The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

* Corrected audio* We think the joyful moments of our lives will be the big ones: the wedding, the trip, that event we’re looking forward to. Kelly McGonigal asked thousands of people about joy, and the answer surprised her. The moments people most want to relive are small everyday ones: a laugh, a shared meal, a text from someone who was thinking of them. In this return visit, Kelly discusses her new book Joy Is a Risk Worth Taking. She explains why joy can feel risky (the fear that it won’t last, the guilt of feeling good, and not ewanting to get your hopes up”), why your body trusts joy even when your mind doesn’t, and why joy is one of the most accesible and social emotions we have. For anyone designing life after full-time work, this conversation is timely. Joy is a capacity you build, a signal you can trust, and a gift you can give, many times a day. What You’ll Discover Why joy is a “signal” Why joy can feel risky What happens in your body during celebration Why people experience more joy with others Two joys that may surprise you: the joy of being trusted and the joy of being thought of The end-of-the-day Joy Review you can start today The difference between a contamination mindset and a redemption mindset Three simple acts of joy to try Kelly McGonigal joins us from California. _____________________ Bio Kelly McGonigal, PhD, is a research psychologist, lecturer at Stanford University, and an award-winning science writer. Her new book is Joy Is a Risk Worth Taking. Her scientific research focuses on the mind-body connection, and how to cultivate resilience and compassion. She is the author of the international bestseller The Willpower Instinct, The Joy of Movement, The Upside of Stress, and Yoga for Pain Relief. Her work is published in thirty-one languages. Since 2000, she has taught dance, yoga, and group exercise in the San Francisco Bay Area. In her free time, she volunteers as an adoption counselor for animal rescue. _____________________ For More on Kelly McGonigal Joy Is a Risk Worth Taking Website Kelly McGonigal teaches an online course on Joy open to the public through Stanford University Continuing Studies. Check the schedule for upcoming classes or join their email list for updates. _____________________ How clear are you about What’s Next? Consider our next Design Your Life in Retirement group program. It’s limited to 10 participants and starts in January. Tuition discount for very early registration ends November 15th Learn more |  Sign up Catch up to your money. It’s better prepared for your retirement than you are. ______________________ Other Retirement Podcast Conversations You’ll Also Love The Joy of Movement – Kelly McGonigal Joyspan – Kerry Burnight, PhD Love & Happiness…in Retirement – Sonja Lyubomirsky ______________________ Wise Quotes On Joy in Small Moments  “It can be really easy in life to dismiss them, to think the memory that’s going to matter is going to Disneyland. The memory that’s going to matter is the wedding. And that we have to get those moments perfect. But often, the moments that matter most are the small moments where you just allow yourself to be present and enjoy the moment – or enjoy one another.” On Showing Joy to Others “If you can imagine if someone you haven’t seen in a while sees you and their face lights up, or maybe they rush and give you a hug, their joy is a signal to you that you matter, that they care about you, that your existence in the world is a good thing.” On The Joy Review “The Joy Review at the end of the day, you look back for one to three good moments, and you replay them in your mind in a way that gives you a feeling, a feeling of them, a memory of them….Look back over the past 24 hours, pick one good moment, and bring it to mind in just enough detail that you remember it or it gives you a feeling.” ____________________ 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.

How clear are you on what you’re retiring to? Early registration is now open for our next Design Your Life in Retirement group program. It’s limited to 10 participants and starts in January. Future You is waiting. Get started on your design. Tuition discount for very early registration ends November 15th Learn more |  Sign up ______________________ Paul Conti’s grandmother didn’t have much money. When she couldn’t afford to buy things for people, she bought yarn instead, and knitted blankets and socks for whoever needed them. Decades later, Paul is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and the author of What’s Going Right. And he’s come to believe his grandmother understood something his training missed. For a long time, human motivation was explained by two drives: assertion (making our mark on the world) and pleasure. But that model can’t explain altruism. Paul argues there’s a third drive that should govern the other two: the generative drive, our built-in urge to make the world better. It can be as big as a trip around the globe or as small as a nicer garden. When it leads, assertion and pleasure stay in balance. When it doesn’t, you can look successful from the outside and feel miserable inside. For people leaving demanding careers, that’s not an abstract idea. Many spent decades led by assertion. Retirement, Paul Conti says, is a branch point where life can get better or harder, and which way it goes depends a lot on whether we take charge of our mental health. In this episode, you’ll hear: Why “good mental health is consistent with simplicity” The life narrative Paul Conti wrote as he neared 60, and what it gave him Why your inner critic can’t take a day off, and a better approach: compassionate curiosity The difference between false humility & real humility, and how the real kind leads to gratitude How you can live with a youthful spirt at any stage of life His vision for when we’ll ask “How’s your mental health?” as easily as we ask “How’s your health?” Dr. Paul Conti joins us from Portland, Oregon. ____________________ Bio Dr. Paul Conti is a psychiatrist, author, and educator who combines neuroscience, trauma expertise, and practical psychology to help individuals and leaders better understand themselves and build healthier, more resilient lives. He’s the author of the new book What’s Going Right: A Powerful New Method for Optimizing Your Mental Health. He is a graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his training at Stanford and at Harvard, where he served as chief resident. He then worked in private practice while serving on the medical faculty at Harvard. He moved to Portland, Oregon, in 2007 and was named one of the state's best physicians during his first full year of practice. Lady Gaga wrote the foreword for his first book, Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic, which was also endorsed by Kim Kardashian, Tommy Hilfiger, and others and has been translated into nineteen languages. His four-episode guest series on the Huberman Lab podcast has been accessed by tens of millions of people worldwide. Dr. Conti is the founder and president of Pacific Premier Group, PC, a team of highly skilled professionals who provide brain-based consulting and clinical mental health care around the world. ____________________ For More on Dr. Paul Conti What’s Going Right: A Powerful New Method for Optimizing Your Mental Health Pacific Premier Group, PC Website ____________________ Other Retirement Podcast Conversations You’ll Also Love Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff Shift – Ethan Kross The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD _____________________ Wise Quotes On Retirement & Mental Health “The challenge is to take control of one’s mental health, but that’s also the opportunity. There are mental health challenges that come to us at every phase of life, and I think around retirement, it’s a particular branch point where things can go better or things can become more difficult, So, the idea of taking control at that stage of life, I think is so important because it sets the stage for the person to then be able to live a good, long, healthy life. Less stress, more enjoyment…and as we enter retirement, the idea is that we can construct a sense of self and a narrative of life that we feel good about. Not because we’re pretending or trying to make things feel good, because anyone who makes it to retirement in this day and age has a lot to feel good about, a lot to feel proud of. So we want to construct a narrative that says, “Okay, how is it that I got here? What is it that I have? What’s my state of health? What are my obligations, and what are my wishes?” And the idea is shine the light everywhere: on one’s mental health, one’s finances, and then the combination of the two. I think that’s how we see people living really good lives in retirement.” On the Generative Drive “Historically, people have  believed to have just two drives.  One was called aggression and we could call that assertion….We want to make ourselves felt in the world and see the impact of what we do. So there was that and pleasure seeking. Now, this got to be very misunderstood because if that were really true of humans, that we’re seeking pleasure and we want make our presence felt in the world, there’d be no altruism… There is so clearly another drive in us and a drive that governs all else. And that is the generative drive,  the drive within all of us to make the world a better place. They could be big, like, “I want to travel around the world,” or it could be, “I want the garden in the yard to look better,”  or “I want to do something nice for somebody next door.” It’s all generative. This is in us, and we see it is where our happiness comes from.”  On Compassionate Curiosity “The biggest problem in mental health is that we look away from our problems. And why do people do that? Why do people say, “I don’t want to  go there.”  They know that’s where, where they need to look, but they want to look away from it. And it’s because when we don’t understand, we’re afraid of what we’re going to find. Human beings want to understand…If you’re driving your car and there’s a strange sound coming from the engine, the thing we don’t want to do is, pretend it’s not there. That’s how we end up broken down on the side of the road. So the idea is I can look at whatever’s going on inside of me. I can bring compassionate curiosity to my own problems instead of bringing whatever inner critic we’ve internalized. We can bring a very harsh and fearful set of judgments when we’re looking at ourselves, and that’s not how we solve our problems. If there’s a mechanism of understanding, which is part of what I very much wanted to provide in the book, this is saying you can look at yourself, There’s nothing to be scared of here. They’re just things to go look at, and if you go look at them and you bring compassionate curiosity, they get better.” ________________________ 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. _______________________ 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.  

Is it time to work on how you’ll live your retirement? Join our next small group coaching program starting in January. Very early registration discount ends on November 15th. Limited to 10 participants. Learn more |  Sign up _______________________ When was the last time you did something just for fun? Not to accomplish something or check something off your list. Just because you really enjoyed it. For many successful people, that’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer. Over the years, we’ve learned how to work hard, achieve goals, and be useful to others. But somewhere along the way, we may have forgotten how to have fun. And when retirement arrives, having more time doesn’t necessarily mean having more fun. My guest today is Monika Jansen, a fun coach, who helps people rediscover joy and make more room for enjoyable experiences in their everyday lives. Retirement gives us more freedom to choose how we spend our time. But rediscovering fun may require letting go of habits we’ve spent a lifetime developing. Retirement isn’t just an opportunity to do more things. It’s an opportunity to rewrite the rules that have governed how we invest our time. We explore how we lose our sense of fun in our working years, why play and fun matter, and how to bring more joy into everyday life. Monika Jansen joins us from Colorado. _______________________ For More on Monika Jansen The Fun Coach ______________________ Other Retirement Podcast Connversations You’ll Also Love The Power of Fun – Catherine Price The Fun Habit – Mike Rucker, PhD Don’t Wait Until Retirement to Find Your New Thing – Charles Chumley _____________________ Wise Quotes On Doing It Now “But you always think, ‘I’ll have time for that, I’ll have time for that. Make time for it today.” On Small Moments vs. Big Events “The small moments in life are what make life. It’s not the three-week bucket list trip to Italy. That’s wonderful, but that’s three weeks in your life, whereas we’re living in the every day.” On Saying No “What I would say is, ‘Oh, thank you so much for thinking about me, but not right now.'” _____________________ 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.  

Could your retirement planning use more imagination? Registration for our next Design Your New Life in Retirement small group program is now open. Very Early Registration discount ends November 15th. Limited to 10 participants. Learn more |  Sign up today _________________________ The skills that helped you succeed professionally – critical thinking, analysis, judgment and efficiency – may not be the ones to help you create what comes next. Psychologist and researcher Cassandra Vieten, author of Imagine That: Transform How You Think, Feel, and Live with the Science of Imagination, joins us to explore imagination as a practical skill for navigating transitions. Cassandra explains why imagination often becomes flattened as we grow older, how to reframe uncertainty to create possibility, and how intentionally imagining alternatives can help us escape habitual ways of thinking. We discuss the stories we tell ourselves about retirement, Cassandra’s VISTA framework, a powerful future-self exercise, the relationship between mindfulness and imagination, and simple practices for bringing curiosity and possibility back into everyday life. I especially like the way she describes her book: A user’s guide to your imagination. Cassandra Vieten joins us from San Diego. _______________________ Bio Cassandra Vieten, PhD is the author of the new book Imagine That: Transform How You Think, Feel, and Live with the Science of Imagination. She is the Clinical Professor and Director of the Center for Mindfulness at the Centers for Integrative Health in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. She is also Director of Research at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination and Clinical Psychology Director at the Psychedelics and Health Research Initiative at UCSD. She is Senior Advisor of the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation where she served as Executive Director from 2019-2023, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, where she served as President from 2013-2019. Her research has focused on spirituality and health, transformative experiences and practices, the development of mindfulness-based interventions for emotional well-being, and development of media technologies to inspire awe. _______________________ For More on Cassandra Vieten  Imagine That: Transform How You Think, Feel, and Live with the Science of Imagination Website Take this quiz to learn more abour your own unique imagination profile and help scientists learn more about how imagination works. _______________________ Other Retirement Podcast Conversations You’ll Also Love The Future You – Brian David Johnson The Inspired Retirement – Nathalie Martin _______________________ Wise Quotes On Reframing Uncertainity “The thinking mind really likes certainty and categories and competence…and the imagination actually loves uncertainty because uncertainty equals possibility.” On Tapping into Your Imagination  “Could you spend some time every day purposely giving that analytic mind a break…and let this other aspect of your mind run wild? It takes some practice. Silence your judging mind for a while. Don’t edit right away.” On The Power of a Beginner’s Mind “Instead of staying in your little tiny bubble of what you do know, you could be an adventurer. You could be an explorer and say, ‘I want to have a sense of curiosity about what I don’t know.’ ________________________ 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. _________________________

Being financially prepared for retirement doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready for retirement. Dr. Gregory Charlop argues that a complete retirement plan should address another set of assets: the health and lifestyle side of retirement planning, and your ability to remain engaged with life with vitality. In this conversation, we explore the connection between longevity and retirement planning, including why work can disguise gaps in our social lives and sense of purpose, why strength becomes increasingly important with age, what to know about wearables and health metrics, the role of protein later in life, and why people need to become more proactive consumers of healthcare. But the larger message is refreshingly simple: don’t pursue longevity merely to accumulate more years. Build the health and relationships that allow you to do meaningful things with them. Dr. Gregory Charlop joins us from suburban Atlanta, Georgia. ________________________ Bio Dr. Gregory Charlop is a UCLA and Stanford-trained, triple-board-certified physician and a leading expert in longevity and performance. Dr. Greg is a sought-after international keynote conference speaker and the keynote speaker at the Barron’s 100 Hall of Fame. He is a featured guest at the Milken Institute and regularly appears on major media outlets, including FOX Business, ABC, NBC, CBS, and Forbes. Known for his common-sense approach to health, he authored four influential books on wellness, healthy homes, and burnout. As the nation’s first Fractional Chief Wellness Officer (CWO) for family offices, Dr. Greg works closely with select ultra-high-net-worth individuals, providing personalized strategies to enhance nutrition, sleep, exercise, happiness, and peak performance. His signature Family Wellness Assessment service includes personal visits to client homes, vacation residences, or yachts, where he meticulously evaluates home safety, lifestyle habits, and family goals to create customized wellness roadmaps. Dr. Charlop collaborates with family offices on the health and lifestyle side of retirement planning. Dr. Greg is a proponent of the Bitcoin Lifestyle. As a featured speaker at the Plan ₿ Forum and Max and Stacy Bitcoin Golf Invitational in El Salvador, he helps Bitcoin leaders with customized longevity, resilience, and lifestyle solutions. After spending two decades navigating the high-pressure, life-and-death environment of the operating room and consulting executives in the boardroom, Dr. Greg launched Corsica Military Solutions™. Leveraging his expertise in stress management, resilience, and burnout prevention, he brings high-performance wellness strategies directly to military leaders, drone operators, and cyber warfare specialists. With experience in the life-or-death worlds of medicine and national defense, Dr. Gregory Charlop is one of the nation’s leading experts on decision-making. His medical-grade decision framework supports the military, defense industry, and family offices. Dr. Greg also founded the Corsica Conference, a TED-style event for intellectually curious leaders committed to wellness and lifelong growth. His charitable projects include a program to encourage girls to play sports and the Women’s Sports Forum. Outside work, he enjoys traveling, learning Spanish and French with his daughters, listening to audiobooks, exploring coffee shops, and spending time with his pup, Dash. Dr. Gregory Charlop, MD, DipABLM, developed the field of Retirement Medicine™ for executives, dentists, athletes, and founders. _______________________ For More on Dr. Gregory Charlop Website Buckhead Longevity ________________________ Other Retirement Podcast Conversations You’ll Also Love Take Charge of Your Health – Lucy McBride MD Eat Your Ice Cream – Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD How to Stay Sharp in Retirement – Dr. Majid Fotuhi _______________________ Mentioned in this Podcast Die With Zero by Bill Perkins _______________________ Wise Quotes  On Retirement Readiness “People spend an enormous amount of time making sure they have enough money to retire. But do you have the health to do what you want to do? Do you have friends you want to spend time with? Do you know what you’re going to do?” On Longevity and Living Well “The point isn’t simply to live longer. It’s to be healthy enough, strong enough, and engaged enough to enjoy the years you have.” On Procrastination “The biggest tragedy is to have stuff you want to do, stuff that you could do, but you chose not to do it because you decided to do it later. And then that later didn’t come…If you over-save and then you die with money in the bank, what that means is you worked for free…Do the stuff you want to do now. Don’t push that off until later, because that later may not come.” ________________________ 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. _________________________ 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 matter