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.

Make the New Year Your Best Year Free 2-part Workshop to build 3 new habits January 3 and 10th  - 12 Noon Eastern - 1 hour via Zoom Sign Up here  _______________________ It's a great time of year to slow down. But what about next year? Is it time for slow living? Stephanie O'Dea, author of Slow Living: Cultivating a Life of Purpose in a Hustle-Driven World, shares her personal experiences with slowing down, the benefits of living a different lifestyle and how to get started. Stephanie O'Dea joins us from California. __________________ Bio Stephanie O'Dea is a New York Times best selling author, host of the Slow Living Podcast, and a mom of three. She writes, coaches, teaches, and speaks about all things Slow Living. In 2008, Stephanie made a New Year's resolution to use her crockpot slow cooker every day for a year and write about it online. This simple idea resulted in 10 books, a spot on the New York Times best-sellers list, and a job that she loves -- and one she can do at home, in her pajamas. Stephanie has appeared on Good Morning America, The Rachael Ray Show, featured in Real Simple Magazine, Woman's World, and Oprah.com. She is a contributing editor to Simply Gluten Free Magazine and is featured in the infomercial for the Ninja Cooking System. For a more comprehensive press listing, please visit her online home at stephanieodea.com. _______________________ For More on Stephanie O'Dea Slow Living: Cultivating a Life of Purpose in a Hustle-Driven World Website Podcast _______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Power of Saying No – Vanessa Patrick, PhD We’re All Ageing. Are You Up for a Bolder Approach? – Carl Honoré ________________________ Wise Quotes On Habits "And so if you have a long list of New Year's resolutions or things that you want to change about yourself or habits you want to start or habits you want to stop, that's okay. If for some reason, you have 'fallen off the wagon' on March 1st, it doesn't mean you've failed. It just means that you've taken a little bit of a pause. And so I'm a huge fan of like 30 day challenges and things like that. But what I joke with my coaching clients is who cares if it took you 45 days to meet a 30 day goal in the great big, huge scheme of things and the trajectory of your life, it's just a teeny, tiny blip. So I don't want people to think that they've failed when they've really just stumbled in real life. There's there's ups and downs and all arounds and we've got hurricanes and natural disasters and the roof blows off and and and that's real life." On Creating Your Mood "...Mindset + Action + Consistency = Success. So when you're in a good mood, that's mindset, For me, I like... journaling, yoga, going on long walks, spending time in nature. That's how I get myself in a good mood. And it is different for everybody. Although I will say that if you're getting yourself in a good mood by a vice that might not be healthy for you in the long term, pay attention to that. Find your good mood in healthy ways. And then ask yourself these open-ended questions. And the answers that come back are the action steps to take. And then consistency is doing the things you told yourself you would do on a consistent basis. And it also means that sometimes you might not want to do those things, but you sort of convince yourself to do them anyways. Real life. Lots of variables that you can't control. So humans like to feel as if they can control things. So in order to get that sort of feeling of control, many times the first step is s to sort of declutter things that aren't working for you. And it could be physical items in your home if they're creating kind of this brain noise every time you look at your desk, it makes you feel stressed out. Okay, that's something to pay attention to.

Retiring? Don't drift into the lazy river. Design Your New (active and interesting) Life. Learn More _______________________ In days gone by, people used to think they were done - and headed off to retirement. Not any more. Now, the questions to ask yourself  are what's my potential for the likely decades that lie ahead? And how can I live well - and wisely? Ben Lytle, former CEO of Anthem, and author of The Potentialist: The Pursuit of Wisdom, believes that wisdom and potential are our ideal adaptive responses for the interesting times we're living in today. He also believes that wisdom and untapped potential reside in everyone, waiting to be released. Ben Lytle joins us from Scottsdale, Arizona. __________________ Bio Ben Lytle is a self-made serial entrepreneur and CEO known for being ahead of the curve. He is the author of "The Potentialist: Your Future in the New Reality of the Next Thirty Years," a guidebook for success during the fast-changing, turbulent, and opportunity-rich times ahead. His new book in the series is The Potentialist: The Pursuit of Wisdom. Ben is best known as the founding CEO of Anthem, Inc. (NYSE), one of the leading US health plans with a market capitalization placing it in the top tier of the Fortune 500; and Acordia, Inc. (NYSE), which became the world’s sixth-largest insurance broker. He cofounded three companies with his entrepreneurial son, Hugh, and invests in technologies that address New Reality challenges, such as increasing productivity to offset declining populations, caring for the elderly, and preserving human legacies. Ben has extensive public policy experience at the state and federal levels and has held board leadership roles in a wide range of industries. His contributions have been recognized by numerous awards and in books and periodicals. He has been a speaker and university guest lecturer on health, healthcare policy, entrepreneurship, and human potential throughout his career. Beyond his career, Ben’s passions include his family of three adult children and eight adult grandchildren, along with lifelong avocations for physical fitness, travel, reading, human potential, the future, and education. ________________________ For More on Ben Lytle The Potentialist: The Pursuit of Wisdom Website - potentialistfuture.com ________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode The Many Ways WSJ Readers Use AI in Their Everyday Lives ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD Turning the Page in Retirement – Stephen Riggio Your Next Act – Robert B. Tucker __________________________ Wise Quotes On Refining, Not Retiring "...this started about 20 years ago. I had recently stepped down. I've never really retired. I have refined and I'll explain that. But I had stepped down from Anthem and I was asked to write an article about what it was like to be running this gigantic enterprise and then suddenly go be doing startups and all other kinds of things, wilderness hiking and all kinds of things. And I wrote the title of the article, and ended up being in search of a phase name because I felt that at that time I didn't have the word yet. But I said, you know, I don't see anybody retired in the industrial age concept. The concept was you work, you retire and then you die about three or four years later, but you have a few years there. Well, it's not that way anymore. First of all, we live a lot longer. And so we're essentially increasingly changing careers or changing our direction in life in in midlife, almost midlife or at the two-thirds point. You're not down within the 10 yard line. And so it's really changed. And so it does need a new definition. And so it hit me a few years ago about when I was writing the first book, the word refinement and to me, Joe,

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

Is 2025 your year? Join our Design Your New Life in Retirement Program – two new groups start in January. Early registration discount ends November 30th | Only a few spots left. Learn more ______________________ When you're retiring, you think of what you're leaving. Your work. Your paycheck. Your office. Your colleagues. But what's next? There are many benefits to taking on something new. Something that's challenging, and maybe even out of the box. Stephen Riggio shares his experience. Stephen Riggio joins us from New York. _______________________ Bio Stephen Riggio is a visionary leader and former CEO of Barnes & Noble, where he played a crucial role in its transformation into the largest bookselling chain in the United States. His extensive career in the book industry, spanning over four decades, includes pioneering work in e-commerce and publishing. Beyond corporate endeavors, Riggio is deeply engaged in philanthropy, working with organizations like the National Book Foundation and the National Down Syndrome Society. In recent years, Riggio has turned his focus to translating and promoting classic Sicilian literature, especially the "Sicilian Avengers" series. _______________________ For More on Stephen Riggio Sicilian Avengers: Book One Sicilian Avengers: Book Two _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile Passion and Purpose – Jim Ansara The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD Unretired – Mark S. Walton _______________________ Wise Quotes On Turning the Page and Taking On Something New "I think what you can let go of is, fortunately, you let go of the stress. And you get all of the adrenaline of something that is new. When I refer to stress, I don't mean the type of stress that is debilitating. People would often ask me when I was in business, it's an age-old question, Steve, what keeps you up at night? And I would say a good book because business was an all consuming thing, but there's a point where you do have to let it go to take care of your personal life and your family, your wife and kids. But I think it is true that once you do turn that page, you can let go of that stress. And it's a type of freedom that is very uplifting. And then if you happen to be fortunate enough to find something that you can latch onto and dig into, then that adrenaline is something that is different than you experienced in work." On Taking On Something New Together "A tragic event was the cause of me learning and getting back into the language. All happy families who are alike, all grieving families, breathe in their own way. What I was looking for was a way for my wife, Laura and I to move forward. It was a year or two after that that I came up with the idea of both of us studying the Italian language together. It would be something to do together, to jump into, and we did it." On Opening New Doors "It does open up a new door to your life. In some respects, when you have a career, you're pointing in a direction. Usually people like to climb the career ladder. They want more responsibility and greater financial rewards. In this particular case, it was a door that I opened that I didn't know where it would lead. So with the idea of something that is a little bit uncertain and unexpected there's a serendipitous aspect of it that I think is very appealing. When I started taking lessons with my wife, we did it together, we didn't know that we would discover my ancestry going back 400 years, that we would meet distant relatives, they'd become very close to us that I would discover things about my family I never knew, and then that I would translate a book. So it's a door that was open and I don't know where it would lead." _______________________ About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version o...

Your retirement? You could wing it, but that's not you. Design Your Future.  Join our Design Your New Life in Retirement Program – two new groups start in January. Learn more _______________________ To retire or to work longer? There's another option that may be just right for you - semi-retirement. We catch up with Liz Weston, who retired from NerdWallet earlier this year on how its working for her - and what you can learn from her experience. Liz Weston joins us from California. _______________________ Bio Liz Weston is an award-winning personal finance columnist, speaker, commentator and author of several books about money. She earned the Certified Financial Planner® designation in 2016. Her question-and-answer column “Money Talk” appears in newspapers throughout the country, including the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, Palm Beach Post and the  Oregonian. Liz Weston's  book “Your Credit Score” is a national best-seller now in its fifth edition. The New York Times called one of her other books, “The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy,” a “wonderful basic personal finance book…supportive of people struggling to understand these topics and trying to make ends meet.” You may have heard Liz Weston on public radio as she's contributed to American Public Media’s “Marketplace Money,” and NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” and “All Things Considered.” She's appeared on “Dr. Phil,” “Today Show” and NBC Nightly News, and was for several years a weekly commentator on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” ________________________ For More on Liz Weston Ask Liz Weston _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile The Balancing Act in Retirement – Stew Friedman The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace The Joy You Make – Steven Petrow _______________________ On Deciding to Retire...and Joy "I think what surprised me the most is how fun this is. That was what I was really worried about - what would retirement be like? So many people are rushing towards it, and they don't really think about what life will be like afterwards. And I was thinking a lot about how I would spend my time, what I would do, what the challenges might be, and what's caught me by surprise is just this feeling of joy. I feel like a kid on the first day of summer vacation, and I know this won't last. Everything changes. This is kind of the honeymoon period, but yeah, it's really fun.Well, I'm incredibly blessed and lucky that the financial stuff was in place. It was taken care of, and it allowed me to retire a little bit earlier than the norm. But again, the other thing that surprised me was how hard that decision was to make, because I really loved what I did...And then a friend and former colleague of mine died in a car accident. And he was only 61 and we'd spent a lot of time talking about what we were going to do in retirement. And it brought home the fact that we don't have infinite time." On Semi-Retirement - and Off-Ramps "I think it's the best option, especially, if you like what you do, and you have skills that can continue on in retirement where you don't need to work full-time. I had really wanted an off-ramp from my job at NerdWallet, and they didn't support working part-time. So that was kind of a difficult thing to wrap my head around and realize, okay, I don't have this option, so this was the next best. A lot of companies, though, do have some kind of off-ramp, and I think it helps people a lot because you keep your foot in the workplace, you can have continuing, you know, because social interaction is so important, you can have that part of your identity still remain intact so you have that sense of purpose. You're making some money, which for a lot of people is really important to make their money last, but you're starting the process of exiting. And just as a rant on the side,

Is it time to work on what you'll be retiring to? Join our upcoming Designing Your New Life Group Program Choose from two groups: Thursday (6pm ET) or Friday (12 pm ET) starting in January. 🔹 Limited Spots Available! Each group is capped at 10 participants. Don’t miss your chance to join at a discounted rate. Kick off 2025 with a supportive community of others designing their new life in retirement. Learn more ____________________________ Happiness and meaning have long been considered the foundations of The Good Life. But there's a key third element that's  overlooked in what constitutes The Good Life: the interesting. Life is simply richer with experiences that captivate our minds, our thoughts and our emotions and have the power to shift our perspectives. Emerging research is highlighting the importance of  "psychological richness" as a key component of a well-lived life through experiences with novelty, complexity and challenge. Lorraine Besser, PhD joins us to discuss her research and her new book The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It. In addition to the research base of the book, she shares practical ideas we can use to develop the skills to make our lives more interesting - without having to make sweeping changes.   Lorraine Besser joins us from Vermont. ______________________ Bio Lorraine Besser is the author of the new book The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It. She earned her PhD in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has MA degrees from UNC and the Claremont Graduate School, and a BA from Tulane University. Before joining the philosophy department at Middlebury College, she held positions at the University of Waterloo and Stanford University. Professor Besser’s research focusses on the nature of happiness and well-being. She specializes in moral psychology, value theory, and the philosophy of David Hume. She lives in Vermont with her family and dogs. ________________________ For More on Lorraine Besser The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It Website ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD Not Too Late – Gwendolyn Bounds Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Why Settle for Happiness in Your Retirement? – Emily Esfahani Smith _________________________ Wise Quotes  On Psychological Richness "So psychological richness, describes the set of experiences that tend to be novel, complex, and challenging, and they're unified in that they have a particular impact on our mind. So when we engage in these kinds of experiences, we stimulate new thoughts, we have new emotions arising. And the cumulative effect of this kind of rich state of mind leads us to shift our perspective even just ever so slightly after a really psychologically rich experience. We find ourselves somehow changed. And this is the kind of richness that I think we can bring to our lives. And so psychological richness is this much needed third leg of the stool. It taps into a different part of our minds than meaning - it's the part that is curious, that brings wonder to our experiences, that finds things interesting. And it allows us to really harness our mind's ability to create that state inside of ourselves." On Not Pursuing the Interesting "We think about what we want out of an experience. We think about what we're going to get. And those expectations in that plan really dictate how that experience goes for us. Because we've set it up. There's this goal that I need to get to, and I will focus on that and then judge that experience based on whether or not it meets my expectations. And that's the kind of mindset that really focuses and structures us, but it eliminates the possibility for us to open our minds up and take in new ...

What's Next?  Get in front of your life in retirement. Early Bird registration is now open for our upcoming Designing Your New Life Group Program Join a supportive, dynamic community to reimagine your path and create a meaningful retirement. Choose from two groups: Thursday (6pm ET) or Friday (12 pm ET), both starting in January. 🔹 Limited Spots Available! Each group is capped at 10 participants. Don’t miss your chance to join at a discounted rate—secure your place now and start 2025 with intention and connection. Learn more ___________________ How can redirect your skills and expertise in different ways following your career? AARP Purpose Prize winner Jennifer Jacobs, CEO and co-founder of not-for-profit Connect Our Kids,  shares her inspiring story of how she made a shift to improve lives. Her story highlights how encountering problems that your skills and experience can help to solve may lead you to a second act endeavor. Jennifer Jacobs joins us from Virginia. ____________________ Bio 2024 AARP Purpose winner Jennifer Jacobs, PhD is the CEO and co-founder of Connect Our Kids, a technology non-profit revolutionizing the way America finds families for children in foster care. Under her leadership, Connect Our Kids has developed innovative tools that help child welfare professionals use advanced family search and engagement technology to find and engage extended family members and other caring adults for children in need. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Dr. Jacobs served as an officer in the United States Army, where she honed her leadership skills and deepened her commitment to service. The military's core values of duty, integrity, and selfless service continue to influence her approach to transforming child welfare systems nationwide. Dr. Jacobs earned her PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of New Mexico, where her research focused on the intersection of technology and social services. _____________________ For More on Jennifer Jacobs, PhD Connect Our Kids AARP Purpose Prize  _____________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like  The Best Day of My Life So Far – Benita Cooper Changing the World One Small Act at a Time – Brad Aronson Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller Passion & Purpose - Jim Ansara _____________________ Wise Quotes On Redirecting Skills & Expertise "So, I'm a physicist and a nuclear engineer, which is a natural segue, of course, to the nonprofit world. I was working in counterterrorism, as I did for most of my adult life after leaving the Army. And at that time read an article in Time magazine about foster care. This was about 13 years ago. And in reading that article, I noticed a similarity in what it turned out foster care professionals need to do to find families for the kids in their care. And what I already knew intelligence analysts do to find and track terrorists. They're both needing to find and visualize networks of people in order to influence and interact with that those networks. The difference is just that one is centering around a terrorist and one is centering around a child. And because they're similar processes, I thought I would find that they were using similar tools. Instead, what I found out was that while the national security space has multi-million dollar software with data search and management capabilities, as I knew, the foster care space was doing practically the same work with Post-it Notes and Microsoft Excel. And that didn't seem right to me. So I spent the next six years trying to understand why we fight terrorism with everything we have - and that's a good thing - but we don't fight for the futures of the nearly half million children in our foster care system." On Deciding to Pivot "The only remaining reason not to do it was really fear. And fear of the unknown, fear of doing something that was way outside my comfort level,

Early bird registration is now open for our upcoming Designing Your New Life Group Program Join a supportive, dynamic community to reimagine your path and create a meaningful retirement. Choose from two groups: Thursday (6pm ET) or Friday (12 pm ET), both starting in January. 🔹 Limited Spots Available! Each group is capped at 10 participants, and only 4 spots remain in each. Don't miss your chance to join at a discounted rate—secure your place now and start 2025 with intention and connection. Learn more _____________________ How could your choices today impact your life tomorrow? 8 out of 10 people over 55 say that Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are a big concern.  Our guest today wants you to know that  half of all dementia cases are preventable. Dr. Mitch Clionsky is a board certified neuropsychologist who has treated more than 20,000 patients with cognitive problems. He and his physician wife, Dr. Emily Clionsky, have written Dementia Prevention: Using Your Head to Save Your Brain (Johns Hopkins Press).  The book highlights the key research findings over the past 10 years and practical actions you can take today to start the process of protecting your brain as you age. Mitchell Clionsky joins us from Massachusetts. _____________________ Bio Mitchell Clionsky, Ph.D., ABPP-CN is a board certified clinical neuropsychologist licensed in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He specializes in the assessment of memory disorders, other neurological diseases, mild traumatic brain injury, and ADHD. He has performed or supervised more than 25,000 such evaluations over the course of his career and still sees more than 500 patients per year. He is also an expert witness in legal cases involving head trauma, testamentary capacity, and disability. He and his wife, Emily Clionsky MD, have authored research published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences. They also present workshops on dementia prevention for professional organizations and business groups. They created the Memory Orientation Screening Test (MOST)™ a brief, accurate test for dementia that has been used by hundreds of health care professionals and previously licensed to Lincare and Quest Diagnostics. They also developed the Accident Concussion Scale (ACS). They live and work in Western Massachusetts. ____________________ For More on Mitchell Clionsky Dementia Prevention: Using Your Head to Save Your Brain ( Johns Hopkins Press) Website ____________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Why We Remember – Charan Ranganath Upgrade Your Sleep – Dr. Raj Dasgupta How Not to Age – Dr. Michael Greger Better Sleep, Better You – Dr. Frank Lipman __________________ Wise Quotes On Alzheimers "I feel like I'm talking climate control; there's floods coming, there's storms coming, but we can do something now. I feel the same way about dementia. If you look at the statistics, we know that if it's just Alzheimer's disease, there's about 6.5 million Americans today that have Alzheimer's. If you start including the other forms of dementia and the precursors of mild cognitive impairment, you actually get up to about 10 million Americans. When you project out to the year 2050, that doubles. So now we're getting to a point where literally one out of every three people either has dementia or is caring for someone with dementia. And that's an unsustainable kind of burden economically as well as personally. But if we can cut the number of cases in the future in half, then we don't end up with twice as many in 2050. We end up with the same number now, but we actually have more people being alive. So there's a real economy that's safe plus a true economy of dollars because it's very expensive."   On Dementia "What's the one thing I can do? And the answer is there isn't one thing.

Design Your Future. Embrace Your Freedom. Early Bird discounted registration is now open for our next  Designing Your New Life Group Program - with a Thursday group and a Friday group beginning in January. Each group is limited to 10 participants and only four spots are still open in each group. Learn more ____________________ Who wouldn't sign up for more joy? Steven Petrow, author of The Joy You Make:Find the Silver Linings–Even on Your Darkest Days, rejoins us to share what he's learned about joy - and how to cultivate more joy (and gratitude) in your life. Steven Petrow joins us from North Carolina. ____________________ Bio Steven Petrow’s new book is The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Linings–Even on Your Darkest Days. He first joined us in 2021 to discuss his book Stupid Things I Won’t Do When I Get Old. Steven Petrow is an award-winning journalist and book author who is best known for his Washington Post and New York Times essays on aging, health, and civility. He’s also an opinion columnist for USA Today,  where he writes about civil discourse and manners. Steven’s 2019 TED Talk, “3 Ways to Practice Civility” has been viewed nearly two million times and translated into 16 languages. He is the author of five other books, including Steven Petrow’s Complete Gay & Lesbian Manners. He’s a much sought-after public speaker, and you’re likely to hear him when you stream NPR or one of your favorite  —  or least favorite  —  TV networks. Steven also served as the host and executive producer of “The Civilist,” a podcast from Public Radio International and North Carolina Public Radio WUNC. He is the author of five other books, the most recent of which is Steven Petrow’s Complete Gay & Lesbian Manners. He’s a much sought-after public speaker, and you’re likely to hear him when you stream NPR or one of your favorite  —  or least favorite  —  TV networks. Steven also served as the host and executive producer of “The Civilist,” a podcast from Public Radio International and North Carolina Public Radio WUNC. _______________________ For More on Steven Petrow The Joy You Make: Find the Silver Linings–Even on Your Darkest Days Website _______________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode Helen Dennis podcast conversation Successful Aging - LA Daily News Three Good Things -  Gratitude practice - Martin Seligman __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta Are You Living Gratefully? – Kristi Nelson My Last Bad Day – Michael O’Brien Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman _____________________ Wise Quotes On Joy "And as I did research and talked to experts and scholars and regular people, I came to understand that joy manifests in many different ways and has broader ways to show up in our lives. And so that helped me to see that joy can be serene, joy can be loud, and can be beautiful. It can coexist with sorrow. But the intrinsic thing that I think defines joy is that it is about connection and gratitude. And so you can be happy. You can be happy by yourself in a way. You get a new car, I'm happy. You get a job promotion, I'm happy. It's fleeting, but you get the dopamine hit at the time. Joy kind of requires this interaction with others to make that connection, to sustain a connection. And in that way, joy is a state of being rather than a reaction to something else. I say happiness is about you, - and joy is about you and me. So that's a real important part of it. And then the other is that it just shows up in different ways in our lives, other than in the big ways that we think." On Learning to Cultivate More Joy "Lady Gaga said, you're born this way or not. But fortunately, neurologists and other scientists have been showing that many of these emotions can be learned. We're not stuck in our default settings for our lives. In a sense practice makes perfect.

A study by Stanford and Encore.org found that the majority of older adults want to give back in some way. Jim Ansara, an AARP 2024 Purpose Prize winner, is making a big difference in his retirement with his organization Build Health International. How might you redirect your skills and experience to make a difference? Jim Ansara joins us from Beverly , Massachusetts. ____________________ Bio Jim Ansara is a retired general contractor who founded Shawmut Design and Construction in Boston in the early 1980’s and led it to become one of the top 25 construction companies in the US. While at Shawmut he led several volunteer teams of employees to build low-tech, clean water systems in Nicaragua with the organization, El Porvenir. After retiring as Chairman of the Board, Jim redirected his energy to the developing world. In 2009 a trip to Haiti with Dr. Paul Farmer led to an invitation to build a small community hospital with Partners in Health (PIH) in Haiti’s Central Plateau. The process took a major turn when a massive earthquake struck the country on January 10, 2010. For three-and-a-half years after the earthquake, through the outbreak of cholera and political unrest, through hurricanes and unbearable heat, Jim, his partner Dr. David Walton of PIH, and hundreds of Haitian and Dominican workers persevered to build Haiti’s new 340-bed National Teaching Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti. Since its completion, the mission to build and equip global health care infrastructure has continued via a new non-profit, Build Health International, based in Beverly, MA. The BHI team has undertaken projects in low-resource settings across 22 countries with PIH, the Kellogg Foundation, Cure International, Direct Relief International and numerous other NGOS. For Jim’s philanthropy he has received Honorary Doctorates in Humane Letters from Amherst College and Salem State University, as well as distinction from Partners in Health, Health Equity International, The American Red Cross Northeast MA Chapter, the Political Asylum and Immigration Representation Project, Summer Search Boston, and more. He serves on the board of Health Equity International, and in years past on the boards of Salem State University, the Boston Children’s Museum, Youth Build, and City Year. _____________________ For More on Jim Ansara Build Health International (BHI) Health Equity Humanitarian Delivers Hospitals for the Poor ____________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Changing the World One Small Act at a Time – Brad Aronson Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller The Best Day of My Life So Far – Benita Cooper Why People Make a Career Change with Purpose Top of Mind – Chris Farrell ____________________ Wise Quotes On Learning and New Challenges in Retirement "I'm passionate about tackling challenges and solving problems. And one of the things that really excites me in life is learning, not necessarily learning in traditional methods, but learning by sort of immersion, where I'm trying to keep my nose and mouth just above the flood tide. And I need a level of sort of challenge and the accompanying freneticism in my life to really be happy. I'd like it to be different. I'd like to be a more relaxed and easy-going person, but at 67, that's not going to change probably. So it's really a combination of those two things. And I found, and this is an area, Build Health International, where I could really exercise both of those things. It's informative about who I am and who I'm not." On the Transition to Retirement "I'd like to say that I got to where I am by lots of self reflection and and and that kind of thing, but it's not true. I really fell into it. But I kept sort of trying to figure out what was next for me. And I was also clear on what I didn't want to do. I knew some people who had sold companies and made some money, and many of them manage their money and got into business, either as consultants or advisors.

What's the future of aging - and how could it impact your healthspan and longevity? Lauren Dunning of the Milken Institute shares her insights on this topic and key trends in innovative housing options and technology for older adults. Lauren Dunning joins us from Santa Monica, California. ________________ Bio Lauren Dunning is a director on the Future of Aging team at the Milken Institute, where she develops initiatives and strategic partnerships that advance healthy longevity and financial security across the life course. In her role, Dunning oversees the Future of Aging Advisory Board, a group of global leaders across sectors that provides advisement, expertise, and collaboration to maximize the impact of the Institute's work on aging. Before joining the Milken Institute, Dunning served in key policy leadership roles over ten years at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, most recently as the director of Government Affairs. She has written and presented on a variety of issues spanning health and aging, and is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. Dunning holds a JD from Georgetown University Law Center, a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a bachelor's degree from George Washington University. She works at the Milken Institute's Santa Monica office. ______________________ For More on Lauren Dunning Website Milken Insitute Report: Innovative Financing and Care Models to Scale Affordable Housing Solutions for Middle-Income Older Adults _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Age Tech Revolution – Keren Etkin Thriving in Place – Lisa Cini Where to Retire – Silvia Ascarelli The Mutual Benefits of Intergenerational Volunteering – Atalaya Sergi _______________________ Wise Quotes On Healthspan "We have four major practice areas where we work to promote healthspan, advance integrated care solutions, improve dementia care and accelerate financial longevity preparedness. Now, those four practice areas are kind of a shorthand for where are there opportunities, but how do we overcome challenges associated with them? So just looking at, for example, healthspan. So healthspan is the number of years an individual lives in good health. And normally we compare this to life span and we've seen incredible gains in life span over the past hundred years. And that's an amazing opportunity. More time to enjoy time with our families to contribute, to build, to be part of our society and communities. Those are incredible opportunities. But in order to realize them fully, we have to think about healthspan. We need to get our healthspans to match our lifespans. But healthspans globally, they've lagged, with sources putting that gap up to 10 years. That's a big gap that people might spend living in poorer health than they might want. And we're not quite going in the right direction with that, the health span lifespan gap is actually widening. So we need to reverse this trend...But the thing about healthspan is there's so many levers that people have available to them to work on their healthspan, and to work on their years lived in good health. As a society, we have so many ways to promote health span. And then as individuals, we can look at our chronic disease risk, social engagement and purpose and promoting well being." On Intergenerational Volunteering "Intergenerational connections are good for us. There's important benefits for participants on both sides of the age spectrum, but also for society. And maybe that gets us to another misconception, which is that intergenerational connections or relationships are about just one age group giving to another age group, right? So it's this picture that somebody is giving their time and it's intrinsically tied to volunteerism. There can be intergenerational programs and initiatives that are focused on building intergenerational connect...

There's a lot more to retirement than financial planning. If you're planning for retirement and thinking about how to retire, you'll need to consider both sides of the equation. The new  book by Christine Benz, How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement, leverages insights from 20 experts on the financial and non-financial aspects of retirement planning. Christine Benz joins us fro the Chicago area. ______________________ Bio Christine Benz is the author of How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement. She is Morningstar's Director of Personal Finance, a position she has held since early 2008. In that capacity, she writes and edits a monthly newsletter, Practical Finance, which advises do-it-yourself investors on every aspect of the financial-planning process. She also writes a weekly column, "Improving Your Finances," on Morningstar.com, and was the creator of Morningstar's "The Short Answer" column, which is geared toward investors just starting out. She is widely quoted in the media, including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and MarketWatch, and has been a frequent guest on CNBC, PBS' Nightly Business Report, and Fox Business News. Since joining Morningstar in 1993, Christine has been a central part of Morningstar's effort to deliver quality financial investment information to Morningstar's 6 million-plus clients. As an analyst and editor, she has served as Morningstar's director of mutual fund analysis. Prior to assuming that position, she was editor of Morningstar Mutual Funds and Morningstar FundInvestor. Christine co-authored the company's first book, "The Morningstar® Guide to Mutual Funds: 5-Star Strategies for Success," a national bestseller published by John Wiley & Sons in 2003, and was the lead author of the book's second edition. Christine's book, "Morningstar's 30-Minute Money Solutions," provides readers with the necessary guidance in tackling money challenges and building a comprehensive financial plan in easy-to-manage increments. Christine holds a bachelor's degree in political science and Russian/East European studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, Greg. She is an avid cook, a political junkie, and a long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan. _____________________ For More on Christine Benz How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement Morningstar _____________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD The Power of Reinvention – Joanne Lipman The Retirement Savings Time Bomb – Ed Slott Happier Hour – Cassie Holmes, PhD _____________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode The Key Decisions for Retirement Success – Wade Pfau What Are The Keys To A Successful Retirement? Fritz Gilbert Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet _____________________ Wise Quotes On Purpose in Retirement "Definitely get your in retirement bucket list for keeping yourself entertained and happy. But ideally you would also have some things that are giving you a sense of purpose, some things that you're relaxing from. And I think most of us, even while we're working, have reference points for this, that the vacation that you had after that time when you were really, really busy is just all the sweeter because you feel like you really earned it. And I think the same holds true in retirement, that if you can bring that balance, that sense of your accomplishing things, and it doesn't really matter what it is...It's very individual specific, but just something that is purpose that is not pure relaxation, I think you'll enjoy your relaxation that much more. " On Sabbaticals and Phased Retirement "Laura Carstensen in the book, she's a researcher at Stanford. I love that conversation that she and I had, but I also love her body of research because it's about real human beings.

A lot changes when you retire. That can be daunting, but it also presents valuable opportunities. It gives you a window to recreate a new approach to life now that you'll have the time and freedom to pursue what you'd like to do. Teresa Amabile, co-author of the new book Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You, joins us to discuss the key lessons from over 200 interviews with 120 people and their experiences in retiring. Teresa Amabile joins us from Massachusetts. _____________________ Bio Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, Emerita and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School. Originally educated as a chemist, Teresa received her doctorate in psychology from Stanford University. She studies how everyday life inside organizations can influence people and their performance. Teresa's research encompasses creativity, productivity, innovation, and inner work life - the confluence of emotions, perceptions, and motivation that people experience as they react to events at work. Teresa’s work has earned several awards: the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Management’s OB Division (2018); the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (2017); the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israel Organizational Behavior Conference (2018); the Center for Creative Leadership Best Paper Award (in Leadership Quarterly) (2005); and the Torrance Award from the National Association for Gifted Children (1998). In 2020, she was named one of the top 50 scholars, by citation count, in business/management (PLOS Biology). She has presented her theories, research results, and practical implications to various groups in business, government, and education, including Apple, IDEO, Procter & Gamble, Roche Pharma, Genentech, TEDx Atlanta, the Society for Human Resource Management, Pfizer, and the World Economic Forum. In addition to participating in various executive programs at Harvard Business School, she created the MBA course Managing for Creativity, and has taught several courses to first-year MBA students. Teresa was the host/instructor of Against All Odds: Inside Statistics, a 26-part instructional series originally produced for broadcast on PBS. She was a director of Seaman Corporation for 25 years, and has served on the boards of other organizations. Teresa's discoveries appear in her book, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. The book, based on research into nearly 12,000 daily diary entries from over 200 professionals inside organizations, illuminates how everyday events at work can impact employee engagement and creative productivity. Published in August 2011 by Harvard Business Review Press, the book is co-authored with Teresa's husband and collaborator, Steven Kramer, Ph.D. Her other books include Creativity in Context and Growing Up Creative. Teresa has published over 100 scholarly articles and chapters, in outlets including top journals in psychology (such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and American Psychologist) and in management (Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal). She is also the author of The Work Preference Inventory and KEYS to Creativity and Innovation. Teresa has used insights from her research in working with various groups in business, government, and education, including Procter & Gamble, Novartis International AG, Motorola, IDEO, and the Creative Education Foundation. ___________________ For More on Teresa Amabile Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You  by Teresa M. Amabile , Lotte Bailyn, Marcy Crary , Douglas T. Hall  and Kathy E. Kram ___________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Balancing Act in Retirement – Stew Friedman Retirement Rookies – Stephen & Karen Kreider Yoder

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

What constitutes a good life? Marc Schulz, co-author of The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, highlights useful insights from the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has been running for over eight decades. You'll hear advice you can use in building your good life. Marc Schulz joins us from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. _____________________ Bio Marc Schulz is the associate director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and the Sue Kardas PhD 1971 Chair in Psychology at Bryn Mawr College. He also directs the Data Science Program and previously chaired the psychology department and Clinical Developmental Psychology PhD program at Bryn Mawr. Dr. Schulz received his BA from Amherst College and his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a practicing therapist with postdoctoral training in health and clinical psychology at Harvard Medical School. ______________________ For More on Marc Schulz The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness ______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson Happier Hour – Cassie Holmes, PhD Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer _______________________ Wise Quotes On Relationships and Well-Being "One is a finding that should be familiar to many of your listeners. We really want to take care of our body like we're going to be in it for a long time. Let's shoot for 100 years. And what does that mean? That means that we want to move our body. Exercise is good for us. We want to avoid smoking. We want to moderate our drinking of alcohol. And we also want to, particularly as we age, to go to doctors and make sure that we're getting treatments that are important to maintain our health, because many of us develop different kinds of challenges as we get older, physical and medical challenges that are important to take care of. The study also has made important contributions to recognizing that stuff happens to all of us, that very few lives happen without adversity, and how we meet adversity, and particularly the feelings and emotions that adversity tends to engender, are really important for our health and our well -being. But the big finding, and this is the finding that we talk about most in our book, The Good Life, is that it's very clear across this 86 years of research, and hundreds of papers, that the most important predictor of health and happiness throughout the lifespan is the quality of our relationships with others. How connected we are, how much we can rely on other support, and how much we're able to do that are really key predictors of how happy we'll be and how healthy we will be. And it's all kinds of relationships. It's not just the person who you may have been lucky enough to spend a good portion of your time with. So it's not just our marital partners or our intimate partners, it's friends, neighbors, people we work with, people in our communities, it's all types of relationships that matter." On Social Fitness "So we talk about this idea of social fitness as being really important. Obviously, it's a metaphor like physical fitness and some of the lessons about physical fitness apply here. We want to, first of all, assess where we are, and to be thoughtful about where we are. And this comes from our research when we interviewed people, for example, in their 80s and we asked if they had regrets. Most of the regrets that people had had to do with losses in relationships. People that they had been friendly with, that they lost touch with, people who maybe they hadn't been as kind to as they wish they had. And this could be the person that they were married to. It could be children. It could be people they worked with. But people talked about remorse and regret around not building and sustaining relationships over life.

What's that sound? Our guest today explains that it's the retirement savings bomb ticking louder. Listen in and get smarter about RMDs, Roth IRAs - and the tax bomb that's ticking louder for you. Ed Slott joins us from New York. _______________________ Bio Ed Slott is the author of The Retirement Savings Time Bomb Ticks Louder: How to Avoid Unnecessary Tax Landmines, Defuse the Latest Threats to Your Retirement Savings and Ignite Your Financial Freedom. Ed is a nationally recognized IRA distribution expert, professional speaker, television personality, and best-selling author. He is known for his unparalleled ability to turn advanced tax strategies into understandable, actionable and entertaining advice. He has been named “The Best Source for IRA Advice” by The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today wrote, “It would be tough to find anyone who knows more about IRAs than CPA Slott.” As president and founder of Ed Slott and Company, LLC, the nation’s leading source of accurate, timely IRA expertise and analysis to financial advisors, institutions, consumers and media, he provides: Advanced training to financial professionals to become knowledgeable recognized leaders in the retirement marketplace; and 2. Answers to retirement savers’ most important questions, continually providing practical, easy-to- understand information on IRA, retirement, tax and financial planning topics. Mr. Slott is a Professor of Practice at The American College of Financial Services and regularly presents on IRA and estate planning strategies at both consumer events and conferences for financial advisors, insurance professionals, CPAs and attorneys, including virtual events drawing thousands of attendees nationwide. He has provided topical keynote presentations for leading financial membership organizations, including the Financial Planning Association, National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, Estate Planning Councils and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as well as leading corporate financial firms coast-to-coast. Mr. Slott is an accomplished author of many financial and retirement-focused books, including most recently Ed Slott’s Retirement Decisions Guide: 2021 Edition (IRAHelp, 2021) and Fund Your Future: A Tax-Smart Savings Plan in Your 20s and 30s (IRAHelp, 2021) with The New Retirement Savings Time Bomb (Penguin Random House, 2021). He also hosts the popular website irahelp.com as a resource for financial professionals and consumers, where The Slott Report blog is followed by tens of thousands of readers. As the go-to resource for media on timely insight on breaking news as it relates to retirement and tax planning laws and strategies, Mr. Slott is often quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, Kiplinger, Investor’s Business Daily and numerous additional national magazines and financial publications. He provides a monthly Q&A column to AARP and is also a contributing columnist and media resource to Financial Planning, Financial Advisor and Investment News magazines. He has appeared on many national television and radio programs, including NBC, ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, FOX , FOXBUSINESS, NPR, Bloomberg and Morningstar. ______________________ For More on Ed Slott Website  The Retirement Savings Time Bomb Ticks Louder ______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like An Economist’s Take on Retirement Planning – Larry Kotlikoff The Balancing Act in Retirement – Stew Friedman Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson Independence Day – Steve Lopez _______________________ Wise Quotes On The Retirement Savings Tax Bomb "I think it's reaching a point where in my latest book, I call it The Retirement Savings Time Bomb Ticks Louder, in big letters, because I'm worried this ticking tax time bomb, if you can say that three times fast. The ticking tax time bomb you asked me about is simply the tax bill growing inside your I...

Make no mistake. There's a lot you can't control about your retirement. The economy. The markets. That neighbor. But there is something you can control that will make a big difference in your quality of life. Your mindset. Michael O'Brien shares his compelling story and how he learned how to prevent bad moments from turning into bad days. Michael O'Brien joins us from the Garden State of New Jersey. _______________________ Bio Michael O’Brien is President and Founder of Peloton Coaching and Consulting. As a certified executive coach, he has advised, motivated, and inspired Fortune 500 executives, entrepreneurs, and other difference-makers at organizations like Brother International and Johnson and Johnson. He also serves as a mentor and volunteer with organizations that promote professional growth, such as the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and James Madison University’s College of Business. Before starting Peloton Coaching and Consulting, he was a healthcare sales and marketing executive and received his marketing degree from James Madison University. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters. Michael is the author of two books, his inspiring memoir: Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life and the companion work, My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days: a practical and powerful guide to lead a life free of bad days. ________________________ For More on Michael O'Brien Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days Website ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet _______________________ Wise Quotes On His Last Bad Day "But as I went through my recovery, I tried to put up this good front, like, Okay, we're going to make it. But I wasn't believing any of my hype. A mentor came to me and said, Hey, listen, everything in your life is neutral until you label it. You get to look at this any way you want to. And so then I started to realize, Okay, well, we're all living moments. Every day is filled with a whole bunch of moments. And if I have people in my life who I love and love me back, then I can't call a full day a bad one. That's why I came back to call my, that accident day, my last bad day. I've had definitely bad moments since then, but I still have a lot of love in my life. So I can't call a full day a bad one. But I also knew this, that I had to find a way to ground myself because my recovery felt so overwhelming. I had to figure out, much like in sports, how to slow the game down. Everything was just coming at me, much like life today. And I just knew I had to slow things down a bit to create some space so I could be thoughtful and intentional about how I wanted to go forward." On Who You Surround Yourself With "I think it's very important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. And I think this is a big thing because for a lot of us men, especially as we think about retirement, a lot of our relationships are work relationships that we think those guys are our friends, but they're really our colleagues. And some of them are friends, and they'll stay friends for a while. And I think it's very important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. But it's a minority of the relationships we have, maybe on one hand or both hands. So as we go into this next phase of our lives, into retirement, men or women, it's good to have people around you who can bring out the best in you, to help maybe clarify things when you get stuck or challenge you so you can be the best you can be - or to be there in celebration or to be there for a crisis or some type of comfort.

Retiring right requires a smart strategy. And if you didn't get started early in your retirement planning, the second best time to start is now. Rick Atkinson, Founder & President of RA Retirement Advisors in Toronto, shares his insights and advice. ___________________________ It's Back to School time. Here's your reading list to peruse: Best Books on Retirement ___________________________ Bio Rick Atkinson is Founder & President of RA Retirement Advisors specializing in retirement planning. For over 15 years, Rick has been helping people live their ideal retirement. As a human resources management specialist with over 30 years’ experience in industry and government service, Rick honed his understanding of what is required to lead a satisfying life after work. He then transferred this to writing and speaking about retirement planning and facilitating workshops and coaching. He is the author of five books including Don’t Just Retire – Live It, Love It! and Strategies for Retiring Right! Rick has written lead stories for well-known journals, as well as stories for various daily Canadian newspapers, and has appeared on Canadian radio and TV. Rick is an acclaimed speaker on holistic retirement planning appearing at groups from 10 to 300. He has spoken at conferences and service groups across Canada, and facilitates workshops and webinars for companies, cities, government agencies and religious organizations and service clubs. Rick has an MBA from York University and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia. He is also a CHRP (Certified Human Resources Professional); CMC (Certified Management Consultant); Advanced Level, Ontario Society of Training & Development. Recently made a Fellow of Distinguished Financial Services (FDFS) for his service as an influential thought leader. As a point of pride and growth, for 10 years, Rick travelled extensively to Canada’s Arctic as a CESO (Canadian Executive Service Organization) volunteer advisor to mentor Inuit supervisors and managers, and to impart his human resources knowledge and insights. Rick’s volunteering was part of the Government of Nunavut’s Initiative Program. ___________________________ For More on Rick Atkinson Books Website ___________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland Ready to ROAR? – Michael Clinton ____________________________ Wise Quotes On Deciding When to Retire "So I think this whole piece of work stress for some, but for some others, what I found is that they have a feeling of unfulfillness -  that work is holding them back, that they've got things that they want to pursue, a passion project. They want to start a business,. They want to do extensive traveling. But there are others that, and I've had this myself, people saying, Why aren't you retired? You're X years old. Why are you still working? I met a couple and the wife had said to the husband, I didn't sign up for this. He just told me he's not going to retire. I thought we would have time together. There's another situation that says, is this the right time? I've met many people who have sat down with their financial advisor and the financial advisor had said, You know what, you got enough money to keep you going well into your 90s. And they walk out of the office and say, Hey, maybe that's it." On Mistakes to Avoid in Planning for Retirement "Oh, there's a whole myriad of things that you need time to think about these and plan for them rather than just the day you retire. Another mistake that I find that people make is that they concentrate so much on the money. The recession in 2008 devastated a whole bunch of folks and their retirement monies. And to my mind, it's not the money that you amass,

Time to take charge of your future? Design Your New Life in Retirement ________________________ Transitioning to retirement comes with challenges. And what if you love the work you're retiring from? That makes it harder. Our guest today, Cathy Bishop-Clark shares her experiences in transitioning to retirement - and why you'll want to have a retirement mentor. Cathy Bishop-Clark joins us from Ohio. ________________________ Bio Cathy Bishop-Clark recently retired after a 34-year career at Miami University of Ohio. She finished her career as Associate Provost of Miami’s regional campuses.  and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Applied Sciences. Prior to her Dean position, she was a professor in the Computer and Information Technology Department, a Department Chair, Assistant Dean and Associate Dean. She has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, an M.S. in Quantitative Analysis and a doctorate in Educational Foundations.  Over a period of 34 years she taught a variety of computing classes and she has published over 40 articles and a book, most of which related to the scholarship of teaching and learning. She enjoys exercise and new adventures including hiking, kayaking, camping bicycling, learning new things, and traveling.  A couple years ago she rode her bicycle across America. She and her husband (who was a third grade teacher) have two adult daughters and a son-in-law. Cathy and her husband both retired a year ago.  While her husband has excelled at retirement, Cathy has found the transition more difficult.  To help her learn about that transition she took Joe Casey’s group program, intensely studied retirement and taught a course on the topic of retirement this past Spring. ________________________ Mentioned in This Episode Riley Moynes Andy Robin Barbara O'Neill ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like If You Love Your Work, What Challenges Will You Face in Retirement? – Michelle Pannor Silver The Power of Reinvention – Joanne Lipman Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller _________________________ Wise Quotes  On Having a Retirement Mentor "...and he talked about one thing that really resonated with me that I have paid attention to - and that is having a retirement mentor. You don't think about that right? Everybody thinks about having a work mentor. We have mentors at work and I had  done this in a way before I retired. I invited people who had retired to lunch and I said Okay what do I need to know about retirement? But the thing is everybody's retirement journey is so different and so some would say things like There's nothing to know about retirement. It's it's so easy and it's so great and there's nothing to learn. And other people would say Well, you know I struggled a lot with the schedule." And so interestingly, my retirement mentor has been the same career mentor that I had and she retired about five years ahead of me. I admire what she has done and so I continue to use her as my retirement mentor." On Trying New Things "So first for about a year a half, you just have a great big honeymoon. It's just fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. And then you start looking at different things to do. And then you start feeling a loss. Well, I think I simultaneously, like on day one, jumped in on all three things simultaneously. So I did vacation, in fact, and since we retired in May, I've been on nine different trips and I've been to Colorado many times, that's where my daughters are, Norway, Michigan, New York, Galapagos Islands. So we did lots of honeymooning and vacation. And then at the same time, I did a lot of experimentation. I took some new classes through a retirement group. I explored some new things, with my husband, we explored some new faith communities. We hired a personal trainer. I got into yoga. I started to deeply understand our financial planning. I had known it as a superficial level.