The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

Why wait until the end of the year to recap the best episodes of this retirement podcast? In 2022, it'll be quarterly. I know you're busy and can't catch all the conversations. But you won't want to miss any of these. A lot of ground was covered in the first quarter of the year, including: How cognitive bias goes beyond financial matters - and why you'll want to think big about your future Why conventional thinking on retirement planning can get in the way of your future The best way to begin working on your worthy goals How to turn the stress of retiring into strength Why the second half of life can be the best half - if you get ahead of the second curve Listen to the full episodes from these links: 5. Think Big – Dr. Grace Lordan 4. An Economist’s Take on Retirement Planning – Larry Kotlikoff 3. How to Begin – Michael Bungay Stanier 2. Everyday Vitality – Dr. Samantha Boardman 1.  The Second Curve of Life – Arthur C. Brooks Interested in more wisdom? Scan all of the conversations in this retirement podcast here Miss the aBest of 2021? Listen here ____________________________ About Retirement Wisdom A 20+ year retirement is a terrible thing to waste. How will you invest your time after you leave the world of full-time work? Working with an experienced coach and a proven process can help you explore new options, test opportunities and create a portfolio of rewarding activities and interests. Beware of quick fix solutions. Schedule a call to find how how the Designing Your Life process (developed by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans at Stanford) can help you unlock a new direction.  One and One and small group programs are available. Take the first step toward your new life today. ___________________________ About Your Host  Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. 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 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him 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 coming this summer. ________________________ Intro and Outro voiceovers by Ross Huguet.

Don't underestimate the transition to retirement. How do you build a bridge from your full-time working life to your new life of freedom in retirement? It starts with doing your homework and managing your expectations for the transition period. Many people expect it to be like that last day of school before summer - running off to full-time fun, only without school resuming in the fall. But the transition usually unfolds in a series of phases - and learning more about them prepares you to anticipate, plan well and get the most out of your retirement years. This "Best of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast" episode revisits earlier conversations that can help you master the transition to your retirement. Click the links below to listen to the full conversations you're interested in:   The Power of Reinvention – Joanne Lipman The Skill Set for Life’s Transitions – Bruce Feiler Navigating the Transition – Dr. Maggie Mulqueen Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller The Future You – Brian David Johnson Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans   Planning for a transition to retirement? Take charge of your future. Browse all episodes of he Retirement Wisdom Podcast here. _________________________ 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 1.2 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.

It's easy to fall into a rut. What could taking up a new pursuit or a new challenge do for you? Today's guest, Joe Simonetta is living a diverse, interesting and fulfilling life. Last year he decided to take on a new challenge at 80. He decided to compete in a triathlon. Not only was it his first triathlon, it was his first race - of any kind. And he won the gold medal in his 80-84 age division at the U.S. National Senior Games. His story may inspire you to take on a new pursuit or challenge. Joe Simonetta joins us from Sarasota, Florida. ___________________ Bio Joseph R. Simonetta holds a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School where he studied ethics, global environmental problems, world religions, cosmology, and evolutionary biology. He also studied at Yale Divinity School. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Colorado. He also studied architecture at the University of Southern California. He holds a B.S. in Business Logistics from Penn State University. As a young man, disturbed at the extraordinary amount of unrelenting suffering in the world, he vowed to himself to do something to alleviate it. He went on to live a very unusual life. He has been an Army officer, professional athlete, entrepreneur and businessman, architectural designer, real estate developer, home builder, environmental activist, author, TEDx speaker, senior editor of the World Business Academy, and twice a nominee for the U.S. Congress. Intermittently, he wrote a mix of fiction and nonfiction books about humanity and the state of the world. He is married to Susana Rojas Simonetta. They have a son, Russell, born on Earth Day, and a daughter, Fiorella. He enjoys spending time with his family and training for and competing in triathlons. In the 2023 U.S. National Senior Games triathlon in Pittsburgh, he won the gold medal in his 80-84 age division. __________________________ For More on Joseph R. Simonetta Website  Be Healthy. Be Kind. Respect the Environment.: What We Do to Others, We Do to Ourselves Gingerbread Horse Rocket and The Melon Ball Express: A Story About a Little Boy Who Changed the World Tedx Talk __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller The Fourth Quarter – Allen Hunt Will You Flourish or Languish? – Corey Keyes The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Seven Words to Live By "The three simple rules for living: be healthy, be kind, respect the environment. I have to put in context, and Arthur Schopenhauer observed that all truth passes through three levels. First, it's ridicule, second, it's violently opposed, third, it's accepted as being self -evident. Such a truth has emerged in our lifetime. It informs us that we exist as a tiny fragment of an immensely larger interlocking pole, which all the parts are interconnected and depend upon each other for survival. Simply put, everything's connected to everything else. We exist not separately, but in communion with all other living things. Life's an interrelated, interdependent phenomenon. Everything's in relationship. It's the nature of universe, it's the nature of the reality in which we exist. Like it or not, reality has behavioral demands. That is, if you want to stick around, if you want to live, if you want to continue on the journey, those behavioral demands can be summarized in seven words. Be healthy, be kind, respect the environment. Each one of us is like a cell in the body of humanity. The health of all of us taken together in terms of the health of humanity and the health of our civilization." On Updating Beliefs "The question is, how do we reduce ignorance and suffering, expand knowledge and justice? Einstein observed that we can't solve our problems from the same level of thinking which they originated.So it begs the question, what level of thinking are we at?

Retirement offers the opportunity to pursue new interests, hobbies and pursuits. But getting retirement right takes practice. How do you start? Mary Jo Hoffman shares her story of how a daily photography practice on her daily walks with her dog evolved, culminating in her new book STILL:The Art of Noticing. Mary Jo Hoffman joins us from Minnesota. __________________________ Bio Mary Jo Hoffman is the author of STILL:The Art of Noticing.  An aeronautical engineer-turned-artist, since beginning her artistic practice and founding the blog, STILL, she and her project have been featured in Martha Stewart Living and Better Homes & Gardens, among other publications, and she has collaborated with West Elm, Target, the United States Botanic Garden, and the Scottish National Opera She is renowned for her unique and personal engagement with the natural world around her, primarily in North America's Great Lakes bioregion and the iconic scrubland of Mediterranean France. Best known for her multi-year, ongoing project, "STILL," she captures and posts one photo every day, on a white background, of a natural object found near her, whether leaves, flowers, seedpods, twigs, insects, or animals. "STILL" images reflect Hoffman's profound admiration for nature's subtle, seasonal expressions. Her photography encourages viewers to pause and contemplate one thing at a time, to be still, if only for a moment, in a world of distracted hurrying from one thing to another. The project is an endorsement of the power of dailiness, and an invitation to re-see the too-often overlooked "infraordinary," that surrounds us--those sights, sounds, and subtle changes that we think of as common and familiar, but which can come alive with delightful possibility when paid attention to. Hoffman lives in Shoreview, Minnesota, on Turtle Lake, with her husband, Steve, a food writer and author, and her aging and indulged puggle, Jack, with whom she takes walks as often as possible, in woods and fields, and along lakeside trails, on the hunt for that day's STILL blog subject. __________________________ For More on Mary Jo Hoffman STILL Blog STILL:The Art of Noticing _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retirement Rookies – Stephen & Karen Kreider Yoder Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta Living for Pleasure – Emily Austin, PhD Best of 2024 – Part One _________________________ Wise Quotes On Practicing Retirement "...think about practicing for retirement. Put those pieces in place with the community, the hobbies, the interests, whatever you want to do. Start early enough to have those in place when you retire so that you don't just one day walk out the door, and then you don't know what to do with yourself. That struck a chord with me. So we are in France, the kids are in school, it's the first free time in my adult life and I say to my, my husband who's a tax preparer, but who also had creative ambitions. He was wanted always wanted to be a writer. I said, let's practice for retirement. We have we have six hours a day between parent drop off and parent pickup. Let's practice for retirement. So that was 2012. So 12 years ago what happened is I started a photo. So I came up with a project for myself is called a photo a day for one year. So it was a one year project to do a photo a day, which then resulted in this book that I just came out with." On Daily Practice "If you've never done anything like a 100-day challenge. I have a 30-day challenge. I think 30 days is too short. I did a one year challenge that turned into a 12 year challenge. I highly recommend them. That's why  I call it the sneaky superpower of daily -  of having a daily practice. The other one of the other things that that totally surprised me  was something an idea I call placefulness, which is it is this a really deep and nuanced knowledge and connection to my place."

Is it possible to get healthier as you get older? Dr. Michael Greger knows how and why that's possible. He visits with us to discuss his new book How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older. Dr. Greger joins us from Maryland. _________________________ Michael Greger, M.D. FACLM is a physician, New York Times best-selling author, and internationally recognized professional speaker on a number of important public health issues. Dr. Greger has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the International Bird Flu Summit, among countless other symposia and institutions; testified before Congress; has appeared on shows such as The Colbert Report; and was invited as an expert witness in defense of Oprah Winfrey at the infamous "meat defamation" trial. In 2017, he was honored with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine with its Lifestyle Medicine Trailblazer Award. Dr. Greger's most recent scientific publications in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Critical Reviews in Microbiology, Family and Community Health, and the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition, and Public Health explore the public health implications of industrialized animal agriculture. Dr. Greger is also licensed as a general practitioner specializing in clinical nutrition and is a founding member and Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. He was featured on the Healthy Living Channel promoting his latest nutrition DVDs and honored to teach part of Dr. T. Colin Campbell's esteemed nutrition course at Cornell University. Dr. Greger's nutrition work can be found at NutritionFacts.org, which is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit charity. Four of his books — How Not to Die, The How Not to Die Cookbook, How Not to Diet, and How Not to Age — became instant New York Times Best Sellers. He is also the author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching and Carbophobia: The Scary Truth Behind America's Low Carb Craze. Dr. Greger is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Greger is proud to be a Council of Directors member of the global voice for lifestyle as medicine, the True Health Initiative (THI). This is a growing coalition of more than 360 world experts representing 35 countries. It is an unprecedented assembly that includes physicians, university Deans, former Surgeon Generals, Olympic athletes, chefs, environmental professionals and a diverse group of nutritionists. Together they offer clarity over confusion and support the foundational principles of healthy eating and healthy living. All speaking fees and proceeds Dr. Greger receives from the sale of his books and DVDs are donated to charity. ___________________________ For More on Michael Greger, M.D. How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease NutritionFacts.org The Daily Dozen ___________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode The Game Changers Movie ___________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like From Cravings to Control – Revamp Your Habits – Dr. Jud Brewer The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer Upgrade Your Sleep – Dr. Raj Dasgupta ___________________________ Wise Quotes On What Motivates Him "NutritionFacts.org is a free nonprofit science-based public service providing daily updates on latest in nutrition research via bite-sized videos, about 2000 videos on the every aspect of healthy eating with new videos and articles uploaded to every day. And the latest in evidence-based nutrition. What a concept. No ads, no corporate sponsorship, not selling anything. Just put it up as a public service. Nutrition facts.org actually put it up as a really as tribute to my grandmother, which is how I got involved in the first place.

You're wise to be planning for your retirement. But the best-laid plans can be turned upside down in an instant. Sarah Cart joins us to share her experience and her new book On My Way Back to You: One Couple's Journey through Catastrophic Illness to Healing and Hope. Sarah Cart joins us from Massachusetts. _________________________ Bio Sarah Cart was raised and educated in New York and New England. As a freelancer, she wrote for multiple local publications while she and her husband, Ben, raised four sons in northeastern Ohio. Upon becoming empty nesters, the two moved to the Florida Keys, but they returned every summer to the Pennsylvania Poconos, where each had lifelong family connections. Then came Covid. The pandemic, combined with Ben’s health issues, necessitated their sheltering in place in Florida for the entirety of 2020. In the wake of Ben’s undergoing miraculous lifesaving measures, they have been afforded the unanticipated gift of a future and, more than ever before, relish time spent with family and friends. Sarah Cart’s On My Way Back to You is a first-hand account of the rollercoaster world of lifesaving transplants and the unimaginable challenges Sarah faced as she struggled to manage her husband’s devastating illness and to save his life, their marriage, and her sanity. Throughout her 42-year marriage, writer Sarah Cart has enjoyed a life of “gloriously controlled chaos,” as she and her husband, Ben, a successful entrepreneur and seasoned outdoorsman, embarked on numerous adventures with their four active sons. Then the unthinkable happened. In suspenseful and heartrending detail, Cart shares how Ben developed an incurable autoimmune condition that was manageable and under control one minute and threatened to kill him the next, landing him in the ICU as the Covid pandemic closed the world down. Thrust into the role of nurse and caregiver, Sarah joined the ranks of 39 million Americans who champion and care for an ailing loved one. In addition to confronting doubts, fears, and endless setbacks, aggravations, and red tape, she also had to consent to daunting procedures on Ben’s behalf. Too, there were the months-long Covid-era restrictions on hospital visitations and the post-surgery snafus with home healthcare personnel. Thank goodness for the heartfelt communiques with family and friends, all of which reflect the faith, fortitude, grit, and grace that sustained her. ________________________ For More on Sarah Cart On My Way Back to You: One Couple's Journey through Catastrophic Illness to Healing and Hope ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Ride or Die – Jarie Bolander The Self-Healing Mind – Gregory Scott Brown, M.D. Planning for Family Caregiving – Danielle Miura, CFP _________________________ Wise Quotes On Perfection vs. Good Enough "Perfection is not always a good thing. I never perfected being a perfectionist, but I like to know that things are done well and right and the way they're supposed to be and the very sobering idea that if we had known before Ben went into the hospital that he had a broken hip, which is the kind of thing I mean, I was his caregiver, how could I not know that? That's unforgivable. But if we'd known it, he wouldn't have been a candidate for transplant. That just blows my mind. Not all the examples are that huge, but well, another one is he probably wouldn't have been a candidate for transplant if it hadn't been the COVID pandemic." On Gratitude "Over the course of Ben's being in the hospital, I had taken to sending emails to family and friends on a regular basis to keep everybody on the same page. And I had all those emails, and in the beginning, every single one of them was a part of the original outline of the book, just because they told the story, and all I really needed to do was kind of link them together. But then people pointed out that I needed to tell a little bit more of the story at t...

There are a lot of variables to consider in planning for retirement. A big one is longevity. We don't know how long we'll live, but we should plan for a long life. But there's more to consider than just our lifespan. Rejoining us is Maddy Dychtwald, co-founder of Age Wave, to discuss her new book Ageless Aging: A Woman’s Guide to Increasing Healthspan, Brainspan, and Lifespan, a guide to living better longer by proactively attending to your healthspan, your brainspan and your wealthspan. Maddy Dychtwald joins us from California. _________________________ Bio Recognized by Forbes as one of the top fifty female futurists globally, for nearly 40 years, Maddy Dychtwald has been deeply involved in exploring all aspects of the age wave and how it’s fundamentally transforming our lives and the world at-large. This has led her to become an award-winning author, acclaimed public speaker, and thought leader on longevity and aging, health, wellness, and the new retirement. Maddy co-founded Age Wave, the world’s leader in understanding and addressing the far-reaching impacts of longevity and our aging population. The Age Wave team has worked with more than half of the Fortune 500 in industries ranging from healthcare and medical technology to financial services and consumer products. With women at the forefront of the longevity revolution, Maddy has dug deep into their specific longevity-related wants, needs, challenges and opportunities. As a researcher and social scientist, she has led numerous acclaimed studies, including the landmark Women, Money and Power sponsored by Allianz and Women and Financial Wellness: Beyond the Bottom Line for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In addition, she has been involved in more than 25 thought leadership research studies worldwide on longevity, aging, retirement, health and wellness, family and social connections, purpose, caregiving, finances, and leisure, which have cumulatively garnered more than twenty billion media impressions. As a blogger and member of The Wall Street Journal’s Expert Panel, Maddy’s posts on leadership, wealth management, and financial planning have topped the most-read lists. Her insights and research have been featured in prominent media outlets, including Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Newsweek, Time, Fox Business News, CNBC, and NPR. Maddy has written four books, including the award-winning Cycles: How We Will Live, Work, and Buy, Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better, and the children’s/young readers’ book Gideon’s Dream: A Tale of New Beginnings. Her highly anticipated new book, Ageless Aging: A Woman’s Guide to Increasing Healthspan, Brainspan, and Lifespan, (Mayo Clinic Press, May 2024) will provide an insider’s guide to living better longer, covering everything from fitness and nutrition to hormones and ageism, from sleep to purpose, from navigating the healthcare system to the role of finances. Over the years, Maddy has herself become part of the age wave and has experimented personally with how to increase her own healthspan, brainspan, and lifespan. She is a co-founder of the non-profit Women Against Alzheimer’s and serves as a board member of the non-profit BrightFocus Foundation, which funds cutting-edge research to cure diseases of the brain and eye. She is also a lead partner for Portfolia in the Active Aging and Longevity 2 Fund. She is also a lead partner for Portfolia, a collaborative women-focused investment platform in their “Active Aging & Longevity Fund 2. Maddy and her husband Ken were awarded the prestigious Esalen Prize for their outstanding contributions to advancing the human potential of long-lived men and women worldwide. An empty-nester, she is highly involved with her adult children and her granddog. ____________________________ For More on Maddy Dychtwald Ageless Aging: A Woman’s Guide to Increasing Healthspan, Brainspan, and Lifespan Age Wave

It's time to step back and look at the best of our podcast conversations earlier this year with some brief clips to help you retire smarter. Links to the full conversations are below: The Balancing Act in Retirement – Stew Friedman The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace Rightsize Your Life for a Brighter Future – Marni Jameson From Cravings to Control – Revamp Your Habits – Dr. Jud Brewer Working Identity – Herminia Ibarra The Emotionally Intelligent Retirement – Kate Schroeder & Nick Wignall ________________________ Other "Best of" Podcast Episodes You May Like The Very Best of 2022 The Best of 2021 – Retirement Wisdom Best of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast 2023 – Part Two _________________________ Best Books on Retirement Here are my recommended books (with short summaries) to get ready for the non-financial side of retirement. ________________________ 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 1.2 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.

Our memory seems like a mystery. Why can I rattle off the stating lineup of the 1967 Red Sox but can't remember what  had for lunch yesterday? Charan Ranganath can explain. He joins us to discuss his new book Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Mattersand what we can do to strengthen our cognitive fitness. Charan Ranganath joins us from California. _________________________ Bio Charan Ranganath, Ph.D, is the author of the new book Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters. He is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California at Davis. For over 25 years, Dr. Ranganath has studied the mechanisms in the brain that allow us to remember past events, using brain imaging techniques, computational modeling and studies of patients with memory disorders. He has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship. He lives in Davis, California. __________________________ For More on Charan Ranganath, Ph.D Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters Website __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Self-Healing Mind – Gregory Scott Brown, M.D. The Power of Saying No – Vanessa Patrick, PhD Successful Aging – Daniel Levitin ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone "...I really recommend for people to do new things and get out of their comfort zone. Novelty can be hugely important. It can be anxiety provoking for some people and you've got to be careful about that. But one of the things that we know is curiosity and novelty are associated with activity in these areas of brain that release and process dopamine. Dopamine is a modulator that, as I mentioned, promotes plasticity. Some work even suggests that if you, let's say, put an animal in a box and you let it explore this box that it's never been in before, its brain gets flooded with dopamine. Then if you give it some task, now it will be better at remembering the things that it was doing for this task. So in other words, that dopamine can have this spreading effect. So I think that is something that will improve people's memory, potentially. And also I think that kind of engagement is just good for people in general. There's also just a lot of value in seeing and feeling that you're learning. It can get very easy to get into a rut and then feel like everything is the same. Sometimes you lose that curiosity as you get older. I know because I see this in my colleagues sometimes and I'll say, Hey, what are the findings in your lab that you're most excited about? And they'll say, Nothing's new, it's all the same, we're all just rehashing the same stuff. And I find that so depressing because it is like my whole business is curiosity and I am a big believer in the power of curiosity." On The Mind-Body Connection "If you want to improve your cognitive functioning, or you want to retain your cognitive functioning over time and you want protect your brain health, consider that your brain is the seed of the mind and it is a part of your body. I think a lot of people have this idea of somehow I am my mind, and then my brain is separate. And it's not. It is all connected. What this means is that if you're not taking care of your mental health, your emotional health your physical health, it's going to affect your cognition and possibly increase your risk for dementia.... If you want to get in to the positives, sleep and exercise are very important." On Prioritizing & Memory "So at a minimum you want to prioritize, right? So I don't hear people telling me, Boy, I remember this temporary password that I had from 10 years ago. That's really great. I'm so happy about this. Even if you remembered everything else, you wouldn't tell me this, right? And you certainly wouldn't tell me I remembered that you're happier about ...

There's a lot we can learn - and relearn - from the younger people in our midst. They do many things in a  way that's highly beneficial for older adults. Dr. Hasan Merali is the author of the new book, Sleep Well, Take Risks, Squish the Peas, which shows us how toddlers bring out the best in humanity and how we can, too. It’s a whole new way of looking at and learning from toddlers. He joins us from Ontario. __________________________ Bio Hasan Merali, MD, MPH, is an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University and a pediatric emergency medicine physician at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on child injury prevention in low- and middle-income countries. He has published more than twenty-five peer-reviewed journal articles, and his writing has been featured in Science, The Boston Globe, NBC, CBC, and Popular Science. Dr. Merali lives in Oakville, Ontario, with his wife and their toddler daughter. ____________________________ For More on Hasan Merali  Sleep Well, Take Risks, Squish the Peas Website ____________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode Chatter & Your Inner Voice – Ethan Kross Auburn Sage Who Has the Secret to Well-Being? The Answer May Surprise You. Old People's Homes for 4 Year Olds ___________________________ Podcast Episodes  You May Like The Power of Fun – Catherine Price Emeralds of Oz – Peter Guzzardi ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Sleeping Like a Toddler "I think sleep is one of the most important ones, and for anyone interested in wellness or improving their life, I would argue that sleep is the most important one to start with. I think it's a foundation for everything else to build on. And I like the toddler routine because it is so simple and it works. And so the Toddler bedtime routine is a very easy thing to do. And if we all did it, we would all sleep better like they do, and so what you do is you set a bed time, you kind of stick to it. You got to be regular about that time. Start an hour before. None of this involves any screens, so those screens are completely off. One hour before, you're either taking a hot bath or shower and what that does actually is cool down your body and your body needs to be cooler when we sleep and so that kind of gets your body into that mode. The next thing you do what toddlers do is they have lotion put on them and certainly that's something we could all do. It feels good, massage is good but really any hygiene related activity is fine. And then finally I think we're going to talk about this later too is reading and that is the best way to end your night. It's no screens. If it's an e-reader, it is fine, but there's no other distractions. And it s a way to consolidate all that knowledge we're getting because if you read and then sleep, you're going to retain a lot more of it too." On Laughing Like a Toddler "If you look at a graph of age across the spectrum and how much we do an activity, there is the first cliff that we go off is really humor and laughter. And there are a whole bunch of other ones. Reading is another one. Play is a another. And some of them do come back when you're retired, which is wonderful. You know, for reading, it comes back for example when your 65. But laughter is definitely one of them that we can never reach the same level that we did have when we were toddlers. So toddlers left to themselves and they're miked up. They're laughing almost one time a minute. So nearly 60 times an hour. And adults, at most, will get to half of that level. And so this amount of laughter is good for them and us for a lot of different reasons. It's everyone knows this it's a stress reliever. It makes us feel good. And one of the things that I mentioned that toddlers are always ...

We're surrounded by uncertainty and we don't like the feeling of not knowing. But there's often hidden strength in some things that make us uncomfortable. Maggie Jackson's new book explores the research that shows that uncertainty is not a weakness, but instead can be a powerful tool for navigating complexity with creativity and adaptability. Maggie Jackson joins us from Rhode Island to discuss her new book Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure and why we should embrace uncertainty as a catalyst for curiosity - and more. ________________________ Bio Maggie Jackson is an award-winning author and journalist known for her prescient writings on social trends, particularly technology’s impact on humanity. Her new book Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure has been lauded as "remarkable and persuasive" (Library Journal); "trending" (Book Pal); "incisive and timely-triumphant" (Dan Pink); and "both surprising and practical" (Gretchen Rubin). Nominated for a National Book Award, Uncertain was named a Top 10 Social Sciences book of 2023 by Library Journal and a Top 50 Psychology book of the year by the Next Big Idea Club. The book inspired Jackson's recent lead opinion piece in the New York Times on uncertainty and resilience. Her acclaimed book Distracted: Reclaiming Our Focus in a World of Lost Attention sparked a global conversation on the steep costs of our tech-centric, attention-deficient modern lives. With a foreword by Bill McKibben, the book reveals the scientific discoveries that can help rekindle our powers of focus in a world of overload and fragmentation. Hailed as “influential” by the New Yorker and compared by Fast Company.com to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Distracted offers a “richly detailed and passionately argued … account of the travails facing an ADD society” (Publishers Weekly) and “concentrates the mind on a real problem of modern life” (The Wall Street Journal). The book is “now more essential than ever,” says Pulitzer finalist Nicholas Carr. Maggie Jackson’s essays, commentary, and books have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New Philosopher, on National Public Radio, and in media worldwide. She wrote the foreword to Living with Robots: Emerging Issues on the Psychological and Social Implications of Robotics (Academic Press, 2019) and has contributed essays to numerous other anthologies, including State of the American Mind: Sixteen Leading Critics on the New Anti-Intellectualism (Templeton, 2015) and The Digital Divide: Arguments For and Against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking (Penguin, 2011). Her book, What’s Happening to Home? Balancing Work, Life and Refuge in the Information Age, was the first to explore the fate of home in the digital age, a time when private life is permeable and portable. Jackson is the recipient of numerous grants, awards, and fellowships, including a 2016 Bard Graduate Center Visiting Fellowship; Media Awards from the Work-Life Council of the Conference Board, the Massachusetts Psychological Association, and the Women’s Press Club of New York. For a National Public Radio segment on the lack of labor protections offered to child newspaper carriers, she was a finalist for a Hillman Prize, one of journalism’s highest honors for social justice reporting. Jackson has served as an affiliate of the Institute of the Future in Palo Alto; a Journalism Fellow in Child and Family Policy at the University of Maryland; and a Scholar-in-Residence at the Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia. Her website has been named a Forbes Top 100 Site for Women three times. Jackson is a sought-after speaker, appearing at Harvard Business School, the New York Public Library, the annual invitation-only Forbes CMO summit, the Simmons and other top women’s leadership conferences, and other corporations, libraries, hospitals, schools, religious organizations, and bookstores.

Are you ready for the second half of life? Allen Hunt believes we should be more precise and instead concentrate on preparing for the fourth quarter of our lives once we hit our sixties. It helps us focus with a heightened sense of urgency and it can inspire us to be more intentional about the things that matter most. Allen Hunt joins us from Atlanta. __________________________ Bio Allen Hunt is The Fourth Quarter Guy. He helps people discover how to become the best-version-of themselves in the Fourth Quarter of life. A four-time #1 Amazon best-selling author, Allen collaborated with Matthew Kelly to write No Regrets: A Fable about Living Your Fourth Quarter Intentionally. In that fable, they share the ground-breaking secrets of the Fourth Quarter: the 5 Keys to Living and Dying with No Regrets. Those 5 keys then led them to create The Fourth Quarter of Your Life: Embracing What Matters Most, a workbook to help people do just that: Discover and plan how to intentionally live their fourth quarters with confidence, boldness and passion. Allen earned a Ph.D from Yale University. He enjoys hiking, literature, spirituality, history and good food. he and his wife, Anita, live in Georgia. They have two daughters, two sons-in-law, and seven grandchildren. ____________________________ Website - The Fourth Quarter Guy - Allen Hunt You Tube Channel No Regrets: A Fable about Living Your Fourth Quarter Intentionally The Fourth Quarter of Your Life: Embracing What Matters Most _____________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller Independence Day – Steve Lopez Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet _____________________________ Wise Quotes On the Fourth Quarter of Life "And so when you turn 60, you really are three-fourths of the way through, and you're in that fourth quarter. And as I've kind of accompanied folks on that journey, I've realized your perspective really changes at that point in different kinds of ways. Your values may not, but your perspective and your point of view does. And certain things become more important. Other things begin to kind of recede into the background. And like my co-author, Matthew Kelly, and I say, death is the one unavoidable truth. And in the fourth quarter, you begin to realize that at some level. And then once you actually really realize that and accept it, then you can truly begin to live. It's almost liberating once you realize, and this thing is going to, there is a termination date. " On Regrets "How do you redeem those regrets and turn them into dreams? You know as we talked with hospice nurses and as we worked with people who were preparing to die and listen to some of their regrets one of the greatest regrets people expresses I really wish I had expressed my feelings more. And so if that's a regret that you anticipate that you might have or that you have up to this point so okay how can I how can I turn that into a fourth quarter dream instead of letting that regret kind of hang on me like a wet sweater. And one way to do that is to think about three simple statements I love you, I forgive you, or please forgive me. And who do you need to say those things to? And begin to think about who do you need to thank? Who do you need to express love to? who do you need to forgive and who do you actually need to forgive you? Who do you need to say I'm sorry to and begin actually acting on that. And you'll you'll not only begin to avoid regrets, but you also begin to experience a freedom from the past and a lightness and a liberty in the in the fourth quarter." On Being Intentional in Your Fourth Quarter "...intentionality matters in every aspect of your life, whether it's your physical health, your mental health, your spiritual life. And so just to put together a simple one step, this is the next step I'm gonna take, and then see what God begins to do in your life as you do that,

A lot of our day-to-day behavior comes from habits. They create useful short cuts. But while they're efficient, many lack something important - meaning. That's where rituals come in. From the civic and religious rituals that commemorate key milestones and special events to our morning routines, they add a valuable emotional dimension to our lives. Michael Norton, author the new book The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions, has studied rituals and joins us to share what's he's learned about how we can be intentional about rituals, both ones we've inherited and new ones we create. He joins us from Cambridge, Massachusetts. ____________________ Curious? Take the Habit or Ritual Quiz _____________________ Bio Michael Norton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He has studied human behavior as it relates to love and inequality, time and money, and happiness and grief. He is the author of The Ritual Effect and the coauthor—with Elizabeth Dunn—of Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending. In 2012, he was selected by Wired magazine as one of “50 People Who Will Change the World.” His TEDx talk, How to Buy Happiness, has been viewed nearly 4.5 million times. He is a frequent contributor to such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Scientific American, and has made numerous television, radio, and podcast appearances. __________________________ For More on Michael Norton The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions  Website _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Tiny Habits Can Lead to Big Changes – BJ Fogg How to Live a Values Based Life – Harry Kraemer The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace The Second Curve of Life – Arthur C. Brooks _________________________ Wise Quotes On Rituals & Emotions   "I think one thing that I like about rituals is that they're a bit domain general, in the sense that we don't just use them in one domain. So imagine the only thing we use rituals for was to tie our shoes before a big race or to try to calm down before a big event. We for sure use them there. But then we use them in all these other domains of life as well. We use them in our marriages, we use them with our kids and families. We use them at work. So we really think about this idea of rituals allow us across many domains of life to change our experience in one way or another. We're often looking for an emotion when we engage in rituals. Like if I'm doing something with my wife that we do on date night, we're doing the ritual in order to feel closer. If I'm tying my shoes, I'm doing it in order to feel calmer. So we have these ways of using rituals to try to get us to an emotion that we think at least would be helpful in that moment." On Rituals and Retirement "And I think that can help us then have a better demarcation between what we were and what we're going to be. I was a full-time employee. I was a parent, now I'm retired, or now I'm an empty nester. How are we helping people transition from one to the other? Because it's a huge transition. When we go through any of these transitions in life, we have, when we look at rituals, there's many different types."   On Inherited Rituals "We have just two broad categories are rituals that we receive or inherit. They could be family rituals, they could be cultural rituals, they could be religious rituals that we get from our parents, from our grandparents, from our faith. And those rituals play an enormously important role in our lives. And we know what they are, and we know how meaningful they are when we do them. Weddings and funerals exist for a reason."   On Taking an Inventory "I think the last thing that anybody wants to hear is add 10 more things to your life. That's not a good selling point.

Doesn't everyone deserve a dignified retirement? Rather than fixing our retirement system, working longer is often seen as the solution to finance retirement. But for people with physically demanding jobs or people grappling with health issues or disabilities, working longer is not an option. Teresa Ghilarducci joins us to discuss her new book  Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy  and her proposal for a Gray New Deal to fix the retirement system in the US. Teresa Ghilarducci joins us from New York. _________________________ Bio Teresa Ghilarducci is the author of the new book Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy. A labor economist and nationally-recognized expert in retirement security, she is the Bernard L. and Irene Schwartz professor of economics at The New School for Social Research and the Director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and The New School’s Retirement Equity Lab. As a labor economist, she has spent her career working to ensure retirement security for all American workers. She joined The New School for Social Research as a professor of economics in 2008 after teaching at Notre Dame for 25 years. She frequently testifies before the U.S. Congress and serves as a media source to popular and online news outlets about pensions, labor economics, and older workers. She also frequently publishes in economics journals and edited volumes and has authored several books, including How to Retire with Enough Money: And How to Know What Enough Is and Rescuing Retirement, co-authored with “Tony” James, who was Executive Vice Chairman of The Blackstone Group at the time and co-authored  In an unusual partnership, they outlined their bold policy vision to create Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) for all American workers. ____________________________ For More on Teresa Ghilarducci Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy How to Retire with Enough Money: And How to Know What Enough Is Rescuing Retirement: A Plan to Guarantee Retirement Security for All Americans ____________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Are You Ready for The New Long Life? – Andrew Scott When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland ____________________________ Wise Quotes On the Pyramid of Retirement Security "Well, me and everyone else in this field knows that the building box of a good retirement looks like not pillars, but is a pyramid. There's a base and then there's a middle part, and then there's a tippy top part. I think of it as the food pyramid with the base as your fruits, your vegetables and your grains. That's a foundation and that's Social Security and that it doesn't provide all of your retirement income needs, for sure. But it's certainly a foundation. It's a foundation of security because retirement is for the lucky ones. A lot of people have missteps along the way that they have to take care of somebody and drop out of the labor force. So your family needs to be secured for that. So a spousal benefit is there, or you may be disabled, of course. And in fact, a huge percentage of people can't do their jobs mentally and physically starting around 50. And so official disability may not be in the offering, but kind of a partial disability is something that we all are at risk of having to manage. And so Social Security has to take into account the insurance system, a couple of missed quarters. We need social insurance against wild recessions where you might miss hours and work. And so you need that foundation." On Defined Contribution Plans vs. Pensions   "And I think an unintended consequence of our do it yourself experiment we've had for 40 years in our country, there's no such thing as elders. You're supposed to stay young forever.

Are you ready to make giving back your second act? That's the question posed by AmeriCorps Seniors. While volunteering can make a huge difference in the lives of others, it offers many benefits for you too. Atalaya Sergi joins us to discuss how AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers are making a difference by redeploying their skills and experience, including through intergenerational volunteer programs. Atalaya Sergi joins us from Charlottesville, Virginia. __________________________ Bio Atalaya Sergi leads AmeriCorps Seniors, the federal grant making office of AmeriCorps that is focused on promoting and engaging people aged 55 and over in outcomes-oriented service. She has more than 20 years of experience in service, community engagement, and education, working in the public and nonprofit sector to bring private and public organizations together to ensure people of all ages, as well as those living in underserved communities, thrive. Prior to AmeriCorps, she served as vice president, strategic partnerships & programming at Jumpstart for Young Children, Inc., managing AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors programs as a federal grantee. She launched Jumpstart’s only AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Program. Sergi co-founded Los Angeles Generation to Generation, focusing on engaging older adults in volunteerism to support young children across LA County. She currently represents AmeriCorps on the federal government’s Elder Justice Coordinating Council and Scams Against Older Adults Advisory Group. She has been recognized as a PBS Next Avenue Influencer in Aging, an Encore Network Champion, and was selected as a Co-Generate Encore Public Voice Fellow, using her time to write about the positive impact older adults can have in educational settings. Sergi earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University. _____________________________ For More on Atalaya Sergi AmeriCorps Seniors Atalaya Sergi on Next Avenue _____________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Changing the World One Small Act at a Time – Brad Aronson The Best Day of My Life So Far – Benita Cooper Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland _____________________________ Related Blog Post Find the Volunteer Opportunity That’s Right for You _____________________________   Retiring? Check out our Best Books for Retirement   _______________________________ Wise Quotes  On the Benefits of Volunteering "One of the things that we have done some research on and learned about is the benefits to your health, and I'm not sure that everyone thinks about that. We did a research study where we looked over a three year period of volunteering, starting with volunteers who had never volunteered before and then following them over time. And we saw that of those that had volunteered for just one or two years, 84% of those volunteers reported improved or stable health. 88% reported decreased feelings of isolation. And we know how important that is given all of the work that our Surgeon General is doing. And 78% reported that they also felt less depressed after volunteering. And I think that getting out, getting moving, staying connected to your community and to others in your community really has a positive impact just on your health." On Volunteering & Lifelong Learning  "I think another thing that volunteers may sometimes not expect is that they learn new skills. So we're talking about adults that are volunteering, that have lots of lived experience, lots of career experience, but we always hear from volunteers that they learn new skills when they're out volunteering from the training they receive. If they're doing something that's different from what they did in their career, they learn new skill sets." On Foster Grandparenting

What will you be retiring to? Don't just wing it. Design it. Join our next Design Your New Life in Retirement small group program starting on April 26th. There's one spot left... _________________________ What lessons learned can you glean from a top financial advisor who's helped many people successfully retire? Scott Hanson, of Allworth Financial, joins us to share his insights and discuss the Four Pillars you'll want to put in place to build the satisfying retirement you've earned. Scott Hanson joins us from California. _________________________ Bio Scott Hanson is a founding principal and Vice Chair at Allworth Financial. A nationally recognized financial expert, he’s been named to Barron’s list of the Top 100 Independent Wealth Advisors  in America numerous times and has been listed as one of the 25 most influential people in the financial services industry nationwide. For over 28 years, Scott has co-hosted Allworth Financial’s Money Matters, a call-in, financial topic radio program and podcast, making it one of the longest-running shows of its kind in America. A frequent guest columnist for several national financial publications, Scott is the author of Personal Decision Points: 7 Steps to Your Ideal Retirement Transition and Money Matters: Essential Tips & Tools for Building Financial Peace of Mind. In 2010, Scott was recognized as the Outstanding Philanthropist by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, California Capital Chapter, and has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, California State University, Chico. It 2021, he was recognized by Investment News as one of the 10 “Icons and Innovators” of the financial services industry nationwide. In 2019, Scott was the inspiration behind the founding of Allworth Kids, which has provided laptops, overnight kits, and financial assistance to over 200,000 foster kids to date. Scott and his wife Valerie reside in El Dorado Hills, CA and have four children. ____________________________ For More on Scott Hanson Allworth Financial Allworth Financial’s  Money Matters _____________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Life in Retirement: Expectations & Realities – Catherine Collinson Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller Independence Day – Steve Lopez ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Work as an Option "So I think it's really important that people get to a point where retirement's an option and where work is an option, not an obligation. When people get to that point where they have the financial independence, I think it changes their mindset and they can look at work a lot differently. They have other options available to them. And so for us, for financial advisors, it's really about getting to that point where you've got that independence where you can choose your own future." On Planning for Life After You Retire "A lot of people think 'Well, as soon as I retire, I'm going to get rid of all my responsibilities and just going to have all kinds of blank space and a blank canvas to build from.' That's not always a very healthy way to approach retirement. I'll never forget, years ago, I had a client, she was an executive, a CEO of a mid-size company with a couple of hundred employees, and she had done a nice job saving. She'd come in and we'd talk about her retirement preparedness. So we're having the same conversation again - our annual review. And I said to her 'Stacy, let's assume you're retired today. Tell me what your next few weeks look like. How are you spending your time?' She says 'What do you mean? 'I said 'Well, your entire career, you've been coaching people, mentoring people, you've been involved in strategic plans, you've been working as teams. What are you going to do in retirement to still have some of those activities? 'And she sent me an email two weeks after our conversation and she said: Your questions haunted me.

What are you retiring to? Don’t drift into it. Design it. Join us in the next Design Your New Life in Retirement group program starting April 26th. __________________________ I've just completed my second year as a grandfather. Like anyone finishing their sophomore year, I know twice as much as I did a year ago, but still have a lot to learn. In my quest to learn more, I came across this article in the New York Times - How to be a Better Grandfather - and discovered Ted Page. When he became a grandfather at 55, he looked online for guidance and discovered - well, not much. So he created the website and blog Good Grandpa. Ted's writing a book that's coming out next year sharing stories and wisdom from grandfathers on the #1 thing they've learned that will help nurture the next generation. Ted Page joins us from Massachusettts. ________________________ Bio Ted Page is the creator and editor of Good Grandpa. Ted Page is a storyteller, performer and marketing executive. His non-fiction stories have appeared in Boston Magazine and the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine, and his book of true family stories, The Willoughby Chronicles, was published by 3 Swallys Press in 2017. Ted is a Co-Founder of Captains of Industry, a leading boutique marketing consultancy based in Boston. Ted won a Telly award for The Institute for Back-up Trauma, starring John Cleese—who looks stunning in a red dress. Ted and his colleagues at Captains of Industry created The Climate Declaration for CERES, which was signed by over 1,700 corporations globally including Apple, Nike, Starbucks, GM and Levis. Ted lives outside Boston with his wife, Nancy, who continues to put up with him after 35 years. They have two children and four grandchildren. _________________________ For More on Ted Page GoodGrandpa.com What's the #1 thing you've learned that can  help the next generation? Contact Ted Page: ted@goodgrandpa.com _________________________ Mentioned in This Episode The Parrot Sketch ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Long Distance Grandparent – Kerry Byrne PhD The Mindful Grandparent – Dr. Shirley Showalter _________________________ Wise Quotes On the Next Generation "The mission of the blog is to nurture the next great generation. So I'm a Boomer, sort of at the tail end of the Baby Boomers, born in 1959. And for us, we always just kind of looked up to our parents as what Tom Brokaw had dubbed the Greatest Generation. He wrote this terrific book, The Greatest Generation, and that's very understandable. They won World War II, they survived The Great Depression. They were great. They were fantastic. And I revered my father and mother. I revered the one grandfather that I knew. But when I saw these little kids starting to appear on the scene, our grandkids, I thought: What if they're going to be the greatest generation of all time? And what can we do to help them become the greatest generation, not just here in the United States, but around the world. We have tools that our parents didn't have." On Continuous Learning "But then of course, I said, Well, John, let me tell you what I'm up to. I'm writing a book and I'm gathering wisdom from elders and asking everyone what the number 1 piece of wisdom is - and he just jumped in and he said, 'Well, that's easy. I'll tell you.' And I'm like: Great! Mr. John Cleese, one of the greats, is going to share his number one thing. And he said: 'It's more important to find the truth that it is to know the truth.' And when I asked him to unpack that a little bit, he said, well, Newtonian mathematics and physics was accepted without question for hundreds of years. And that along comes Einstein, and it's all upended. And then just within Einstein's life, there's quantum physics. It's the constant learning that matters. It's the seeking the truth. And sometimes when you believe something's the truth,

Don’t drift into your retirement. Design it. Join us in the next Design Your New Life in Retirement group program starting April 26. __________________________ Today's Building Block: Wellness What will your life in retirement really be like? Will you flourish or languish? Our guest today is Corey Keyes, a renowned expert and author of the groundbreaking book Languishing: How to Feel Alive Again in a World That Wears Us Down. Corey explains what languishing is and the five essential "vitamins" for flourishing, derived from extensive research, offering practical strategies to improve well-being. Corey Keyes joins us from North Carolina. _________________________ Bio Corey Keyes is professor emeritus of Sociology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA where he held the Winship Distinguished Research Professorship. He was a member of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Aging. He has been called on to participate in several U.S. National Academies of Science initiatives – “The Future of Human Healthspan” and improving national statistics to measure recovery from mental illness. His research introduced the concepts of social well-being, flourishing, languishing, the two continua model of mental health and illness, and his work is being used to prevent mental illness via the promotion of positive (flourishing) mental health. He has been selected to give several honorary lectureships, including the Dorosin Memorial Lecture for the National College Health Association, The Chesley Lecture on Aging at Minnesota State University, and the Anita Spenser Lectureship in Clinical Behavioral Sciences at McMaster University. _________________________ For More on Corey Keyes Languishing: How to Feel Alive Again in a World That Wears Us Down _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer The Self-Healing Mind – Gregory Scott Brown, M.D. Chatter & Your Inner Voice – Ethan Kross The Power of Fun – Catherine Price ______________________ Wise Quotes On Flourishing and Languishing "....the good news is that flourishing is at its peak during what most of us would consider the first decade of retirement. So roughly between 60 to 74, it is at its peak and before you retire and throughout your adult working phase, it starts out pretty low in early to late twenties, but it's steadily increases and increases so that as you get settled into your career and become senior and established, you tend to on average leave your career on a high note. You're flourishing, but it gets better. And that's the point I want to make, that it's the first decade at least of retirement. People are doing really well on average. It's the problems that come with if we live long enough. And by that I mean roughly past the age of 75 plus and more and more of us are. We see a downturn in flourishing and an increase in languishing towards the end of life." On Activities That Promote Flourishing "... five of the activities stood out among people who were flourishing, who they did more of the following. They engaged in more forms of helping behavior. It might be volunteering, helping people, or even living your purpose. Go out there and help someone or help something in the world and make it better. The second vitamin, that flourishers did more of was that they connected, prioritizing warm, trusting relationships. Relationships where they had a sense of belonging, where they were part of a community and relationships where they mattered. And by that I meant they were needed. And in my measurement of flourishing, the sense of contributing worth and value to the world is baked into flourishing. So the second thing they did more of was connect around warmth, trust, belonging, and mattering. The third was they were very active in learning something new and prioritizing personal growth.

Don't drift into your retirement. Design it. Join us in the next Design Your New Life in Retirement group program starting April 26. _____________________ Who knows more about whether or not you're ready to retire? Your financial advisor - or you? While you're diligently planning for your retirement and dreaming to retire happy, the retirement landscape keeps evolving around you. Let's take a look at what's happening in the world of retirement with Nate Miles of Allspring Global Investments. He joins us to the discuss key trends highlighted in their latest study on retirement, including happiness in retirement, retirement readiness, what retirees regret - and more. Nate Miles joins us from North Carolina. ___________________ Bio Nathaniel (Nate) Miles is head of Global Client Strategy at Allspring Global Investments. As the leader of this business, Nate leads a team of investment specialists centered on client-type expertise, which enables Allspring to be more relevant and impactful with clients. Client-type areas of expertise include Defined Contribution, Pension/LDI, Insurance, Liquidity, Foundations and Endowments, and Wealth. Nate joined Allspring from its predecessor firm, Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM). He joined WFAM from WisdomTree Asset Management, where he served as U.S. head of retirement solutions. In this capacity, he oversaw the creation and execution of marketing strategies and distribution for retirement business across all platforms. Prior to this, Nate worked as a managing director at State Street Global Advisors and as head of U.S. investment strategy with its defined contribution team, where he began his investment industry career in 2005. Nate earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and financial management with honors from Wilfrid Laurier University. He has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation and is a member of CFA Society Boston. _________________________ For More on Nate Miles  The 21st annual Allspring Global Investments Retirement Survey: A Clear Vision of Retirement Allspring Global Investments _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Life in Retirement: Expectations & Realities – Catherine Collinson Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson _________________________ Wise Quotes  On Happiness in Retirement "The one thing that we found out every year is our study says and relates how happy retirees are. So that wasn't new, but we are trying to get to the why. And one of the things we found this year for the first time was that on average retirees could have their spending decline by 25% before it significantly impacted their happiness. So that was a bigger number than I expected, but was corroborated by the fact that when we asked them about their spending on things like their needs, wants and wishes, that only tallied up about 64% of total income. So those numbers actually jive together and I think are a nice story and a nice finding from this study." On Retirement Readiness "Advisors ranked their clients as 40% of them being generally ready for retirement. Near retirees were down below 40%. So there was actually a positive spread. I would say advisors believed them to be a little more prepared, but retirees were up around 77%, so clearly much happier. So overall we had advisors at about 50% of their client base being ready for retirement versus a total population of 64%. But that's really broken down between those two groups where the retirees were much more confident than near retirees." On Regrets "It was a little bit harder to find regrets because our retirees tend to be generally pretty happy. They don't tend to have much complaint about retirement. It is generally better than they expected.  One was the too early crowd. We saw some that retired before age 50, 38% suggested that it was too early. They wished they would've hung on and worked a little bit longer...

Looking for an active retirement? Design it with others. Join us in the next Design Your New Life in Retirement group program starting April 26. Today's Building Blocks: Fun and Wellness Spring is right around the corner and it’s a great time to explore new outdoor activities and re-energize your routines by trying something new. Caroline Paul’s newest book, Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking — How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives As We Age, delves into the science and psychology of the outdoors - and our place in it as we age with real-life stories of women living it today. Caroline Paul joins us from San Francisco. ________________________ Bio Caroline Paul has always filled her life with adventure. Now 60, she expects this new stage of life to be every bit as invigorating and full of high adrenalin escapades as the last. But as she skateboards, paddles a SUP, or surfs in cold winter swell alongside many men her age, she sees fewer and fewer older women. Isn’t the outdoors a vital elixir? Shouldn’t adventure be something we pursue as we age? Caroline grew up in Connecticut, graduated from Stanford University and originally planned to be a documentary filmmaker. In her adult life, Caroline has been an extremely active athlete: she's not only been a white-water raft guide and a private pilot, but also has competed in the U.S. Nationals for the sport of Luge, mountain-biked in such places as China and Vietnam, flown her para-glider in Brazil, sea-kayaked in Alaska, and skied the back country of Denali and the Sierras. One of the first women to join the San Francisco Fire Department, Caroline wrote the book, "Fighting Fire", about her experiences as a firefighter; this book was published, to great acclaim, in 1998. Caroline is also the author of the New York Times bestseller "The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure" and "Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology", which has been translated into fifteen languages, the middle-grade book "You Are Mighty: A Guide to Changing the World", and the novel "East Wind, Rain". Her TED Talk, “To Raise Brave Girls, Encourage Adventure,” has been viewed over 2 million times. A longtime member of the Writers Grotto, she lives in San Francisco. ________________________ For More on Caroline Paul  Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking — How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives As We Age carolinepaul.com ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Joy of Movement – Kelly McGonigal The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer Growing Old, Staying Rad – Steven Kotler The Power of Fun – Catherine Price ________________________ Mentioned in This Episode https://www.retirementwisdom.com/podcasts/breaking-the-age-code-dr-becca-levy/ Caroline Paul on The Tim Ferris Show (2016) ________________________ Wise Quotes On Outdoor Adventure "Everything about outdoor adventure hits all the pillars that we need for fulfilling aging and - all in one fell swoop. So I realized during the research of this book that we need to have community as we age. We need to have purpose as we age. We need to have novelty. And of course there's health. And then the final one, which is lesser known, is the positive mindset about our own aging. And if you go outside you actually in one fell swoop hit all of those." On Awe "There was adrenaline, but that wasn't the actual experience. And what I found was that what I was experiencing was awe. And by the time I handed in my book in there had been other books about it, but I did not know much about it at all when I was writing it. And I realized that awe is what you experience in the face of something bigger than you. And it's mostly considered a religious word most of the time, but we're bringing it more into our vocabulary. But all is something obviously that the outdoors often inspires and turns out it's really good for you.