fight terrorism with everything we have – and that’s a good thing – but we don’t fight for the futures of the nearly half million children in our foster care system.” On Deciding to Pivot “The only remaining reason not to do it was really fear. And fear of the unknown, fear of doing something that was way outside my comfort level, fear that I might fail. Who wants to fail? And so I finally came to a decision point where I said, I could go forward with this, and that’s terrifying. And I’d really rather not. So if I don’t, let me turn and look down the path of not doing it, what does that look like? And that looks like I keep doing what I’m doing. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s certainly a valuable field to work in counterterrorism. But for me, knowing what’s on this other path, it’s become challenging at the end of that, at the end of both paths is one day, hopefully a long, long time from now, is me at the end of my life. And if I’m looking backwards on either path from that perspective, on the don’t change anything path, I have to look back and know that I had an idea once, and I knew that it could matter to thousands and thousands of people, children and their families. And I didn’t do it because I was afraid. And I felt like if I couldn’t live with that, but that would have been a great disappointment to me. Even if on the other path, worst case scenario, I look back and I say: Wow, that was a crazy time back then. I did that crazy thing and it didn’t work out. And, you know, it was a little embarrassing and I felt kind of silly, but I tried. Of those two, I decided I would rather take the one where I had tried. And of course it also has the upside possibility that I didn’t fail. And in fact, that’s become the case. We’ve had such a great team come around. We’ve had such an incredible opportunity to learn in this space. And we’ve served to date over 18,000 children and 11,000 families. We know that we have a lot more to do, but we hear stories every day about the impact that we’re making and that’s an incredible thing to have had the opportunity to be part of.” On Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone “Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. It is very scary, but…you don’t get the thrill of the roller coaster if you don’t go over the hill, and hit that scariness. Otherwise, you just stand on the ground watching, and nothing is changing. And so stepping outside that comfort zone, getting to know your neighbors and finding out what support and help they might need and being part of that village, both in person and virtually, can be life-changing. So don’t be afraid to do those things. It doesn’t have to be by yourself either. If you have community, a group that you’re part of, a religious group that you’re part of, a book club that you’re part of, it is a lot of times easier to do things like that in groups. And if you don’t have something like that, start one. And see what your community, what your village needs, because every village needs the guidance and the glue that people can offer who are willing to do so.” ____________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

Early bird registration is now open for our upcoming Designing Your New Life Group Program Join a supportive, dynamic community to reimagine your path and create a meaningful retirement. Choose from two groups: Thursday (6pm ET) or Friday (12 pm ET), both starting in January. 🔹 Limited Spots Available! Each group is capped at 10 participants, and only 4 spots remain in each. Don’t miss your chance to join at a discounted rate—secure your place now and start 2025 with intention and connection. Learn more _____________________ How could your choices today impact your life tomorrow? 8 out of 10 people over 55 say that Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are a big concern.  Our guest today wants you to know that  half of all dementia cases are preventable. Dr. Mitch Clionsky is a board certified neuropsychologist who has treated more than 20,000 patients with cognitive problems. He and his physician wife, Dr. Emily Clionsky, have written Dementia Prevention: Using Your Head to Save Your Brain (Johns Hopkins Press).  The book highlights the key research findings over the past 10 years and practical actions you can take today to start the process of protecting your brain as you age. Mitchell Clionsky joins us from Massachusetts. _____________________ Bio Mitchell Clionsky, Ph.D., ABPP-CN is a board certified clinical neuropsychologist licensed in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He specializes in the assessment of memory disorders, other neurological diseases, mild traumatic brain injury, and ADHD. He has performed or supervised more than 25,000 such evaluations over the course of his career and still sees more than 500 patients per year. He is also an expert witness in legal cases involving head trauma, testamentary capacity, and disability. He and his wife, Emily Clionsky MD, have authored research published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences. They also present workshops on dementia prevention for professional organizations and business groups. They created the Memory Orientation Screening Test (MOST)™ a brief, accurate test for dementia that has been used by hundreds of health care professionals and previously licensed to Lincare and Quest Diagnostics. They also developed the Accident Concussion Scale (ACS). They live and work in Western Massachusetts. ____________________ For More on Mitchell Clionsky Dementia Prevention: Using Your Head to Save Your Brain ( Johns Hopkins Press) Website ____________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Why We Remember – Charan Ranganath Upgrade Your Sleep – Dr. Raj Dasgupta How Not to Age – Dr. Michael Greger Better Sleep, Better You – Dr. Frank Lipman __________________ Wise Quotes On Alzheimers “I feel like I’m talking climate control; there’s floods coming, there’s storms coming, but we can do something now. I feel the same way about dementia. If you look at the statistics, we know that if it’s just Alzheimer’s disease, there’s about 6.5 million Americans today that have Alzheimer’s. If you start including the other forms of dementia and the precursors of mild cognitive impairment, you actually get up to about 10 million Americans. When you project out to the year 2050, that doubles. So now we’re getting to a point where literally one out of every three people either has dementia or is caring for someone with dementia. And that’s an unsustainable kind of burden economically as well as personally. But if we can cut the number of cases in the future in half, then we don’t end up with twice as many in 2050. We end up with the same number now, but we actually have more people being alive. So there’s a real economy that’s safe plus a true economy of dollars because it’s very expensive.”   On Dementia “What’s the one thing I can do? And the answer is there isn’t one thing. There’s a whole group of things which interact together. So it’s much more complex than people would like to give a credit for. On the other hand, if you understand why it’s complex and how it’s complex, you don’t go looking for simple solutions. You look at the whole picture and a personalized approach that says, what can I do? How could I assess where I am? What can I change to improve my chances going forward? And that’s what makes this really interesting is the personalization of it, the fact that one size doesn’t fit all ..but getting back to your point, why is prevention important? Well, anything you could do to prevent a fire is better than putting out the fire. Anything that you could do to prevent a flood is better than cleaning up afterwards. Same thing with your health. All of the things that you can do earlier on to prevent a problem later are cheaper, easier, and more effective than what you’re gonna do later on to clean up the mess. That’s what we’re about.” _____________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. _________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.  

Design Your Future. Embrace Your Freedom. Early Bird discounted registration is now open for our next  Designing Your New Life Group Program – with a Thursday group and a Friday group beginning in January. Each group is limited to 10 participants and only four spots are still open in each group. Learn more ____________________ Who wouldn’t sign up for more joy? Steven Petrow, author of The Joy You Make:Find the Silver Linings–Even on Your Darkest Days, rejoins us to share what he’s learned about joy – and how to cultivate more joy (and gratitude) in your life. Steven Petrow joins us from North Carolina. ____________________ Bio Steven Petrow’s new book is The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Linings–Even on Your Darkest Days. He first joined us in 2021 to discuss his book Stupid Things I Won’t Do When I Get Old. Steven Petrow is an award-winning journalist and book author who is best known for his Washington Post and New York Times essays on aging, health, and civility. He’s also an opinion columnist for USA Today,  where he writes about civil discourse and manners. Steven’s 2019 TED Talk, “3 Ways to Practice Civility” has been viewed nearly two million times and translated into 16 languages. He is the author of five other books, including Steven Petrow’s Complete Gay & Lesbian Manners. He’s a much sought-after public speaker, and you’re likely to hear him when you stream NPR or one of your favorite  —  or least favorite  —  TV networks. Steven also served as the host and executive producer of “The Civilist,” a podcast from Public Radio International and North Carolina Public Radio WUNC. He is the author of five other books, the most recent of which is Steven Petrow’s Complete Gay & Lesbian Manners. He’s a much sought-after public speaker, and you’re likely to hear him when you stream NPR or one of your favorite  —  or least favorite  —  TV networks. Steven also served as the host and executive producer of “The Civilist,” a podcast from Public Radio International and North Carolina Public Radio WUNC. _______________________ For More on Steven Petrow The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Linings–Even on Your Darkest Days Website _______________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode Helen Dennis podcast conversation Successful Aging – LA Daily News Three Good Things –  Gratitude practice – Martin Seligman __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta Are You Living Gratefully? – Kristi Nelson My Last Bad Day – Michael O’Brien Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman _____________________ Wise Quotes On Joy “And as I did research and talked to experts and scholars and regular people, I came to understand that joy manifests in many different ways and has broader ways to show up in our lives. And so that helped me to see that joy can be serene, joy can be loud, and can be beautiful. It can coexist with sorrow. But the intrinsic thing that I think defines joy is that it is about connection and gratitude. And so you can be happy. You can be happy by yourself in a way. You get a new car, I’m happy. You get a job promotion, I’m happy. It’s fleeting, but you get the dopamine hit at the time. Joy kind of requires this interaction with others to make that connection, to sustain a connection. And in that way, joy is a state of being rather than a reaction to something else. I say happiness is about you, – and joy is about you and me. So that’s a real important part of it. And then the other is that it just shows up in different ways in our lives, other than in the big ways that we think.” On Learning to Cultivate More Joy “Lady Gaga said, you’re born this way or not. But fortunately, neurologists and other scientists have been showing that many of these emotions can be learned. We’re not stuck in our default settings for our lives. In a sense practice makes perfect. And so this book is my personal search for joy out of some very dark times. And the 28 steps, the 28 chapters are steps or stops on my journey. Not all of them are going to resonate with every reader, but I hope that many of them do because these are other avenues to find joy.” On Memory & Joy “Most days most of us can find or experience joy. And there are lots of ways that I talk about that, but memory is one of them. And so for someone who is having a bad day, sometimes the world looks bleak. Let’s face it, we all have different kinds of challenges. Going back in memory to a time that is happy, that is joyful and that is meaningful, is another way to experience joy. And you don’t have to have it in the present tense, you can pull it forward.” On Gratitude & Joy “Gratitude and joy are like these two cousins that cannot live without each other. It does go back to connection. And I remember when one of my scholars said, Go try doing a gratitude journal. I was like, Eyeore doesn’t do that. Eyeore is not going to find something to be grateful for every day, much less three things. But I went ahead…And if you do that for 21 days, all the studies say, you will be experiencing more joy…It’s good to know that’s not a big investment of time or money or anything. And they recommend you do it before going to sleep. If you go to sleep more in this frame of mind than sort of rehashing the challenges of the day.” _____________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.5 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

A study by Stanford and Encore.org found that the majority of older adults want to give back in some way. Jim Ansara, an AARP 2024 Purpose Prize winner, is making a big difference in his retirement with his organization Build Health International. How might you redirect your skills and experience to make a difference? Jim Ansara joins us from Beverly , Massachusetts. ____________________ Bio Jim Ansara is a retired general contractor who founded Shawmut Design and Construction in Boston in the early 1980’s and led it to become one of the top 25 construction companies in the US. While at Shawmut he led several volunteer teams of employees to build low-tech, clean water systems in Nicaragua with the organization, El Porvenir. After retiring as Chairman of the Board, Jim redirected his energy to the developing world. In 2009 a trip to Haiti with Dr. Paul Farmer led to an invitation to build a small community hospital with Partners in Health (PIH) in Haiti’s Central Plateau. The process took a major turn when a massive earthquake struck the country on January 10, 2010. For three-and-a-half years after the earthquake, through the outbreak of cholera and political unrest, through hurricanes and unbearable heat, Jim, his partner Dr. David Walton of PIH, and hundreds of Haitian and Dominican workers persevered to build Haiti’s new 340-bed National Teaching Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti. Since its completion, the mission to build and equip global health care infrastructure has continued via a new non-profit, Build Health International, based in Beverly, MA. The BHI team has undertaken projects in low-resource settings across 22 countries with PIH, the Kellogg Foundation, Cure International, Direct Relief International and numerous other NGOS. For Jim’s philanthropy he has received Honorary Doctorates in Humane Letters from Amherst College and Salem State University, as well as distinction from Partners in Health, Health Equity International, The American Red Cross Northeast MA Chapter, the Political Asylum and Immigration Representation Project, Summer Search Boston, and more. He serves on the board of Health Equity International, and in years past on the boards of Salem State University, the Boston Children’s Museum, Youth Build, and City Year. _____________________ For More on Jim Ansara Build Health International (BHI) Health Equity Humanitarian Delivers Hospitals for the Poor ____________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Changing the World One Small Act at a Time – Brad Aronson Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller The Best Day of My Life So Far – Benita Cooper Why People Make a Career Change with Purpose Top of Mind – Chris Farrell ____________________ Wise Quotes On Learning and New Challenges in Retirement “I’m passionate about tackling challenges and solving problems. And one of the things that really excites me in life is learning, not necessarily learning in traditional methods, but learning by sort of immersion, where I’m trying to keep my nose and mouth just above the flood tide. And I need a level of sort of challenge and the accompanying freneticism in my life to really be happy. I’d like it to be different. I’d like to be a more relaxed and easy-going person, but at 67, that’s not going to change probably. So it’s really a combination of those two things. And I found, and this is an area, Build Health International, where I could really exercise both of those things. It’s informative about who I am and who I’m not.” On the Transition to Retirement “I’d like to say that I got to where I am by lots of self reflection and and and that kind of thing, but it’s not true. I really fell into it. But I kept sort of trying to figure out what was next for me. And I was also clear on what I didn’t want to do. I knew some people who had sold companies and made some money, and many of them manage their money and got into business, either as consultants or advisors. One guy even started a hedge fund – that didn’t work out well. Lots of things like that. And I was clear that I didn’t love business. What I was able to eventually figure out is what I loved about being in business was the challenges, the problem solving, and the community I got from it. I wasn’t a particularly naturally social person. I got a lot of my community from work. Just learning was piece of it. And that’s what I loved about being in business. I didn’t love making money. I enjoyed the benefits of it, but it wasn’t my purpose. And I also knew that I was the beneficiary of lots and lots of hard work, plus great timing and things broke my way. I wasn’t a brilliant entrepreneurial entrepreneur. And I think that’s one of the things that confuses a lot of people who, like me, got really lucky once. Now, I also had to go through a transition, which was interesting, which luckily I was warned about. When you’re a CEO of a larger company, lots of things get done for you, and you’re used to being taken incredibly seriously, even if people think they’re really stupid ideas, and people say, Yes, I’ll get on that. And quickly that vanishes. And luckily I’d been warned about that. But that’s also very difficult for some people. I’m not saying everybody starts with that. But if you do, it can be a hard transition and I was able to come to terms with that fairly quickly and realize that I wasn’t special.” On an Advisor Who Tells You the Truth  “CEOs and executives, I think, live in sort of a feedback bubble where you don’t have a lot of people telling you the truth and their unvarnished opinions. You don’t have somebody saying That’s the stupidest damn idea I’ve ever heard. How can you think that? You just don’t have that. And it’s probably even less today as people are more politically correct and more cautious about what they say. And you really really need that. And I had one advisor who I had a love -hate relationship with but always respected ,Tom Feely, who was my CPA for many years and who also served as a strategic advisor. It’s an odd combination. And I would meet with him a couple times a month in person. I’d talk to him on the phone sometimes every day and he would not only push me but he would tell me when I was full of it or off base in no uncertain terms. And that was so valuable and it’s so hard to find those people in your life. So if in a transition like this if you can find people who will tell you that unvarnished truth you know whether you want to hear it or not that’s super valuable.” On Forging Your Path “Not everyone’s going to want to do what I’m doing, and I understand that. Everybody’s going to be different, and everybody’s going to want to plug in to whatever they’re doing at different levels and different ways. I think a lot of people are going to be more balanced about their approach than I am, which is probably good. But, I think it’s not just what you’re passionate about. I think that’s a piece of it. But it’s also what you can be effective at. Because if you’re not effective, it’s just not going to work. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs going on to second careers, where they’re not effective and not necessarily qualified, and they struggle.” ____________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

What’s the future of aging – and how could it impact your healthspan and longevity? Lauren Dunning of the Milken Institute shares her insights on this topic and key trends in innovative housing options and technology for older adults. Lauren Dunning joins us from Santa Monica, California. ________________ Bio Lauren Dunning is a director on the Future of Aging team at the Milken Institute, where she develops initiatives and strategic partnerships that advance healthy longevity and financial security across the life course. In her role, Dunning oversees the Future of Aging Advisory Board, a group of global leaders across sectors that provides advisement, expertise, and collaboration to maximize the impact of the Institute’s work on aging. Before joining the Milken Institute, Dunning served in key policy leadership roles over ten years at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, most recently as the director of Government Affairs. She has written and presented on a variety of issues spanning health and aging, and is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. Dunning holds a JD from Georgetown University Law Center, a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University. She works at the Milken Institute’s Santa Monica office. ______________________ For More on Lauren Dunning Website Milken Insitute Report: Innovative Financing and Care Models to Scale Affordable Housing Solutions for Middle-Income Older Adults _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Age Tech Revolution – Keren Etkin Thriving in Place – Lisa Cini Where to Retire – Silvia Ascarelli The Mutual Benefits of Intergenerational Volunteering – Atalaya Sergi _______________________ Wise Quotes On Healthspan “We have four major practice areas where we work to promote healthspan, advance integrated care solutions, improve dementia care and accelerate financial longevity preparedness. Now, those four practice areas are kind of a shorthand for where are there opportunities, but how do we overcome challenges associated with them? So just looking at, for example, healthspan. So healthspan is the number of years an individual lives in good health. And normally we compare this to life span and we’ve seen incredible gains in life span over the past hundred years. And that’s an amazing opportunity. More time to enjoy time with our families to contribute, to build, to be part of our society and communities. Those are incredible opportunities. But in order to realize them fully, we have to think about healthspan. We need to get our healthspans to match our lifespans. But healthspans globally, they’ve lagged, with sources putting that gap up to 10 years. That’s a big gap that people might spend living in poorer health than they might want. And we’re not quite going in the right direction with that, the health span lifespan gap is actually widening. So we need to reverse this trend…But the thing about healthspan is there’s so many levers that people have available to them to work on their healthspan, and to work on their years lived in good health. As a society, we have so many ways to promote health span. And then as individuals, we can look at our chronic disease risk, social engagement and purpose and promoting well being.” On Intergenerational Volunteering “Intergenerational connections are good for us. There’s important benefits for participants on both sides of the age spectrum, but also for society. And maybe that gets us to another misconception, which is that intergenerational connections or relationships are about just one age group giving to another age group, right? So it’s this picture that somebody is giving their time and it’s intrinsically tied to volunteerism. There can be intergenerational programs and initiatives that are focused on building intergenerational connection through volunteerism for one another or two together, but that’s just one part of it and that really it’s so much more than that and they can be in mutual relationships that are providing benefits to both sides. And now when you’re looking at different age groups, you get different benefits, but think about older adults, right? Studies on intergenerational engagement, they found that just so many benefits, including less depression and anxiety, reduced cognitive decline, improved physical functioning for children, their social, emotional, and educational improvements. On the Future of Aging “And that’s a global effort to give everyone the opportunity to add life to years wherever they live. And one of the four spaces that they’re focused on is age friendly environments, so removing physical and social barriers to full participation in society by older adults supported by policy systems, services, technologies that enable people to live in the communities that they want to. And so some of that is about how do we make the physical spaces suitable for people of all ages. It’s not just older adults, it’s people with access and functional needs, young children and families. There’s a lot of needs for accessible spaces, for social space that’s often called third spaces where people can go and casually have space to meet in terms of cities themselves. It’s thinking about planning for healthcare. Planning for for meeting those long -term care needs, planning for transportation and creating transportation accessibility.  Those universal design factors that make it so that people can age in their communities.” ____________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.          

There’s a lot more to retirement than financial planning. If you’re planning for retirement and thinking about how to retire, you’ll need to consider both sides of the equation. The new  book by Christine Benz, How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement, leverages insights from 20 experts on the financial and non-financial aspects of retirement planning. Christine Benz joins us fro the Chicago area. ______________________ Bio Christine Benz is the author of How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement. She is Morningstar’s Director of Personal Finance, a position she has held since early 2008. In that capacity, she writes and edits a monthly newsletter, Practical Finance, which advises do-it-yourself investors on every aspect of the financial-planning process. She also writes a weekly column, “Improving Your Finances,” on Morningstar.com, and was the creator of Morningstar’s “The Short Answer” column, which is geared toward investors just starting out. She is widely quoted in the media, including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and MarketWatch, and has been a frequent guest on CNBC, PBS’ Nightly Business Report, and Fox Business News. Since joining Morningstar in 1993, Christine has been a central part of Morningstar’s effort to deliver quality financial investment information to Morningstar’s 6 million-plus clients. As an analyst and editor, she has served as Morningstar’s director of mutual fund analysis. Prior to assuming that position, she was editor of Morningstar Mutual Funds and Morningstar FundInvestor. Christine co-authored the company’s first book, “The Morningstar® Guide to Mutual Funds: 5-Star Strategies for Success,” a national bestseller published by John Wiley & Sons in 2003, and was the lead author of the book’s second edition. Christine’s book, “Morningstar’s 30-Minute Money Solutions,” provides readers with the necessary guidance in tackling money challenges and building a comprehensive financial plan in easy-to-manage increments. Christine holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and Russian/East European studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, Greg. She is an avid cook, a political junkie, and a long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan. _____________________ For More on Christine Benz How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement Morningstar _____________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD The Power of Reinvention – Joanne Lipman The Retirement Savings Time Bomb – Ed Slott Happier Hour – Cassie Holmes, PhD _____________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode The Key Decisions for Retirement Success – Wade Pfau What Are The Keys To A Successful Retirement? Fritz Gilbert Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet _____________________ Wise Quotes On Purpose in Retirement “Definitely get your in retirement bucket list for keeping yourself entertained and happy. But ideally you would also have some things that are giving you a sense of purpose, some things that you’re relaxing from. And I think most of us, even while we’re working, have reference points for this, that the vacation that you had after that time when you were really, really busy is just all the sweeter because you feel like you really earned it. And I think the same holds true in retirement, that if you can bring that balance, that sense of your accomplishing things, and it doesn’t really matter what it is…It’s very individual specific, but just something that is purpose that is not pure relaxation, I think you’ll enjoy your relaxation that much more. ” On Sabbaticals and Phased Retirement “Laura Carstensen in the book, she’s a researcher at Stanford. I love that conversation that she and I had, but I also love her body of research because it’s about real human beings. But her point is that working is good for us actually – working in some fashion. She says that the way we work in this country is all wrong, that you have people who come to retirement, they’re just so burned out, they’re dragging. And her point is that, ideally, we would find a way to take breaks, even prior to retirement, where we’re giving ourselves a little bit of breathing room, and we’re giving ourselves a chance to maybe experiment with different activities. So I think that one key way to confront longevity is to continue to consider phasing into retirement. Working longer in some fashion is just so beneficial for your plan financially. It’s hard to untangle the connection between health and working longer, but it does appear that healthier people work longer, for sure, and healthier people live longer. So it’s all intertwined.” On Creating a New Structure  in Retirement “I would just use kind of a calendar experiment. Every Sunday I look in on my calendar for the week ahead and see what I have coming up. And, you have some things where you’re like, Yes, that looks like a good day. I’ve got a meeting with this person I really enjoy meeting with, and maybe some other activities that I really enjoy. Or maybe it’s just like a totally open day, where you say, Okay, that’s just sort of a chance for me to do whatever it is you do. And then you have other things on your calendar where you’re like, Oh, God! And maybe you have three or four days of that stuff where you just kind of filled with dread. So start either making a physical list or a mental list where you’re taking note of how you feel about those different work experiences. What you want to try to do is cast off those ones that are giving you that sense of dread. And find a way to bring forward and accentuate the things that you really enjoy… So I would say it begins well before you even start seriously thinking about retirement, just think about the substance of your work, [and} what you like [and] what you don’t like.” ____________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.    

A lot changes when you retire. That can be daunting, but it also presents valuable opportunities. It gives you a window to recreate a new approach to life now that you’ll have the time and freedom to pursue what you’d like to do. Teresa Amabile, co-author of the new book Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You, joins us to discuss the key lessons from over 200 interviews with 120 people and their experiences in retiring. Teresa Amabile joins us from Massachusetts. _____________________ Bio Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, Emerita and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School. Originally educated as a chemist, Teresa received her doctorate in psychology from Stanford University. She studies how everyday life inside organizations can influence people and their performance. Teresa’s research encompasses creativity, productivity, innovation, and inner work life – the confluence of emotions, perceptions, and motivation that people experience as they react to events at work. Teresa’s work has earned several awards: the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Management’s OB Division (2018); the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (2017); the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israel Organizational Behavior Conference (2018); the Center for Creative Leadership Best Paper Award (in Leadership Quarterly) (2005); and the Torrance Award from the National Association for Gifted Children (1998). In 2020, she was named one of the top 50 scholars, by citation count, in business/management (PLOS Biology). She has presented her theories, research results, and practical implications to various groups in business, government, and education, including Apple, IDEO, Procter & Gamble, Roche Pharma, Genentech, TEDx Atlanta, the Society for Human Resource Management, Pfizer, and the World Economic Forum. In addition to participating in various executive programs at Harvard Business School, she created the MBA course Managing for Creativity, and has taught several courses to first-year MBA students. Teresa was the host/instructor of Against All Odds: Inside Statistics, a 26-part instructional series originally produced for broadcast on PBS. She was a director of Seaman Corporation for 25 years, and has served on the boards of other organizations. Teresa’s discoveries appear in her book, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. The book, based on research into nearly 12,000 daily diary entries from over 200 professionals inside organizations, illuminates how everyday events at work can impact employee engagement and creative productivity. Published in August 2011 by Harvard Business Review Press, the book is co-authored with Teresa’s husband and collaborator, Steven Kramer, Ph.D. Her other books include Creativity in Context and Growing Up Creative. Teresa has published over 100 scholarly articles and chapters, in outlets including top journals in psychology (such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and American Psychologist) and in management (Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal). She is also the author of The Work Preference Inventory and KEYS to Creativity and Innovation. Teresa has used insights from her research in working with various groups in business, government, and education, including Procter & Gamble, Novartis International AG, Motorola, IDEO, and the Creative Education Foundation. ___________________ For More on Teresa Amabile Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You  by Teresa M. Amabile , Lotte Bailyn, Marcy Crary , Douglas T. Hall  and Kathy E. Kram ___________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Balancing Act in Retirement – Stew Friedman Retirement Rookies – Stephen & Karen Kreider Yoder Independence Day – Steve Lopez ___________________ Wise Quotes On the Developmental Tasks in Retirement “We found four jobs, essentially, four tasks that people have to do when they retire. Now, this work can be fun and exciting, at least parts of it, but it does take time and effort. The first task is deciding when and how to retire. This is a big deal for most jobs and most professions in the U.S. because we do not have a mandatory retirement age, as many industrialized countries do. So the decision is a thing that we have to deal with. The second task is detaching from work, tangibly ending, finishing up your work, doing the HR paperwork, but psychologically as well. And that part is a lot more difficult for many people, because they have to deal with a trio of losses, or at least big changes. One is identity. Another one is relationships that you’ve had for maybe decades at work. And the third is life structure loss. So your life has been really structured by that thing that’s occupied 40 or maybe 50 or more waking hours of your life for decades. So there’s that life structure loss. And that can all make detaching from work that second task kind of challenging. We saw many ways that people could deal with that successfully, but it is work. And the third task is exploring and experimenting to build a provisional retirement life, once you are in retirement. This can involve exploring and experimenting with new activities, relationships, groups, new organizations to join, places to be. That exploration actually can start before you retire. Some people  started dipping their toe into some things.But it usually happens in a big way after people retire in those first months and and really first year sometimes. And the fourth task is consolidating a quasi-stable retirement life. So figuring out from that provisional retirement life what seemed to be working well for you and and keeping those elements in your life, investing in them more if you feel like it and settling into something that feels more or less like a settled rhythm and routine for your life.” On Life Structure “Let me just explain this concept of life structure. Your life structure basically just includes everything in your life at a given point in time. Activities and relationships, groups and organizations you belong to, places where you spend your time. In our data, we saw a constant interplay, a kind of dance throughout the retirement transition between people’s life structure and what we psychologists call their self. The self includes everything central about a person. There are multiple identities. A person can be an engineer and a leader and a grandparent. So multiple identities, their values and priorities, their needs, their personalities, even their health.” On The 4 As “The four A’s…are alignment, awareness. agency and adaptability. So alignment is developing the realization that you should try to work toward good alignment between yourself and your life structure. And that just means looking at your life structure realistically and honestly and looking at yourself as you are now and seeing Does that life structure align well with who I am? And for that you need the second A, which is awareness. So you need to develop a good awareness of what the dynamics in your life structure really are and how they’re affecting you. You also need to develop good self -awareness. That’s often tougher for many of us. And it sometimes takes talking with a trusted other person, a mentor, a therapist or a counselor, sometimes a coach. I know you coach people, a trusted friend or a family member to help you reflect on who you are now. What’s really important to you? What are your needs? What are your most important values? So that A of awareness is absolutely necessary for you to develop that alignment that you need. And also to develop alignment, you need to exercise agency and that is to have the courage to proactively make changes in your life structure if you see that there are elements that aren’t working so well for you or maybe the agency to try to make some changes in yourself. And finally, because, as you said, life happens. We can’t exercise agency over everything in our lives. In fact, the truth is we can exercise agency over very few things in our lives. So we need to develop adaptability when things happen that we cannot control, we can’t change, this is our life and we need to figure out how to adapt, how to adjust.” ___________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

It’s time to look back at our best podcast conversations from earlier this year. We’ve covered smart moves you can make to optimize your physical and cognitive health and longevity; how a Life Calculator can give you a wake up call and stop you from procrastinating, and why more people are rejecting the idea of a traditional retirement – and choosing their own adventure. We also explored why our retirement system in the US needs an overhaul; how you can make today your last bad day; how social connections affect your health – and what you can do about it. Listen in for insights to help you retire smarter. Want to listen it any of of the full conversations? How Not to Age –Dr. Michael Greger  Live Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Why We Remember – Charan Ranganath Unretired – Mark Walton My Last Bad Day – Michael O’Brien The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy – Teresa Ghilarducci The Laws of Connection – David Robson ______________________ Other Best Of Episodes You May Like Best of 2024-Part One Best of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast 2023 – Part Two The Very Best of 2022 The Best of 2021 – Retirement Wisdom _______________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

What constitutes a good life? Marc Schulz, co-author of The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, highlights useful insights from the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has been running for over eight decades. You’ll hear advice you can use in building your good life. Marc Schulz joins us from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. _____________________ Bio Marc Schulz is the associate director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and the Sue Kardas PhD 1971 Chair in Psychology at Bryn Mawr College. He also directs the Data Science Program and previously chaired the psychology department and Clinical Developmental Psychology PhD program at Bryn Mawr. Dr. Schulz received his BA from Amherst College and his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a practicing therapist with postdoctoral training in health and clinical psychology at Harvard Medical School. ______________________ For More on Marc Schulz The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness ______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson Happier Hour – Cassie Holmes, PhD Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer _______________________ Wise Quotes On Relationships and Well-Being “One is a finding that should be familiar to many of your listeners. We really want to take care of our body like we’re going to be in it for a long time. Let’s shoot for 100 years. And what does that mean? That means that we want to move our body. Exercise is good for us. We want to avoid smoking. We want to moderate our drinking of alcohol. And we also want to, particularly as we age, to go to doctors and make sure that we’re getting treatments that are important to maintain our health, because many of us develop different kinds of challenges as we get older, physical and medical challenges that are important to take care of. The study also has made important contributions to recognizing that stuff happens to all of us, that very few lives happen without adversity, and how we meet adversity, and particularly the feelings and emotions that adversity tends to engender, are really important for our health and our well -being. But the big finding, and this is the finding that we talk about most in our book, The Good Life, is that it’s very clear across this 86 years of research, and hundreds of papers, that the most important predictor of health and happiness throughout the lifespan is the quality of our relationships with others. How connected we are, how much we can rely on other support, and how much we’re able to do that are really key predictors of how happy we’ll be and how healthy we will be. And it’s all kinds of relationships. It’s not just the person who you may have been lucky enough to spend a good portion of your time with. So it’s not just our marital partners or our intimate partners, it’s friends, neighbors, people we work with, people in our communities, it’s all types of relationships that matter.” On Social Fitness “So we talk about this idea of social fitness as being really important. Obviously, it’s a metaphor like physical fitness and some of the lessons about physical fitness apply here. We want to, first of all, assess where we are, and to be thoughtful about where we are. And this comes from our research when we interviewed people, for example, in their 80s and we asked if they had regrets. Most of the regrets that people had had to do with losses in relationships. People that they had been friendly with, that they lost touch with, people who maybe they hadn’t been as kind to as they wish they had. And this could be the person that they were married to. It could be children. It could be people they worked with. But people talked about remorse and regret around not building and sustaining relationships over life. So we know that if we don’t attend to them, just like our muscles, our fitness in the social domain tends to atrophy. So we need to kind of lean in, be proactive about our engagement with others, and it helps to step back and assess where we are. So what’s going well in my social connection sphere? Who am I spending time with? Are those the people I want to spend time with? Who am I not spending time with that I have a strong connection or I’d like to develop more of a connection with? So that assessment is a critical part of physical fitness and it should be part of social fitness. And then it’s really about leaning into this and walking the walk. So what do I mean by that? We want to spend the time that we think is important on relationships. That means making time to talk to people regularly, to go on walks with people that we care about, to go to social engagements in which we might meet new people or sustain relationships that are important to us.” On Paying Attention “Attention is just so important. You learn stuff when you write books, and one of the things we learned early on when we were writing the book is the language we use around attention. We pay attention, and that suggests how much of an important resource attention is. It’s something we control or we try to control, and we can give it to people. We can lavish people with it if we prioritize them in our lives. What’s particularly important is we’re in an era where there are lots of attempts to grab our attention. So phones and technology are particularly good at grabbing our attention away from other people, and we need to proactively, intentionally focus our attention on the people that are important to us. That’s the way that we build relationships, and it’s a way we convey to others that they’re important to us. So paying attention on purpose, listening with curiosity, those are the things that are really important. For many of us in this busy world filled with technology, having the experience of being particularly in person, having someone pay attention to us is an incredible feeling. It’s sometimes something we sadly forget because we don’t have the experience enough. So really critical for people to do that. It’s something that we hope we might get from parents or grandparents. It’s a gift that people can give to others, including parents and grandparents. But it’s true in all relationships. It means really listening and being curious.” ________________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.  

What’s that sound? Our guest today explains that it’s the retirement savings bomb ticking louder. Listen in and get smarter about RMDs, Roth IRAs – and the tax bomb that’s ticking louder for you. Ed Slott joins us from New York. _______________________ Bio Ed Slott is the author of The Retirement Savings Time Bomb Ticks Louder: How to Avoid Unnecessary Tax Landmines, Defuse the Latest Threats to Your Retirement Savings and Ignite Your Financial Freedom. Ed is a nationally recognized IRA distribution expert, professional speaker, television personality, and best-selling author. He is known for his unparalleled ability to turn advanced tax strategies into understandable, actionable and entertaining advice. He has been named “The Best Source for IRA Advice” by The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today wrote, “It would be tough to find anyone who knows more about IRAs than CPA Slott.” As president and founder of Ed Slott and Company, LLC, the nation’s leading source of accurate, timely IRA expertise and analysis to financial advisors, institutions, consumers and media, he provides: Advanced training to financial professionals to become knowledgeable recognized leaders in the retirement marketplace; and 2. Answers to retirement savers’ most important questions, continually providing practical, easy-to- understand information on IRA, retirement, tax and financial planning topics. Mr. Slott is a Professor of Practice at The American College of Financial Services and regularly presents on IRA and estate planning strategies at both consumer events and conferences for financial advisors, insurance professionals, CPAs and attorneys, including virtual events drawing thousands of attendees nationwide. He has provided topical keynote presentations for leading financial membership organizations, including the Financial Planning Association, National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, Estate Planning Councils and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as well as leading corporate financial firms coast-to-coast. Mr. Slott is an accomplished author of many financial and retirement-focused books, including most recently Ed Slott’s Retirement Decisions Guide: 2021 Edition (IRAHelp, 2021) and Fund Your Future: A Tax-Smart Savings Plan in Your 20s and 30s (IRAHelp, 2021) with The New Retirement Savings Time Bomb (Penguin Random House, 2021). He also hosts the popular website irahelp.com as a resource for financial professionals and consumers, where The Slott Report blog is followed by tens of thousands of readers. As the go-to resource for media on timely insight on breaking news as it relates to retirement and tax planning laws and strategies, Mr. Slott is often quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, Kiplinger, Investor’s Business Daily and numerous additional national magazines and financial publications. He provides a monthly Q&A column to AARP and is also a contributing columnist and media resource to Financial Planning, Financial Advisor and Investment News magazines. He has appeared on many national television and radio programs, including NBC, ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, FOX , FOXBUSINESS, NPR, Bloomberg and Morningstar. ______________________ For More on Ed Slott Website  The Retirement Savings Time Bomb Ticks Louder ______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like An Economist’s Take on Retirement Planning – Larry Kotlikoff The Balancing Act in Retirement – Stew Friedman Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson Independence Day – Steve Lopez _______________________ Wise Quotes On The Retirement Savings Tax Bomb “I think it’s reaching a point where in my latest book, I call it The Retirement Savings Time Bomb Ticks Louder, in big letters, because I’m worried this ticking tax time bomb, if you can say that three times fast. The ticking tax time bomb you asked me about is simply the tax bill growing inside your IRA. It’s like the movie Aliens where it’s growing and growing inside, but you don’t see it because you see your IRA balance going up and up – and you say, Well, that’s good. But a lot of that is owed right back to the government. I always say your IRA is an IOU to the IRS. It’s a debt growing. That’s what it is, like a mortgage on your home. You have a mortgage on your retirement savings. The reason, and that’s the tax building up. And I call it a ticking tax time bomb because we don’t know when it’s going to go off, depending on when Congress gets its act together.” On Your Joint Partner “Even if rates stay the same, Joe, your balance is going up, and at some point, you’re going to get hit hard in retirement – at the worst possible time. People think their retirement savings is theirs. But if you look at the word theirs, it spells the IRS. Look at the word theirs, T -H -E -I -R -S. People think just because you get a statement on your monthly or quarterly, whenever you look at it online, that you think that’s your money because your name is on there. Well, there’s a hidden partner on there. It’s like a joint account. Can you imagine if somebody told you your IRA was a joint account with Uncle Sam? Now, most people understand the concept of a joint account. You see it with husband and wife, spouses, and that generally means 50 -50. The difference with this joint account with Uncle Sam, you don’t know what his share will be based on what future tax rates might be, which I worry about being higher. So the big mistake is to be lulled into this false sense of security that you think all of that money will be spendable in retirement. It won’t.” On Roth IRAs “The key item is, I always like to say, move your money from accounts that are forever taxed, tax deferred, to never taxed. Tax-free. That’s the promised land. That’s where you want to be. The Holy Grail, where you never have to worry about the uncertainty of what future higher taxes can do to your standard of living in retirement. So the big message is, if you’ve been saving the wrong way – but that’s how we were taught, saving in IRAs, putting money in 401(k)s – you’re just building a bit of a tax bill for IRS and yourself. Instead of that, start going the other way. Now, this is counterintuitive because I’ve been saving, I’ve been accumulating my whole life. Why should I go the other way? I want to keep building. I’m still working. I’m getting closer to retirement. I want to put the pedal to the metal. Don’t do that. Don’t add any more money. Focus on getting that money out. One alternative, one suggestion, a strong suggestion: convert to Roth IRAs. What does that mean? Take some of that money down now, even before retirement, especially if you’re in your sixties, that’s a sweet spot before you’re forced to take it out at 73 and move it to a Roth. And then it grows tax free for the rest of your life. Now that sounds simple. So the question is why wouldn’t everybody do that? And you know the answer, right, Joe? The answer is you have to pay tax. There’s a toll and nobody wants to pay the tax upfront. And that’s short-sighted. But I’m telling you now is the time to pay taxes while rates are at historic lows. The key to saving money in taxes, and you can save a fortune, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions, depending on how much you have saved, just with good tax planning.” _________________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. _________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.

Make no mistake. There’s a lot you can’t control about your retirement. The economy. The markets. That neighbor. But there is something you can control that will make a big difference in your quality of life. Your mindset. Michael O’Brien shares his compelling story and how he learned how to prevent bad moments from turning into bad days. Michael O’Brien joins us from the Garden State of New Jersey. _______________________ Bio Michael O’Brien is President and Founder of Peloton Coaching and Consulting. As a certified executive coach, he has advised, motivated, and inspired Fortune 500 executives, entrepreneurs, and other difference-makers at organizations like Brother International and Johnson and Johnson. He also serves as a mentor and volunteer with organizations that promote professional growth, such as the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and James Madison University’s College of Business. Before starting Peloton Coaching and Consulting, he was a healthcare sales and marketing executive and received his marketing degree from James Madison University. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters. Michael is the author of two books, his inspiring memoir: Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life and the companion work, My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days: a practical and powerful guide to lead a life free of bad days. ________________________ For More on Michael O’Brien Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days Website ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet _______________________ Wise Quotes On His Last Bad Day “But as I went through my recovery, I tried to put up this good front, like, Okay, we’re going to make it. But I wasn’t believing any of my hype. A mentor came to me and said, Hey, listen, everything in your life is neutral until you label it. You get to look at this any way you want to. And so then I started to realize, Okay, well, we’re all living moments. Every day is filled with a whole bunch of moments. And if I have people in my life who I love and love me back, then I can’t call a full day a bad one. That’s why I came back to call my, that accident day, my last bad day. I’ve had definitely bad moments since then, but I still have a lot of love in my life. So I can’t call a full day a bad one. But I also knew this, that I had to find a way to ground myself because my recovery felt so overwhelming. I had to figure out, much like in sports, how to slow the game down. Everything was just coming at me, much like life today. And I just knew I had to slow things down a bit to create some space so I could be thoughtful and intentional about how I wanted to go forward.” On Who You Surround Yourself With “I think it’s very important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. And I think this is a big thing because for a lot of us men, especially as we think about retirement, a lot of our relationships are work relationships that we think those guys are our friends, but they’re really our colleagues. And some of them are friends, and they’ll stay friends for a while. And I think it’s very important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. But it’s a minority of the relationships we have, maybe on one hand or both hands. So as we go into this next phase of our lives, into retirement, men or women, it’s good to have people around you who can bring out the best in you, to help maybe clarify things when you get stuck or challenge you so you can be the best you can be – or to be there in celebration or to be there for a crisis or some type of comfort. So that’s helpful because the people around you can help shift your perspective around change.” On Gratitude “I think a gratitude practice is key, so to be grateful is one of the 20 [lessons]. I didn’t know anything about gratitude, except maybe around Thanksgiving – give thanks. But we didn’t use the word gratitude. During Thanksgiving, when I was growing up, my parents weren’t tuned into that it was like, Well, where’s the turkey? Come on, let’s eat, watch the game. And so I didn’t know about gratitude until really coming through my accident recovery. Gratitude is really a process of understanding what you still have and what’s working in your life. And when you go really deep, you can even be grateful for some of the tough moments because our tough moments tend to give us the most growth – not guaranteed, but a lot of times. And a lot of people will say to me, Well, if you’re grateful for everything, do you lose your edge? Do you lose your thirst for more? And to that I say absolutely not. You can be grateful for what you have and still be thirsty and driven for more, as opposed to leaving that your glass is always half full or like half empty. and you’re coming from that place of depletion as you go after things. For me, gratitude is about No, I have an amazing cup and it’s pretty full. It’s pretty amazing. And I’m looking for a bigger glass.” ________________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.2 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.