Listen Now

What unique challenges do women face in retirement planning? We talk with Russ Thornton, an experienced retirement advisor who specializes in helping women prepare for retirement. And we cover several topics of interest to anyone who’s planning for retirement. We discuss: The story behind why he specializes in retirement planning for women What he sees as the unique challenges women face in planning for retirement What’s different about planning for retirement today versus 10 to 20 years ago The key building blocks of a sound retirement plan What many people don’t know about retirement planning – but should The mistakes he sees people make in planning for retirement that can be avoided How his clients navigate the challenges that come with the transition to retirement How couples can get on the same page about retirement His approach at Wealthcare for Women The upside of life in retirement he sees his clients living today Russ joins us from Atlanta. _________________________ Bio Russ Thornton has been a retirement advisor for over 25 years and specializes in helping women retire confidently on their own terms to comfortable, fulfilling lives, at his retirement advisory firm Wealthcare for Women. Russ was selected as one of Investopedia’s Top 100 Financial Advisors in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Prior to establishing his own firm, Russ was a Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch. _________________________ For More on Russ Thornton Wealthcare for Women _________________________ Wise Quotes On Not Deferring Living “I like to always emphasize the idea that you can do things now and in retirement. You don’t have to wait. And if you wait, you run the risk that you’re not here. Tomorrow isn’t promised. I’m sure we all have heard about, or maybe know, people that have planned to retire and for one reason or another, they never made it to retirement. Or they retired and in a year or two or three in something happened and they didn’t even get to enjoy all the years they’d planned on. So, I think you need to think about how you can start enjoying your life today while still preparing for a comfortable and confident retirement ahead.” On Planning for How You’ll Invest Your Time “Clearly retirement planning revolves around making sure that you’ve got the financial pieces in place to support your life, no matter how long you live. But, I think it’s worthwhile to also spend time thinking about how are we going to spend our time? And who are you going to spend your time with? What are you going to stop doing once you retired? Maybe that gives you the opportunity to eliminate some things in your life that by necessity that you’re dealing with now related to work or other commitments.” On Shifting from Saving to Spending “I find that it’s often very difficult for people to make that mental shift from saving and accumulating to starting to spend, and as a result, I find a lot of people underspend – especially in the first few years of retirement.  When in reality, if they’re going to overspend, maybe they should actually overspend a little bit more early in retirement when they’re younger, more mobile, want to travel, and want to do more things.” __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Be Interested In Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland Advice for Successful Career Women Transitioning to Retirement – Helen Dennis Ways to Retire on Less – Harriet Edleson The Future You – Brian David Johnson Who Will Take Care of You When You Are Older? – Joy Loverde The Key Decisions for Retirement Success – Wade Pfau _____________________________ About Retirement Wisdom Retirement is about much more than money. You haven’t worked this hard for so long to have a mediocre post-career life. It’s your time. Make it your best time. Take the first step toward your new life. Work one-on-one with our Certified Designing Your Life Coach to explore alternative visions of your future and develop the new pathway that’s right for you. Or maybe you learn best in a group – our new five-session small group Designing Your Life program starts in mid-January. Schedule a free call to discuss our programs and what’s right for you. ___________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.      

Giving thanks is probably on your mind this week if you’re here in the US. And there’s a lot to be grateful for. There’s science behind gratitude and how it can enhance your health and well-being. Dr. Glenn Fox from the University of Southern California joins us to chat about the research on gratitude and how to apply it in your daily life. We also touch base on how gratitude plays a role in high performance and what he’s learned from his work with entrepreneurs and Navy SEALS. We discuss: The Science of Gratitude How gratitude is defined The benefits of gratitude What gets in the way of gratitude Why gratitude is a positive emotion and also a skill The practices he uses in his daily life to apply the research on gratitude How to start a gratitude practice Entrepreneurship How gratitude plays a role in high-performance among entrepreneurs What to consider before becoming an entrepreneur   And…what he learned from being in Back to the Future 3 way back in the day Glenn joins us from California. ________________________________ Bio Dr. Glenn Fox is a faculty member at the University of Southern California’s Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, in the Marshall School of Business. His current projects focus on neural systems for emotion regulation, high stakes training, and developing entrepreneurial mindset skills in founders and business leaders. Glenn received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from USC, where he focused on the neural correlates of gratitude, empathy, and neuroplasticity. Following graduate school, he started a company, Ph.D. Insight L.L.C., which focused on providing data science consulting for small businesses and early-stage startups. Prior to joining Marshall as a faculty member, Glenn led the Performance Science Institute at USC where he worked with the United States Marine Corps, Army Research Laboratories, Seattle Seahawks, and numerous Olympic athletes and Fortune 500 companies to examine the role of mindset in business and high stakes pursuits. Currently, Glenn is the Director and Founder of the USC Found Well Initiative which aims to understand and promote entrepreneurial mindset in founders and business leaders. He also serves as a Principal Investigator at the USC Sensorimotor Assessment and Rehabilitation Training in Virtual Reality Center (SMART-VR) and a fellow of the Brain and Creativity Institute. Outside of USC, Glenn serves as the Chief Science Officer of the C4 Foundation, which serves to strengthen and protect Navy SEAL families. Glenn is also currently on the advisory board of the Flow Research Collective, where he works with Steven Kotler on projects related to gratitude, flow, and high performance. He consults regularly with companies and media outlets on topics ranging from small business management, gratitude, and high performance. Glenn is an avid maker and restorer of things old and metal. He lives in LA with his wife and son. __________________________ For More on Dr. Glenn Fox What Can the Brain Reveal About Gratitude? Practicing Gratitude Can Have Profound Health Benefits The C4 Foundation Follow on Twitter @glennrfox ________________________ Wise Quotes On Gratitude “Gratitude is a word we hear thrown around a lot, and I think that’s a good thing. And we only begin to understand gratitude more. The more we begin to look for it. And as you start to look and observe gratitude, you realize that it’s so much more than what people talk about. We hear the word gratitude, and we think about it as a synonym for happiness, a lot of the time, but this limits what I think gratitude really is – and what it really can do for people. It’s more than happiness. It’s more than just getting something nice. It is a framework. It’s part of our moral compass for how we keep track of our relationships to others. It’s part of our deepest motivational circuits.” On Paying Attention “I think it’s as simple as paying attention. So there are ways to nudge ourselves to feel grateful – leave your gratitude journal on your desk so that when you go to work, you’ve got to move your gratitude journal. Or put it by a side of your bed, so every time you go to bed, you’ll have to move your gratitude journal and turn on your light and say ‘Oh, I better fill this thing out right now.’ So little nudges like that I think can make a big difference – and soon you’re starting to pay attention. So I really think the biggest hurdle, honestly is just not treating it like a skill, treating it like a trait that you’re born with, or you have, or you don’t, and that’s completely false. So treating it as a skill to be developed and then designing ways so that we pay attention is the best way. We lose gratitude when we’re not paying attention to what’s around us – when we’re not paying attention to the present moment. And we all do this. I say, we intentionally, I’m not saying this is me. I’m right there with you. That’s when I notice it personally it’s like: ‘Oh, if I designed my life to practice this a little better, I get more of it.’ So really, it’s as simple as paying attention. But the ramifications of that are pretty profound in terms of setting our life around our mental health and mental recovery and mental flourishing.” ___________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Are You Living Gratefully? – Kristi Nelson Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson Chatter & Your Inner Voice – Ethan Kross The Mind-Body Connection and The Rabbit Effect – Kelli Harding Will You Be an Entrepreneur in Your Second Act Career? – Dorie Clark ____________________________ About Retirement Wisdom Are you ready to graduate from the world of full-time work? You haven’t worked this hard for so long to have a mediocre post-career life. `It’s your time. Make it your best time. Take the first step toward your new life. Work one-on-one with our Certified Designing Your Life Coach to explore alternative visions of your future and develop the new pathway that’s right for you. Or may you learn best in a group – our new small group Designing Your Life program starts in mid-January. Schedule a free call to discuss our programs and what’s right for you.    

If you’re planning for retirement, you’re focusing on covering all your bases. But how about your happiness? When you’re able to retire, will you be prepared to retire happy? Professor Catherine Sanderson joins us for a conversation about research from the field of positive psychology on happiness, and her practical recommendations on how to enhance your well-being. We discuss: How she become interested in positive psychology and in the study of happiness How our Mindsets influence us What predicts happiness If Eyerores can become Tiggers If money buys happiness Why linking happiness to external events isn’t wise How we think about aging influences how we actually age How she applies the research on optimism and happiness in her daily life What gets in the way of happiness that we should avoid Practical tips to enhance your happiness Dr. Sanderson joins us from Amherst, Massachusetts. _________________________ Bio Catherine A. Sanderson is the Poler Family Professor and chair of psychology at Amherst College. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology, with a specialization in Health and Development, from Stanford University, and received both masters and doctoral degrees in psychology from Princeton University.  Her research has received grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health. Professor Sanderson has published over 25 journal articles and book chapters in addition to four college textbooks, middle school and high school health textbooks, as well as the Introduction to Psychology course for The Great Courses. In 2012, she was named one of the country’s top 300 professors by the Princeton Review. Professor Sanderson has written trade books on parenting as well as how mindset influences happiness, health, and even how long we live (The Positive Shift). Her latest trade book, published in North America as Why We Act: Turning Bystanders Into Moral Rebels (Harvard University Press) and internationally as The Bystander Effect: The Psychology of Courage and Inaction (HarperCollins), examines why good people so often stay silent or do nothing in the face of wrongdoing. For a preview of the topics addressed in this book, watch Catherine’s TEDx talk on the Psychology of Inaction, which describes the factors that contribute to inaction and provides strategies we all can use to help people act, even when those around them are not. Professor Sanderson speaks regularly for public and corporate audiences on topics such as the science of happiness, the power of emotional intelligence, the art of aging well, and the psychology of courage and inaction. These talks have been featured in numerous mainstream media outlets, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, USA Today, The Atlantic, CNN, and CBS Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley. She also writes a weekly blog for Psychology Today – Norms Matter – that examines the power of social influence on virtually all aspects of our lives. Catherine lives with her husband, Bart Hollander, and three children – Andrew, Robert, and Caroline – in Hadley, Massachusetts. _________________________ For More on Dr. Catherine Sanderson Website The Positive Shift: Mastering Mindset to Improve Happiness, Health, and Longevity One Day University: The Science of Happiness The Art of Aging  (Subscription required. Currently offering a Two Week Free Trial) __________________________ Wise Quotes On What Predicts Happiness “So about 50% of our happiness seems to be built in – in terms of our genes. And this means that some people have a genetic predisposition to feeling happier. Now it’s not as simple as a happiness gene. There seems to be a constellation of different genes that predispose somebody to being, in part, more resilient when things don’t go well, but also probably predisposed to seeing the bright side, finding that silver lining, no matter what happens. And so about 50% of our happiness in fact is determined by our genes. But thinking about it positively, that also means that about 50% of our happiness is not influenced by our genes. And that’s the part that I care about the most. And what the research says is that in fact, about 50% of our happiness is determined by things that we do. So this could be something as simple as exercising, spending time in nature, giving to other people and building good relationships. So there are things that we can all do in our daily lives that also predict happiness.” On Money, Time & Happiness “I really find this research fascinating, and what this research is really illustrating is that it’s not so much how much money you have, but it’s really how you choose to spend your time. And that people who make choices that are saying I’m going to spend money to save some time, actually experience higher levels of happiness. And that often I think is kind of counterintuitive. So I grew up in a family that was not particularly well off. You know, my parents were highly conscious of what we were spending and they both came from families historically in their own lives that had really struggled with money. So we made lots of choices that were ‘all right, we’re going to have a sort of bad layover ‘ that’s not very pleasant when we went on vacation. So we go on vacation, but we were going to do it in this sort of cheaper way. And what this research is now showing, very strongly, is that people who make choices that are saving themselves time actually are experiencing higher levels of happiness. So, okay, we’re going to take the more expensive flight, but we’re going to have 10 more hours in Paris, We’re not going to spend six hours in the Amsterdam airport or whatever. It’s not how much money you have, but kind of how do we spend that money? That’s very, very strongly predictive of increased happiness.” On External Events & Happiness “So I think that the challenge is that people often think I will be happy when…and the when varies. So it could be, I’ll be happy when I get married. I’ll be happy when I have a child, I’ll be happy when I retire. I’ll be happy when I buy a house. We often think of happiness being around the corner, instead of happiness being something that we can actually control in our own lives. So what the research shows is that for some people, retirement actually can be really hard because they might lose a sense of a social network. They might lose the sense of colleagues at the office. They might lose a sense of purpose and their success in terms of producing things in a way. And I think the lessons from positive psychology really tell us is that we actually control what  retirement is for ourselves.” On How to Retire Successfully “And what do we know about how to successfully retire? Well, [it’s] basically the things that predict happiness throughout our lives: having meaning building relationships, choosing how you allocate your time. So people who retire, and retire effectively, actually find ways of creating meaning and building relationships in retirement. So that could be saying, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to retire from my job, but I’m going to continue to consult, or I’m going to do volunteer, work in my community. I’m going to do things that give me meaning, that I haven’t had the time to do earlier in life. And this is going to be really meaningful for some people that could be writing a book, for some people that could be gardening, for some people that could be tutoring or mentoring or consulting with non-profit organizations – using the skills that you developed in your professional life as a way of giving back to younger colleagues or in your community – or in other sorts of volunteer organizations that you care about.” On the Importance of Relationships “It’s also really important for people in retirement to make sure they are actively building relationships. That could be maintaining relationships with former colleagues, but it could also be establishing new relationships with friends, with neighbors, with family members. And it doesn’t matter who those relationships are with. What matters is that we know relationships are a tremendously important aspect of our lives and building and maintaining good relationships in retirement may require a little bit of extra effort because you don’t just go to the office and see everybody. In some ways, of course, we’ve all had to work on developing those kinds of skills during the Coronavirus pandemic, in which many people couldn’t go to the office and see people or many people couldn’t go to school and see people or in other environments. So in a sense, the Coronavirus pandemic has given us a chance to practice how do I develop skills in terms of maintaining and building relationships with people, even when I can’t actually see them and interact with them in my day-to-day life. ” ___________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Chatter & Your Inner Voice – Ethan Kross The Mind-Body Connection and The Rabbit Effect – Kelli Harding Successful Aging – Daniel Levitin Why Settle for Happiness in Your Retirement? – Emily Esfahani Smith How Can You Be Better with Age? – Alan Castel __________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You haven’t worked this hard for so long to have a mediocre post-career life. It’s your time. Make your new life special. Work one-on-one with our Certified Designing Your Life Coach to explore alternative visions of your future and develop the pathway that’s right for you. Take the first step toward your next life. Our New Small Group Designing Your Life program starts in January. Schedule a free call to discuss our programs and what’s right for you. It’s your time. Make it your best time.      

There are many decisions to make in planning for retirement and a big one is where to live. Are you interested in a retirement community or plan to age in place? Will you move to be closer to family members or downsize to a place with the “livability” factors you want? What will be the right place for you? Ryan Frederick, the author of the new book Right Place, Right Time joins us to share his insights. We discuss: Why he chose to live in a retirement community in his 20s – and what he learned from that Why Place is so important How the pandemic is changing how people think about where we choose to live A case study from his book and the lesson it highlights The key factors (like livability) that make a place the right place for someone The pros and cons to be aware of if you plan to age in place How Design Thinking can help people choose the right place to live next His advice for couples His personal experience in moving his family to Austin. The key trends shaping where – and how –  we’ll be living in the future Ryan joins us from Austin. ___________________________ Bio Ryan Frederick is the Founder & CEO of SmartLiving 360 and the author of the new book Right Place, Right Time: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Home for the Second Half of Life. Ryan is focused on the intersection of healthy aging and the role of place, including housing. SmartLiving 360 helps institutions and individuals thrive in the Age of Longevity by providing consulting services, real estate development services, and consumer content. Ryan is recognized as a national thought leader and innovator in the real estate development and healthcare services industries and is a keynote speaker, instructor, author, and blogger. His work and insights have been cited in Forbes, The Washington Post, and Environments for Aging, among other outlets. His real estate development in Rockville, MD, The Stories at Congressional Plaza, is an age-friendly apartment community that has attracted national attention. Mr. Frederick is a member of the National Advisory Board for the School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University, a member of the AgingWell Hub, a collaborative of leading innovative providers in the field of aging led by Phillips, and has been appointed to the Advisory Council of the Bipartisan Policy Center Health and Housing Task Force. He is a 2018-2019 Encore Public Voices Fellow. Mr. Frederick is a graduate of Princeton University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. ______________________________ For More on Ryan Frederick Right Place, Right Time: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Home for the Second Half of Life Blog  The University of Michigan Study on Purpose and Longevity mentioned on the podcast __________________________ Wise Quotes On the Importance of the Right Place “It makes it easier to be socially connected, be physically active, be financially secure for a longer life. And then it has a direct effect because in some cases you may be in a physical place that you might be emotionally connected to or not. Or you might have some physical limitations and you may find a place that may not be appropriate for you. So I think it’s so important that Place should be on the same level as eating well, exercising, and financially planning for longevity. It’s right up there as we think about planning for a longer life. And it starts with a vision of what you want your life to look like. And then how does Place help enable that to happen?” On Happiness and Longevity “When you look at the research of a longer life, and we don’t hear this much in the media, but there’s something called the U-shaped Happiness Curve based on people’s self-reporting of their well-being and happiness. You’re at a certain level in your 20s, then you kind of go down for a stretch. And then your late 40s, early 5os is the nadir in the US. I like to think it’s correlated to having teenagers in the house. And then it goes up and there’s a pretty steep, upward slope to the point in your 70s and 80s, when you’re happier than you were in your 20s. So this idea that you’re happier later, and that people that are able to live that long, is not part of the narrative we find in our popular culture. It seems much more about youth. So I think one of the first things is to take a step back and just envision, What do you want these future chapters to look like? And the planning is worth it. It is one of the key elements here. So as you think about financial planning for a longer life, what is that visioning planning that you have?  That’s where it starts. And I encourage people to really think big about this.” __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Are You Ready for The New Long Life? – Andrew Scott Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans The Future You – Brian David Johnson Are You in the Driver’s Seat? – Cindy Cox-Roman Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland What Can You Do to Age Better? – Anna Dixon — Related Blog Post Where to Retire? Think Livability ___________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You haven’t worked this hard for so long to have a mediocre post-career life. It’s your time. Make your new life special. Work one-on-one with our Certified Designing Your Life Coach to explore alternative visions of your future and develop the pathway that’s right for you. Take the first step toward your next life. Schedule a free call to discuss our programs and what’s right for you.

When you’re learning something new, it’s helpful to understand both theory and practice. Planning for retirement is no exception. What can we learn about life in retirement from those who planned well for retirement (and wrote excellent books about it) – and are now living it? In this new installment of a series of panel discussions with our most popular previous guests, we’re joined by Fritz Gilbert, Dr. Barbara O’Neill, and Mark Shaiken (you’ll find their bios below). We discuss: Their lessons learned about life in retirement so far How they’re investing their time now versus their full-time working years What do they know now that they wished they did then What they learned about themselves by writing a book about retirement The ingredients for a Good Life today Their advice for pre-retirees who are planning for retirement now Dr. Barbara O’Neill joins us from Florida, Fritz Gilbert from Georgia, and Mark Shaiken from Colorado. __________________________ Bios Fritz Gilbert is the author of The Keys to a Successful Retirement. He retired after more than three decades in corporate America, where he progressed through the various levels of a multinational corporation serving the global aluminum industry. His award-winning blog “The Retirement Manifesto” is focused on people achieving a great retirement. Fritz and his wife, Jackie, live in a cabin in Blue Ridge, Georgia, an Appalachian Mountain town where they’re active in their local church and various local charities, including Jackie’s charity Freedom for Fido (FreedomForFido.com). When he’s not writing, Fritz enjoys spending his time outdoors and is an avid fly fisherman, mountain biker, hiker, camper, photographer, and fitness fanatic. He also cherishes his daily walks in the woods with their four dogs, who run the household. Fritz and Jackie also travel cross country in their RV to visit their daughter and her family in the Pacific Northwest. Previous Visits: The Keys To A Successful Retirement – Fritz Gilbert The Soft Side of Retirement – Fritz Gilbert, The Retirement Manifesto Website  —  Barbara O’Neill, Ph.D, CFP®, CRPC®, AFC, CHC, CFEd, CFCS, CPFFE, is the author of Flipping the Switch: Your Guide to Happiness and Financial Security in Later Life. As the owner/CEO of Money Talk: Financial Planning Seminars and Publications, Dr. Barbara O’Neill, CFP®, AFC®, CRPC®, writes, speaks, and reviews content about personal finance. A Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, after 41 years of service as a Rutgers Cooperative Extension educator and personal finance specialist, Dr. O’Neill has written over 160 articles for academic publications and received more than 35 national awards and over $1.2 million in grants to support her financial education programs and research. Employed by Rutgers since 1978, she provided national leadership for the Cooperative Extension programs Investing For Your Future and Small Steps to Health and Wealth™ for over a decade. Part of her work time is bought out to provide personal finance training for military family service professionals (for the eXtension Military Families Learning Network) and for New Jersey financial educators as part of a state Department of Education contract. She is also the author of two trade books, Saving On a Shoestring and Investing On A Shoestring, and co-author of Money Talk: A Financial Guide for Women. She is a certified financial planner (CFP®), chartered retirement planning counselor (CRPC®), accredited financial counselor (AFC), certified housing counselor (CHC), and certified financial educator (CFEd). She also holds the CFCS (certified in family and consumer sciences) and CPFEE (certified personal and family finance educator) credentials from the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS). Dr. O’Neill received her Ph.D. in family financial management from Virginia Tech, a master’s degree in consumer economics from Cornell University, and a bachelor’s degree in home economics education from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oneonta. She has received over three dozen awards for personal or program excellence, including a 2016 AAFCS Distinguished Service Award, and over $1 million in grants and contract funding to support her financial education programs and research. In 2003, she served as president of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE). From 1996-2000, Dr. O’Neill directed the five-year MONEY 2000™ Cooperative Extension savings and debt reduction campaign in the 1990s that resulted in over $20 million of documented economic impact nationwide. In addition, she has delivered almost 300 national/regional conference presentations throughout her career and over 70 webinars for eXtension, AAFCS, and other professional organizations. In addition to being an AAFCS board member from 2016-2019, she serves as Academic Editor of the Financial Planning Association’s Journal of Financial Planning. Dr. O’Neill is an avid Twitter user and tweets personal finance information and research findings using the handle @moneytalk1 Previous Visit: When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill Website — Forty-one years in the law and then one day, no more law, just like that. After retirement, Mark Shaiken authored: And… Just Like That: Essays on a life before, during, and after the law. Mark is a survivor of a decades-long career in the corporate bankruptcy trenches. He sat for 10 years on his law firm’s board of directors and was a member of its strategic planning committee. He holds his B.A. from Haverford College and received his J.D. from Washburn University. He is a graduate of the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts’ Leadership Arts program. He holds seats on Art Boards, sits on Habitat for Humanity, Metro Denver’s audit and finance committee, and is a member of the Downtown Denver Partnership’s Mobility and Housing Councils. He now measures his life by what he gives and enjoys that immensely. Mark has published his second book Fresh Start a bankruptcy novel. Check out the book trailer  Previous Visit: A Second Act after The Law – Mark Shaiken Website __________________________ Wise Quotes On Purpose “I looked at five years out as sort of a trajectory assessment point. It was hard to imagine at that point what my life would be like if I wasn’t going to be a lawyer anymore. And I look at that as an opportunity to sort of look at what my career was and decide whether this is my career was plateaued, whether it was going to continue in an upward mode, whether it was starting to trend downward because in a law firm, eventually everyone plateaus. And then there’s a trajectory downward, which may also exist in corporate America, but it’s palpable in a law firm. There was a point at which things just naturally start to happen in a law firm. And the older population in the firm is going to start to trend downward and the younger population is moving up in the ranks, which is all good and natural. But the trajectory for me was important because if you’re resisting the trending downward, then you’re also potentially resisting the notion of thinking through what you will do next in life. If you’re at the top of the world or in that case, the top of the law firm, and you’ve plateaued, you’re going to be there for a while. You don’t tend to necessarily think about all of that, but I think it is important to step back and say, I’m going to start trending downward. I’m going to start to scale back on the number of hours I really want to spend as a lawyer. And what does all that mean? And it’s better to have that discussion with yourself when things are going great…So in other words, on your own terms, have that discussion. And the one year out for me, the one year out was to really get much more serious about what I was going to be doing thereafter. So I guess from five years out to one year out, I was able to start to focus a lot more on the things that I use, an overused phrase, the things that would give me purpose.” – Mark Shaiken On Planning How You’ll Invest Your Time “I think one thing that people should kind of look at is just thinking what a typical day will look like for them. And I think many people don’t do that and they leave the workforce and they have no idea what they’re going to do. So the more you can be thinking about what is that structure that Fritz was talking about the structured time and the unstructured time. What are some things you’re going to fit into that? I think that would make for a much easier transition because I’ve seen a number of people here in my community that just seem kind of adrift. And I don’t think they really took the time to think about what they would be doing once they left the workforce.” – Dr. Barbara O’Neill “Recognize that the non-financial areas need as much planning as the financial. Most people focus on the financials. You have to have the financials – they’re necessary, but I would argue they’re not sufficient. You need to do the planning on the non-financial side as well. It’s interesting. Most of this discussion we’ve had is focused on the non-financial aspects because we’re all now retired. And I think once you get into retirement, the financials become less important and the non-financial side arguably becomes more important. But that’s for each individual to determine for themselves. But on the non-financial, one thing that I would add to what Barb said is to make sure, if you’ve got a spouse, you’re looking at it as a partnership. It’s a big change for both of you. make sure you’re talking as you’re preparing for retirement, how are you going to handle it. How much time do you want to have together? How much time do you want to have apart?  I call it Me time, We time, and She time in my mind. And it’s basically, you want to have the freedom to go do things that you want to do. She wants to have the freedom to go do the things that she wants to do. And neither one of you should feel guilty about that.” – Fritz Gibert ___________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland Advice for Successful Career Women Transitioning to Retirement – Helen Dennis The Future You – Brian David Johnson Your Retirement Won’t Come with a Road Map – Carol Hymowitz Ready to ROAR? – Michael Clinton If You Love Your Work, What Challenges Will You Face in Retirement? – Michelle Pannor Silver ___________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You haven’t worked this hard for so long to have a mediocre post full-time career life. Get the most of this time of your life. Work one-on-one with our Certified Designing Your Life Coach to explore alternative visions of your future and develop the pathway that’s right for you. Take the first step toward your next life. Schedule a free call.

Is it time to make the healthy lifestyle changes that perhaps you’ve been putting off? Our guest is Glen Robison, author of  Healthy Dad, Sick Dad. The book’s subtitle says it all: What Good Is Your Wealth If You Don’t Have Your Health? We discuss: The story behind his two Dads – and what lessons he took from them How your lifestyle choices affect your health The most important lifestyle factors to zero in on The biggest changes he’s made personally Yin and Yang foods – and how to achieve the optional balance His go-to recommend resources He joins us from Arizona. _________________________ Bio In Healthy Dad, Sick Dad, Dr. Glen N. Robison shares his personal journey with two very similar fathers who ended up in drastically different retirements. Determined to understand why, Dr. Robison studied his healthy father’s lifestyle and emulated it for fifteen years, with dramatic improvements to his own health. Now, he shares the secrets of living toward a long, healthy life. Dr. Glen N. Robison is Diplomate of the American Board of Multiple Specialties in Podiatry Board Certified in Primary Care in Podiatric Medicine. Dr. Robison is a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner and certified Myopractor, trained in releasing deep restrictions of motion in the body that resides at the root of our symptoms and ailments. Having applied the principles found in this book for over fifteen years, he has expanded his practice to include dietary approaches that address everything from fungal infections to diabetes. _____________________________ Wise Quotes On Adopting a Healthy Diet “I think part of the challenge here, at least it appears to me, is that medicine today is about how a pill makes a quick fix. Work takes a little bit of a long time, but perhaps is more sustaining over a course of a lifetime. Right out of my residency, I was in my first year in practice, and I was on the go, go, go. I was trying to pay off the student loans. I was starting a family. I was trying to pay down the debt. And so I was running on willpower. I was running on adrenaline. And so I gravitated to the social things of life, the quick energy, high-sugary food type things. And over a course of time, it really started to take a toll on me. And so when I couldn’t get out of bed and because of my back was hurting so bad and I realized, man, being young in practice, I didn’t have any health insurance. Nothing. I was like, what am I doing? And so surgery wasn’t an answer for me. I didn’t want to get cut on. I know my sick dad had back surgery. I didn’t want to follow down his road. So I was directed to my healthy dad. And I remember when he worked on me and he made a comment: Man, you’re like a dang bag of potatoes. You’re so stiff. In order to really fully get you to where you need to be, you’re going to have to change what you eat. And that didn’t make sense to me. I said I’m just here for my back. I just need to get my back fixed. But it took a couple of years of him talking to me and telling me that you really have to change what you eat.” On Emotions & Health “I’ve learned how to engage my emotions to hold me in check, meaning that anger, grief, frustration, resentment, all these things, have a direct effect on our health. Grief and worry are directly related to diabetes. And so I could tell you a story right there that I’ve experienced, I had with worry and grief, that can elevate your blood sugars. And so I’ve been more attuned to the emotions and have learned to just be more trusting, be more forgiving, be more loving, and not take in these harsh, emotional elements that I’ve incorporated into my life.” ___________________________ For More on Dr. Glen Robison Healthy Dad Sick Dad: What Good Is Your Wealth If You Don’t Have Your Health? Learn more at www.liveitlifestyles.com ____________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Be Interested In Take Charge of Your Well-Being – John La Puma, MD Smarter Tomorrow – Elizabeth Ricker The Mind-Body Connection and The Rabbit Effect – Kelli Harding How to Make Healthy Lifestyle Choices – Alan Carpenter Can You Grow Younger? – Marta Zaraska The Joy of Movement – Kelly McGonigal __________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You haven’t worked this hard for so long to have a mediocre post-career life. It’s your time. Make your new life special. Work one-on-one with our Certified Designing Your Life Coach to explore alternative visions of your future and develop the pathway that’s right for you. Take the first step toward your next life. Schedule a free call. ________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we may invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.

You’ll face a myriad of decisions in planning for retirement. Wade Pfau has written a comprehensive guide to help you prepare well, financially and otherwise. He joins us to discuss how to fortify your retirement planning and decision-making. We discuss: How he became interested in studying retirement and retirement planning The key risks to manage in planning for retirement Why the traditional concept of retirement is increasingly unaffordable – and what to do instead His views on the 4% rule The roles that annuities and reverse mortgages can play in retirement planning The pros and cons of working longer What to consider in deciding where to live in retirement The non-financial aspects of transitioning to retirement – and special challenges for introverts How to assess your preparedness for retirement Wade joins us from Dallas. ______________________ Bio  Wade D. Pfau, PhD, is Professor of Retirement Income in the Ph.D. in Financial and Retirement Planning program, Co-Director of the New York Life Center for Retirement Income, and RICP® program director at The American College of Financial Services. Pfau is a co-editor of the Journal of Personal Finance. He has spoken at national conferences of organizations for financial professionals such as the CFA Institute, FPA, NAPFA, AICPA-PFP, and AFS. He also publishes frequently in a wide variety of academic and practitioner research journals. He hosts the Retirement Researcher blog, and is a monthly columnist for Advisor Perspectives, a RetireMentor for MarketWatch, a contributor to Forbes, and an Expert Panelist for The Wall Street Journal. His research has been discussed in outlets that include print editions of The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Money Magazine. Pfau was a selectee for the InvestmentNews “Power 20” in 2013 and “40 Under 40” in 2014, the Investment Advisor 35 list for 2015, the IA 25 list for 2014, and Financial Planning magazine’s Influencer Awards. He is a two-time winner of the Journal of Financial Planning Montgomery-Warschauer Award, a two-time winner of the Academic Thought Leadership Award from the Retirement Income Industry Association, and a best paper award winner in the retirement category from the Academy of Financial Services. Pfau holds a doctorate in economics and a master’s degree from Princeton University, and bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees from the University of Iowa. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®). _________________________ For More on Wade Pfau Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating the Important Decisions for Retirement Success Retirement Researcher Website _________________________ One Day University At One Day University, you can watch hundreds of fascinating talks by the most popular professors from 150 top schools. A special offer for listeners of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast: learn more and start your two-week free trial at www.onedayu.com/wisdom Check out the video library to see what interests you. _________________________ Wise Quotes On Risks “Risks fall into a few different categories. Longevity risk is worth mentioning first, and it’s a good thing in a way. You don’t know how long you’re going to live, and you might live a very long time, which is wonderful, but just on the financial side, it’s expensive to live a long time. You have to fund your retirement for more and more years. So longevity risks really is the overarching risk, and you’ve got the different types of market risk and market volatility, interest rates that are changing, and so forth, just market-related risks and inflation could be part of that as well. But even a low inflation rate over a long retirement can really compound over time. And then everything else really falls into the category of spending shocks. Which is you may have a reasonable baseline budget that you anticipate, but just the unexpected events that happen outside of that, or you may have a sense of something that may or may not happen like a big healthcare bill, having to pay for long-term care, having to care for other family members in an unexpected way. Anything that just relates to having to pay more than you anticipated is an additional spending shock.” On Preparing for the Non-financial Side of Retirement “I think that’s important cause I’ve historically always focused more on the financial side. So to build out the chapter on the non-financial aspects of retirement, I was doing a lot of reading and it always just seemed like, oh, in retirement you have all this extra time. So you’d go join the local social clubs and everything, make all kinds of new friends and move into like the age 55 plus or age 62 plus communities joining all the social activities, go to the dining facilities and meet everyone and just have a wonderful time. And I just kind of started thinking that a lot of people will struggle with all that. And that becomes a part of the idea of moving in retirement, moving as a stressful event, retiring as a stressful event. So for people who are thinking they want to retire and immediately move, you might want to separate that out a little bit to just not have too much happening all at once. And this also becomes an important conversation for couples or partners to consider as well. If one person is more outgoing than the other, maybe one of them is an extrovert. The other is an introvert. They have may have a very different idea about how they want to spend their time in retirement. And whether they do want to join all these social clubs or all these new opportunities, they can have this social engagement with their additional time. Now that they’re not working, does that fit their personality? Is that something that they’re going to want to do and be able to do and enjoy? I think partners in particular need to discuss this in advance to make sure that there’s a plan for things you’ll do together. Things you’ll do separately and make sure people are happy with all those decisions.” __________________________ Other Podcast Episodes You May Like What Are The Keys To A Successful Retirement? Fritz Gilbert When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill With the Freedom to Retire, Where Will You Plant Your New Tree? – Don Ezra Your Retirement Won’t Come with a Road Map – Carol Hymowitz Are You Ready for The New Long Life? – Andrew Scott If You Love Your Work, What Challenges Will You Face in Retirement? – Michelle Pannor Silver ___________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You haven’t worked this hard for so long to have a mediocre post-career life. It’s your time. Make your new life special. Work one-on-one with our Certified Designing Your Life Coach to explore alternative visions of your future and develop the pathway that’s right for you. Take the first step toward your next life. Schedule a free call.

Can learning from your parents’ mistakes help you age gracefully? In his 50s Steven Petrow began a list of things he was observing that he vowed never to do when he became old. Now in his 60s, he has a different appreciation of his observations. Listen in to a fascinating conversation as Steven shares his humor and insights on making smarter choices to age gracefully. __________________________ Bio 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. Steven’s new book is Stupid Things I Won’t Do When I Get Old. 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 Book: Stupid Things I Won’t Do When I Get Old: A Highly Judgmental, Unapologetically Honest Accounting of All the Things Our Elders Are Doing Wrong Steven Petrow’s Website How To Age Gracefully  (The article mentioned by Jane Brody in The New York Times) __________________________ One Day University At One Day University, you can watch hundreds of fascinating talks by the most popular professors from 150 top schools. A special offer for listeners of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast: learn more and start your two-week free trial at www.onedayu.com/wisdom Check out the video library to see what interests you. __________________________ Wise Quotes On Being a Perrenial “There are many ideas that were good for a long time – and then they’re not anymore. And then of course there are new ideas that come into vogue – and one of the new ideas that I talk about is this notion of being a perennial. So we’re very divided by our generation. We have the Greatest Generation. We have the Boomers, Millennials, Gen X, Y, and Z. And in a way, those are divisions that keep us apart. And so I like this notion of being a perennial. Anybody can be a perennial, whether you’re 25, 64 like we are, or 85. It’s an attitude. And it’s an attitude of being involved and curious and often having friends of different generations. So this is like a new behavior that we can start to adopt. That is very gratifying. I’ve had the experience several times, especially with multi-generational friends, but also I’m having younger folks really kind of keep me in the swim of what’s happening in life. And I think that’s important to all of us.” On Adapting “The thing I saw most, especially I’ll say with my Dad – and I think this is somewhat of a male condition. He was very independent, very stubborn. He always liked to do things his way, and he really did not want assistance in general. And he did not want his three kids to be providing any kind of help – I’ll say it in air quotes. And we were very aware of the sort of family dynamic and the generational dynamic and did not want to be telling our father what to do. Both because we knew that that was futile and that that’s really not how we were approaching these problems, especially when he was falling a lot. So we tried to give him tools and he rejected most of them. And then he continued to fall and he died. He died from a series of falls. And what really struck me was his own father had died from a series of falls. And my Dad had been trying to help his Dad not do that. So in a way, I feel like I have a greater awareness of these issues. And I’m hoping that by having written them down and made a pledge, I will do better. And you know, that I will use that walker when I need the walker, or I will install the grab bar in the shower when I need it. But I also worry that I have this heritage stubbornness in me that may get in the way when the time comes. We’ll see about that. But what really happened was my Dad’s world got smaller by many of the decisions that he made. And we were trying to help him keep an open mind and involved in the world, which mattered so much to him. And that was painful.” On Values “We grow up and we work hard and much of the way people are valued in this society is on what’s your job title? How much do you make? What is your house looks like? Sort of these very tangible things. And I often refer to them as resume values. And I’ve seen this shift in myself and I’ve seen a shift in some others. And I think you’re an example of where you kind of move from resume values to – I really like this phrase – eulogy virtues. And those are the kinds of things you would hope that people might say about you when you die. I don’t really want someone to say when I died: Oh, well he was the senior vice-president at this or that. Or he had a three or four-bedroom house. I’m hoping people will say he was kind, he was generous. He liked his friends. He was good to his friends, his family, so on and so forth, whatever those things are. And I think this is kind of the shift in balance that I’m talking about here that becomes more important. It also becomes important for another reason because as we get older, we’re not in the same current professionally as we were when we were in our thirties and forties. And there is ageism in the workplace. And should you lose your job in your fifties or sixties, it’s much more difficult to get another job. And so if we’re defining ourselves against the standard that we had when we were 40, we’re going to come up short. So it also helps us to redefine the standard, how we’re trying to evaluate ourselves to play to our strengths and who we are these days.” _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like What Can You Do to Age Better? – Anna Dixon The Skill Set for Life’s Transitions – Bruce Feiler Retirement Planning Includes Getting Good at Getting Older – Rabbi Laura Geller Successful Aging – Daniel Levitin From Role to Soul – Connie Zweig How Can You Be Better with Age? – Alan Castel ___________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You haven’t worked this hard for so long to have a mediocre post-career life. It’s your time. Make your new life special. Work one-on-one with our Certified Designing Your Life Coach to explore alternative visions of your future and develop the pathway that’s right for you. Take the first step toward your next life. Schedule a free call. ___________________________ Retire smarter. Explore retirementwisdom.com with free tools and resources to retire smarter and age gracefully, including 4 seasons of podcast episodes of conversations with interesting guests.        

How can you get smarter about getting smarter? Our guest Elizabeth Ricker, author of Smarter Tomorrow, introduces us to neurohacks that can cognitive functioning. She explains her concept of scientific self-help and how to improve cognitive functioning through a variety of short exercises and experiments. We discuss: The story of her middle school math teacher How neurohacking and scientific self-help work with how to improve cognitive functioning What she learned from tracking her New Year’s Resolutions since 2011 What we need to know about cognitive functioning that may be different than we expect The New IQ and the New EQ Common Lifestyle Bottlenecks – and how they can be addressed and improve cognitive functioning How Serious Brain Games can improve executive function The MIND diet How having an accountability partner can help The key messages from her book Smarter Tomorrow Elizabeth joins us from San Francisco. ________________________ Bio Elizabeth R. Ricker is the author of the new book, Smarter Tomorrow: How 15 Minutes of Neurohacking a Day Can Help You Work Better, Think Faster, and Get More Done Her work has been featured globally, including in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, on SiriusXM radio, and on public broadcast TV in Europe. She has given talks on cognitive enhancement and neurohacking across the US and overseas. She is a sought-after expert by Silicon Valley venture capital firms, technology startups, schools, and the Fortune 500. She runs the citizen neuroscience, DIY, and neurohacking organization, NeuroEducate, and her consulting and speaking work goes through Ricker Labs. Ricker received her undergraduate degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT and her graduate degree in Mind, Brain, and Education from Harvard. In college, she worked in the neuroscience lab of Nobel Prize winner Dr. Susumu Tonegawa. Ricker was also a nationally ranked athlete and class president– the latter of which occasionally involved such serious duties as dressing up in a giant rodent costume to play Tim the Beaver, the MIT mascot. __________________________ Wise Quotes On Neurohacking “I think before you dive into all the things that the media is going to tell you that are falling apart as you get older, I think it’s really important to just start with the things that you are probably stronger at than you realize. This is a really important thing with neurohacking – to start with an understanding of where you’re strong and then understand what your personal bottlenecks are so that you can personalize everything that you do.” On Scientific Self Help “You can take a very scientific approach to your life and the things that seem kind of abstract and maybe not under your control, like life satisfaction or mental performance – these things seem uncontrollable. I think they seem like you’re either born with them or fate seems to play a role and you just don’t have control over them. And what I want to really introduce to people is that we actually have a lot of data, and we have this tool, which is self-experimentation, that can allow you to actually take control over it. And if it helps at all, when you look back at the number of Nobel prize winners who have won awards in medicine or physiology, a surprising percentage of them actually ran self-experiments in the exact area that they won the Nobel prize in. So you will actually be in pretty good company. This is not some [sci-fi] stuff. This is something that even very various data scientists have done themselves. So, [there’s] no reason why you can’t ask and approach things just like a Nobel prize winner.” On Neurohacking  “…When you start your neurohacking, I think of there being a pyramid. So before you get into the really fancy neurohacks, like later on in the book, I talk about neurostimulation, neurofeedback, these sort of lab-grade technologies that are now – due to the decrease in consumer technology pricing – available actually at home,  which is also very exciting. But you should really start with these lifestyle interventions – things like your sleep, things like your exercise, nutrition, [and] even things that you might not think of as being directly related to brain health. But we have increasing amounts of data that show that they really, really are – things like social connectedness because loneliness is absolutely correlated with a lot of health disorders that affect the brain very strongly.” On Lifestyle Bottlenecks and Debugging Yourself “I have a whole health and lifestyle survey that I introduce at the end of Chapter Six called Debugging Yourself that allows you to go through and see where you’re at. But in terms of what do I mean by a bottleneck –  there are general standards that you want to check to see whether you’re sort of falling above or below. So we’re all probably familiar with this idea that about 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day is a great way to stay healthy and stave off a lot of even age-related declines – just generally a very useful thing to do. But for each of these things, for any given person, let’s say you’re a marathon runner, maybe exercise is not your bottleneck, but maybe sleep is. So I have some unusual hacks that you might want to consider for each of these areas. So for instance, with sleep, sleep apnea is sometimes an issue for people. And there was a rather unconventional study that I saw in the British Medical Journal that showed that using the Didgeridoo, which is an Australian wind instrument, actually learning how to play this can, or at least in this randomized controlled trial it showed that participants had a significant reduction in their symptoms associated with sleep apnea. And this is bizarre, right? Why would that help? The notion is that you are strengthening the underlying core cause or one of the underlying core causes of sleep apnea, which is having the muscles in your throat be a bit too loose. And so it tones those muscles to play the Didgeridoo. So this is not recommended for extremely, severe sleep apnea.” Note: The study mentioned from a university outside of San Francisco was conducted “in 2015 by psychologists at Dominican University of California who wanted to know how the act of writing down goals might change people’s goal attainment over a four-week period.1 They found that participants with an accountability buddy and written goals succeeded in reaching their goals significantly more often than those with only one of the two or neither. Those who told a friend about their goals and sent that friend weekly progress reports succeeded at the largest percentage of their goals.” __________________________ For More About Elizabeth Ricker Smarter Tomorrow: How 15 Minutes of Neurohacking a Day Can Help You Work Better, Think Faster, and Get More Done Neuroeducate Website Apps and websites mentioned: Sweatcoin Brain HQ ___________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Be Interested In The Future You – Brian David Johnson Successful Aging – Daniel Levitin Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans Practices for Brain Health – Dr. Krystal Culler Chatter & Your Inner Voice – Ethan Kross Tiny Habits Can Lead to Big Changes – BJ Fogg _________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You haven’t worked this hard for so long to have a mediocre post-career life. It’s your time now. Make your new life special. Work one-on-one with our Certified Designing Your Life Coach to explore alternative visions of your future and develop the pathway that’s right for you. Take the first step toward your next life. Schedule a free call. ___________________________ Retire smarter. Explore retirementwisdom.com and try out our free tools and resources, including our 4 seasons of podcast episodes of conversations with interesting guests. Free Newsletter What Will Your “Retirement” Story Be? Wisdom Notes keeps ideas and inspiring stories coming your way once a month as you create your own. The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast covers the non-financial aspects of retirement planning. From time to time we invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial, medical, and/or mental health professionals on those matters.      

Your “retirement” could be longer than your career. What if you reject the traditional version of retirement that your neighbors and your colleagues have in mind? What if instead, you design a new life around what matters most to you and yours? And what if you bring the same qualities that made you successful to your new post-career chapters? Today’s guests, Milledge and Patti Hart are the authors of The Resolutionist: Welcome To The Anti-Retirement Movement. The Harts are living their new life on their own terms, based on twelve Resolutions they developed that define a pathway to make this phase of life the best of their life. And you can apply ideas from their framework to do the same – and measure your progress – as you define it – along the way. Milledge and Patti Hart join us from California. __________________________ Wise Quotes On The Anti-Retirement Movement “This generation of people actually really relates to the word anti. We were anti-war, we’re anti-aging or anti-racism. Whatever the word is, it doesn’t mean that you’re against it. It really means that you’re trying to redefine it. And I think that’s really why we chose the word anti-retirement to say: How do we get society to shift its thinking about retirement and put it in a new place? If you think about the work we’ve done with the Stanford Longevity center, we have added 30 years to our lifespan in the last century and that’s all in retirement. And so how do we take an anti-retirement approach and say: We’re not going to approach this in the same way that historically the world has approached retirement? And if you’re anti-something, you’re definitely pro-something else.” On Prioritizing Yourself “It’s important to me because it’s something I’d never done before because you’re at such a different place in life, where you are more in control of things. Things aren’t being set up for you and done for you. I’m making certain that I now [have] no guilt around moving myself up the priority list. It’s important for a lot of reasons. I think at this stage of life mental health, self-confidence, and physical health [are] obvious things that matter when you get to this stage of life. But for me, it was the guilt. I had to really deal with the guilt of saying it’s okay for me today to spend today on me.” On Metrics for Your New Life “We all have lived with scorecards, probably since you were five years old, right? You brought home your first report card from school – and then you find yourself at whatever age you retire. And now there’s no scorecard. There’s no year-end bonus. There is no raise. There’s no promotion. There’s no whatever your scorecard was, whatever units it was in. And so it is important to your self-confidence that you actually see yourself making progress, that you see yourself as relevant, that you see yourself as important, and that you see yourself as still accomplishing. But for each person, it’s very different. One of the things Milledge and I talk about in our book is really pushing people to try to measure the unmeasurable because the things we have been measuring – wealth and bonuses and money and units of whatever you [tracked ] – are gone. Now, what’s your weight? And how many miles did you run today? Those are easy to measure, but we really pushed ourselves to say: How do we measure the unmeasurable? And we did that by saying, What is our desired state? What’s the desired outcome? Is it a level of happiness, a level of connectedness, a level of relevancy? What’s the end state that you’re trying to accomplish? And what moves you towards that and start measuring deeper in the funnel?… We all need to have a measurement system in life, but it does need to be developed around what is important to you.” ____________________ Bios Patti Hart Patti Hart spent her early life in a small town in Illinois cheering for her Chicago Cubs, going to public schools and sharing chores with her many siblings. Her role models were in the most unlikely places—her high school teacher who pushed for organized girls sports and won—her grandmother—a woman ahead of her time in strength and resolve—and her guitar instructor, who was unafraid to take center stage in a business dominated by men. Though life was not always easy, it was filled with laughter, hugs, support, and challenges. Patti was fortunate to find her way into the telecommunications industry at a time when no one could have predicted the growth and change that lay ahead. Several promotions and numerous relocations later, she found herself in places she never thought she would go. She took risks and defied the odds to enjoy a career that spanned three decades of leadership positions in the technology sector and was honored to be a member of Fortune Magazine’s inaugural list of “Most Powerful Women” in 1998. Patti has worn many professional hats: CEO, Chairman, Board Member, Investor, and Advisor but is most proud of her personal life as: wife, mother, sister, daughter, neighbor, and friend. As an adult, she has called many cities home and found each place to offer wonderful opportunities to learn and grow. She has always valued community involvement and has dedicated her free time to advancing the arts, human rights, and “sport for all.” Patti is a proud alumna of Illinois State University and counts herself as a lifetime “Redbird.” She was named ISU’s Distinguished Alumni in 2015. In her “retired but engaged” stage of life, this Resolutionist splits her time between the beauty of Lake Tahoe and the intellect of Silicon Valley. Milledge Hart Milledge is a Dallas native, where playing high school football and becoming an Eagle Scout were expected. Milledge began his overachievement early, becoming an Eagle Scout before the age of fifteen and having his godfather, Ross Perot, present him with his medal commemorating the accomplishment. Milledge was blessed with many gifts in life. His father, Mitch Hart, gave him the gift of “not being afraid to set the bar high.” His Grandmother gave him the gift of respecting discipline and the benefits of a regimented life. And Duke University gave him the gift of an education far beyond the classroom, where he began to realize what was possible. Following his collegiate years, Milledge moved to two new worlds—New York City and investment banking. Both would later become foundational parts of his future. The next step in his journey was to gain operational experience. A better understanding of his clients was eye-opening and would prove to be valuable as he made his way to California to, ultimately, form a new investment bank with several partners. But this time he could approach his work with his client’s priorities in mind. Milledge credits much of his success to the advice and counsel he received from others and chose, through his leadership at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and involvement with the Young Presidents’ Organization, to “pay it forward.” Personally, Milledge had never seen himself becoming a parent but, as we know, life is full of surprises! He has embraced his role as one of the many parents to Patti’s son and has found it to be one of the most challenging but most rewarding parts of his life. As a newly minted Resolutionist, Milledge enjoys the diversity of his portfolio: working through charitable organizations to make the world a better place while still advancing corporate activities in a variety of industries. ___________________________________ For More on Milledge & Patti Hart Their Book:  The Resolutionist: Welcome To The Anti-Retirement Movement Their Website _________________________ Other Podcast Episodes You May Like The Future You – Brian David Johnson When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill A Tapas Life – Andy Robin Ready to ROAR? – Michael Clinton Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland Are You Ready for The New Long Life? – Andrew Scott How Life Hacks Can Help Make Your Retirement the Best Time of Your Life – Sam Horn ____________________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You haven’t worked this hard for so long to have a mediocre post-career life. It’s your time now. Make your new life special. Work one-on-one with our Certified Designing Your Life Coach to explore alternative visions of your future and develop the pathway that’s right for you. Take the first step toward your next life. Schedule a free call. ______________________________________ Retire smarter. Explore retirementwisdom.com and try out our free tools and resources.

The pandemic has been a catalyst for reflection on what matters most and what constitutes a good life today. For many, it’s sparked a realization that there’s much more to life than the traditional model of work and careers. But what’s next for you? For those contemplating retiring, perhaps earlier than expected, it’s an opportunity to redesign their lives and pivot to a phase with greater meaning and purpose. How are you approaching your second half of life and retiring? Uncertainity leads many people to approach it with trepidation. Michael Clinton, the author of the new book ROAR into the second half of your life (before it’s too late!), asserts that there’s a better way. We discuss his four-part process to help you take charge of your next phase. __________________________ Bio Michael Clinton is the former President and Publishing Director of Hearst Magazines and is currently the special media advisor to the CEO of the Hearst Corporation. He is also a writer and photographer who has traveled to over 120 countries. He has appeared in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Town and Country, O, the Oprah Magazine, and other national media. Clinton is the Founder of Circle of Generosity, a nonprofit that grants random acts of kindness to those in need and serves on multiple nonprofit boards. His newest book, ROAR into the second half of your life (before it’s too late!) is a manifesto on how to get the most out of your life experience in work, lifestyle, and relationships. __________________________ Wise Quotes On the acronym ROAR “First of all, the awareness of if you’re 50 and you’re healthy today, you have a really good shot at living to be 90 – or a hundred. And the construct that we were handed by our parents – and by both government policy and corporations – is a very outdated construct. The days they were developed in were the days when the life expectancy quite honestly was in the early 60s. And so you’d check out of a job and you wouldn’t live much longer. Well, all that’s changed. So ROAR and the acronym that it stands for is designed to help people have that aha moment about this. So they are: Re-imagine yourself and be one of those “Re-Imagineers” before others do it for you, whether it is being laid off or pushed out or any of the above. And re-imagining your favorite future, especially if you’re going to have this long life arc, the O is own who you are. I like to call it a midlife awakening, not a midlife crisis because once you’ve lived 25 years, you know a lot about yourself. So use that awakening [to accept ]that you’ve made good decisions and bad decisions – just kind of own them and assess where you are right now.  But at the same time, own your numbers. Think about it – it’s amazing to me, Joe, how many people I ask what’s your blood pressure or your heart rate, and they’re completely clueless. And that’s not a good thing because as we live longer, we need to keep our health numbers and metrics in place with our financial numbers. We need to own our successes and our failures. So, own who you are, is a big part of this book, and what’s next for you. A is Act now with this concept called life layering, which I hope we can get into and talk about. And then the final R is reassess your relationships, because when you’re in midlife and you want to make a change in whatever part of your life you’re talking about, you need the support of your family, your friends, your community, your colleagues. They’re the ones who are going to help facilitate that. And so you gotta really have a clear, clear head as to who they are and who your posse will be to get you there. So it’s this four-step process, which is in the book, which stands for ROAR.” On Being Person-Appropriate – Not Age-Appropriate “We all are sort of wired to think about what a 50-plus life is supposed to be, which is an outdated concept. So the biggest mistake people make is they create self-imposed ages. And so I like to say, it’s not age-appropriate, it’s person-appropriate because you can parent at 50, you can start a new business at 65 or 70. You can get remarried at 80. There’s a lot that you can do in terms of creating your person-appropriate approach to your second half. We live in a culture of ageism in both words and images, so it’s a constant fight that the individual has to have. But I find that most people put barriers around themselves. These 40 individuals who told their amazing stories [in the book] were able to free themselves of that barrier and go back to school at a later age, start new careers, and start new relationships. They don’t buy into what they were told they’re supposed to do. And they’re making their lives bigger, not smaller, which a lot of people are doing as they move into their 60s, 70s, and 80s.” On Being True to Yourself “Be true to yourself and be true to what you really want to do with your life, how you really want to experience your life, and the things that really matter to you. And you’ve got to course-correct if you abandoned them. Follow your own North Star and what will bring you fulfillment, satisfaction, and enrichment in your life – in a lifelong way. So that’s my message: Be true to yourself.” _________________________ For More on Michael Clinton Roar: into the second half of your life (before it’s too late) ___________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Getting Things Done In Retirement – David Allen Are You Ready for The New Long Life? – Andrew Scott Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans I’m Not Done. Are You? – Patti Temple Rocks How to Live a Values-Based Life – Harry Kraemer When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill The Skill Set for Life’s Transitions – Bruce Feiler __________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You’ve prepared for the financial side of retirement. And let’s face it: you didn’t work that hard to have a mediocre retirement. So, what if you prepared just as well on the non-financial side? You’d be ready to live the life you’ve worked hard to earn – and be poised to sidestep the pitfalls that derail too many retirements. Pitfalls that could waste your most valuable asset – your time. Design your new life, using the same principles of design thinking that Apple, Nike, and other savvy companies use. It’s your new life. Think like an owner. Invest time now to explore your options and discover the new path that’s right for you. It’s your time. Get ahead of the game. Schedule a free call with Joe Casey, a certified Designing Your Life Coach, about your new life and how our three-phased process can help you make it a reality. ____________________________ Explore free tools at retirementwisdom.com Browse all 4 seasons of our retirement podcast here to get smarter about your next phase.

Achieving the financial security to retire is a big milestone. But you’re not done. There’s inner work to be done to move into this next phase of life. Retired psychotherapist and bestselling author Connie Zweig joins our retirement podcast to discuss her new book The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul – and her insights on how reflection and contemplation can be valuable practices in your transition. We discuss: How retirement can be a catalyst for an inner journey to reimagine life What the words retire and yoga have in common The obstacles often encountered on this inner journey – and what Shadow Work is How an Identity Crisis following retirement is different from a Mid-life Crisis Why letting go is important – and challenging Her own journey in retiring as a therapist – and what it’s taught her What she’s learned from grandparenting What an Elder is – and how one becomes one How people can come to view retirement as a spiritual journey The main message of her new book The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul Connie joins us from California. __________________________ Thank You Thanks to our wise guests and loyal listeners The Retirement Wisdom Podcast is among the top 3% in popularity globally according to Listen Notes. __________________________ Bio Connie Zweig, Ph.D., is a retired therapist, co-author of Meeting the Shadow and Romancing the Shadow, author of Meeting the Shadow of Spirituality and a novel, A Moth to the Flame: The Life of Sufi Poet Rumi. Her new book, The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul, extends shadow-work into late life and teaches aging as a spiritual practice. Connie has been doing contemplative practices for 50 years. She is a wife and grandmother and was initiated as an Elder by Sage-ing International in 2017. After investing in all these roles, she is practicing the shift from role to soul. __________________________ Wise Quotes On Letting Go “My framework in the book is that the shift from senior to Elder in late life is a rite of passage. And we don’t have rites of passage for elders in our culture, right? It just doesn’t exist. So there are three stages of every rite of passage – and the first stage is letting go. And that might mean letting go of outworn roles or attitudes, letting go of outworn beliefs, or self-images or relationships that don’t work – or jobs, or finances, or goals of some kind. And so letting go at every stage of life is hard because as humans, we bond, and we get attached. And with our egos to try to control everything. But to become an Elder, we actually need to let go of the Ego’s agenda and step into a different speed limit, a different pace of life, a different sense of flow. I call it from Obligation to Flow – and we need to let go of the past. A lot of people are clinging to the past, feel regret about the past, and need to give and receive forgiveness about the past. So there’s a chapter about how to do the emotional work to help us let go of the past so that we can live fully in the present because many people don’t know how to do that. They don’t really know how to be here and enjoy it fully.” On Becoming an Elder “I think this is very individual, but what I explore in the book is that everyone becomes a senior with a Medicare birthday, but becoming an elder is not an age. It’s a stage. It requires intention and what I call inner work so that there’s a certain level of self-knowledge and awareness and ways of relating and a desire to give to the common good. Some people are Activists Elders, and some are Creative Elders and some are Spiritual Elders. So we can transmit the knowledge of our lives in many different ways, but there is this impulse of generosity to give back.” On a Life Review “There are lots of tools in the book. The last person I spoke with before you today said, she’s having to really chew it and digest it. It’s not a quick read. It calls you to stop and contemplate your life. So you learn how to do a life review. You learn how to do emotional repair. You learn how to do spiritual unfinished business, and you contemplate life completion. What is a complete life, a fulfilled life for you? And what can you do about that now? What steps do you need to take to actually move toward that now? So, I know that the book is really rich. I’m getting a lot of feedback, and it’s an invitation to the reader to use this time.” __________________________   For More on Connie Zweig The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul Website __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retirement Planning Includes Getting Good at Getting Older – Rabbi Laura Geller Successful Aging – Daniel Levitin Chatter & Your Inner Voice – Ethan Kross Retirement & It’s Discontents – Michelle Pannor Silver The Skill Set for Life’s Transitions – Bruce Feiler Who Will You Be in Retirement? – David Ekerdt __________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You’ve prepared for the financial side of retirement. Let’s face it: you didn’t work that hard to have a mediocre retirement. So, what if you prepared just as well on the non-financial side? You’d be ready to live the life you’ve worked hard to earn – and be poised to sidestep the pitfalls that derail too many retirements. Pitfalls that could waste your most valuable asset – your time. Design your new life, using the same principles of design thinking that Apple, Nike, and other savvy companies use. It’s your new life. Think like an owner. Invest time to explore your options and discover the new path that’s right for you – on your own terms. It’s your time. Get ahead of the game. Schedule your free call with Joe Casey, a certified Designing Your Life Coach, about your new life and how our three-phased process can help you make it a reality. ____________________________ Explore free tools at retirementwisdom.com Browse all 4 seasons of our retirement podcast here to get smarter about your next phase. ____________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast covers the non-financial aspects of retirement planning. From time to time we invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial, medical and/or mental health professionals on those matters.      

It’s a blast to dream about your retirement. Freedom. Flexibility. Fun. Just like you see in the commercials and the brochures. But if you want to truly retire happy and lead a life of fulfillment, you’ll need to prepare better. You’ll want to go beyond the highlights and take a serious look at what your day-to-day life will really be like – and what it will be about. Tony Hixon, author of the new book, Retirement Stepping Stones, joins our retirement podcast to share his experiences and insights on how you can prepare for the stumbling blocks that can arise in retirement –  and how you can find a new purpose after you leave the world full-time work. We discuss: The tragedy that forever changed how he sees retirement – and why he’s on a mission to help people prepare differently The most challenging stumbling blocks people face in retirement The key solutions to those challenges Why you should dream big about your retirement – but why you should look past your highlight reel version of it How career burnout can get in the way of a great retirement Why retirement isn’t for everyone – and why you need a Plan B How your legacy should be part of your retirement planning Tony Hixon joins us from Ohio. ____________________________ Thanks to our wise guests and loyal listeners The Retirement Wisdom Podcast is among the top 3% in popularity globally according to Listen Notes. ____________________________ Wise Quotes On Transitioning to Retirement  “You retire one day and [on] the last day they throw you a party. Your email is still active and you get probably a hundred to three hundred emails. And then the party’s over. The cake has been eaten. You had the weekend to kind of recoup and Monday morning rolls around. And you open up that email account. It’s been deactivated. You switch to your personal email and there are only two [emails ] there, and both of them are junk. So it kind of messes with your mind. You’re not quite sure what this new phase of life should look like. You’ve had the ideal version of what retirement will be based on all the commercials and the Americanization of what retirement is, but perhaps you haven’t done the correct work on what you’re retiring to. You certainly know what you’re retiring from, but you don’t necessarily have an idea of what you’re retiring to. So that loss of meaning and purpose is certainly a stumbling block that we see many clients face in retirement. Just not knowing for sure if they’re needed anymore.”   On Purpose and Legacy “However, we often encourage our clients to think more deeply about the kind of emotional impact they want to make on their family and their friends and their community. We ask them questions – and I’d ask your listeners these questions: What lessons do you want to impart? How do you want people to feel when you interact with them? What do you want to be remembered for? These questions are certainly as important – if not more so – than planning for the financial strategy to care for your loved ones. Remember you get to define your legacy. How you live each day builds the legacy that you want to leave behind. Don’t be afraid to start living with purpose. It’s never too late – or too early – to start.” ________________________ Bio Tony Hixon, CIMA®, RFC® is the author of the new book Retirement Stepping Stones: Find Meaning, Live with Purpose, and Leave a Legacy. Mr. Hixon is co-founder, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Compliance Officer of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management.  As Chief Operating Officer, Tony is responsible for overseeing the administration and compliance of the firm.  In addition to managing the firm’s operations, Tony serves on the firm’s Investment Committee and is a co-Portfolio Manager, an Analyst, and Trader. Tony has experience providing investment services since 2003 and providing financial advisory services since 1999. Prior to co-founding Hixon Zuercher Capital Management, Tony worked at a CPA firm for nearly four years specializing in accounting, tax planning, and tax preparation for high net worth individuals. __________________________ For More on Tony Hixon Retirement Stepping Stones: Find Meaning, Live with Purpose, and Leave a Legacy Proceeds from the book will go toward the Pamela M. Hixon Memorial Nursing Scholarship Endowment Fund at University of Findlay that Hixon and his wife, Keri, set up in 2017 to honor the legacy of his mom. The scholarship is awarded annually to a nursing major who displays financial need and good grades __________________________ Other Podcast Episodes That May Interest You Will You Retire with Purpose? – Casey Weade If You Love Your Work, What Challenges Will You Face in Retirement? – Michelle Pannor Silver The Future You – Brian David Johnson When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland How Life Hacks Can Help Make Your Retirement the Best Time of Your Life – Sam Horn __________________________ About Retirement Wisdom You’ve prepared well for the financial side of retirement. And let’s face it: you didn’t work that hard to have a mediocre retirement. So, what if you prepared just as well on the non-financial side? You’d be ready to live the life you’ve so worked hard to earn – and poised to sidestep the pitfalls that derail too many retirements. Pitfalls that could waste your most valuable asset – your time. Design your new life, using the same principles of design thinking that Apple, Nike, and other savvy companies use. It’s your new life. Think like an owner and invest some time to explore your options and discover the path that’s right for you – on your own terms. It’s your time. Get ahead of the game. Schedule your free call with Joe Casey, a certified Designing Your Life Coach, about your new life and how our three-phased process can help you make it a reality. ____________________________ Explore free tools at retirementwisdom.com The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we invite guests who discuss other aspects of retirement planning, solely for educational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial, medical and/or mental health professionals on those matters.  

What’s more important than Wellness? You want a healthy portfolio when y0u retire, but most importantly, you want a healthy you. This Best of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast episode highlights valuable practical advice from our guests on wise moves to take charge of your wellness and fitness. Listen to the full conversations: John LaPuma, MD Marta Zaraska Kelli Harding, MD, MPH Kelly McGonigal, PhD BJ Fogg, PhD _________________________ Thanks to our outstanding guests and loyal listeners, The Retirement Wisdom Podcast is ranked in the top 3% of podcasts globally in popularity according to Listen Notes. Browse all 4 Seasons of our episodes here Follow: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More __________________________ Related Retirement Blog Posts A Diagnosis Leads to a Retirement Course Correction Tiny Habits That Deliver Big Changes Put the Bounce Back in Your Retirement Because of the excellent writing of contributor Bev Bachel, The RW Blog was named as one of the Best Blogs to Read in 2021 by Blog Overview __________________________ Take Charge Ready to take charge of your wellness? It begins with building the right habits – by starting small – actually tiny. Schedule a free call with Joe Casey, a Certified Tiny Habits coach at Retirement Wisdom, about his 4-week one-on-one coaching program to build the habits you want.

What will help you retire happy? After a long career, are you looking for a retirement life that has more variety and flexibility? And a rich, diverse set of activities and interests that you can build gradually and adjust as you go? Our guest on this retirement podcast is Andy Robin, a retired technology executive who’s doing just that. He’s joining us to share insights from his book Tapas Life: A Rich and Rewarding Life After Your Long Career. Andy joins us from California. _________________________ Are you ready to discover your new life? Our Design Your New Life group program kicks off on September 24th. It’s limited to 10 participants. Learn more here. __________________________ Bio Andrew Robin, known to most as Andy, was born in Chicago and raised in Mexico City.  He holds a BA in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Harvard University.  He has been happily married to Carole for 35 years, and they have two fine kids, Nick, 33, and Molly, 31. Andy was an entrepreneur with his dad in the computer industry in the early ‘70s in Mexico City (his dad moved the family there from Chicago to pursue an opportunity).  He was in the semiconductor industry for 22 years (at Mostek, Monolithic Memories, AMD, and Lattice), mostly in marketing, but also as a general manager, and most recently as VP of New Business Ventures.  He was a house dad from 2002 to 2007 until Carole and Andy’s youngest went off to college. Today he retains the duties of shopping/cooking, household maintenance, travel planning, and finances.  He also plays a lot of classical piano, some golf, enjoyed 6 years on the Board and Executive Committee of his large synagogue (Congregation Beth Am of Los Altos Hills), where he was also co-chair of raising an endowment, was part-time CEO of a promising tech start-up for 6 years (and remains on the Board), is an Executive Coach and Life Coach, serves on the Board of a foundation in Palo Alto and a NYC hedge fund and enjoys day-trips, lectures, and concerts around the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. Andy wrote Tapas Life to do some good for others. Andy’s wife, Carole Robin, wrote a terrific book for Penguin RandomHouse with her colleague David Bradford:  Connect:  Building Exceptional Relationships With Family, Friends, and Colleagues.  It distills the combined 70 years she and David enjoyed teaching the Interpersonal Dynamics course at Stanford Graduate School of Business.  She believes that when more people embrace the learnings in her book, the world will be a better place. __________________________ On a Tapas Life “For those who don’t know is it’s one of the foods of Spain. It’s the concept that instead of having an American style, large porterhouse steak on your plate with some potatoes and a veggie, instead you have a bunch of little dishes, and often times the table orders six or eight little dishes as you go. You order a few more and so on. And so it’s almost like a little buffet that you make yourself at your own table. And that’s kind of how I think about the Tapas Life. During what I call my long career decades of working in an office, that was my big job. And I probably did that 45 to 60 hours a week for decades. My plate was very full for decades. And now that I’m done with my long career, instead, I like to assemble a number of smaller activities that comprise my life today. It’s rich and rewarding. It’s tasty and interesting. It’s varied and enjoyable. And also one of those Tapas is meaningful. So I’m also doing some good for others on the planet.” Examples of a Tapas Life “I’ve seen others who have done important things about social connection for Tapas. What I write about in the book that I just loved is one couple I interviewed who said that once a month they get together with another couple for a weekend. And they alternate each month. It’s one couple’s responsibility to figure out, within a three-hour drive, where to go to book someplace to stay, figure out where it will be good to eat and to figure out what adventures to do while in that area. And then on Saturday morning, they go pick up the other couple. The other couple doesn’t know where they’re going or what they’re doing. The couple in charge takes them there. They have a great weekend together. And after brunch on Sunday, they drive home. And I love that because it’s a nice way to keep in close touch with another couple. It’s a Tapa, and it’s not a very frequent one, but it fits in the category of social connection, which is critical to remaining in good health and avoiding depression. And I thought it was super creative. Another fellow I know has a Tapa of flying airplanes, flying small craft airplanes with another friend in a very used small airplane. And I had a boss, my boss’s boss when I was in the industry, who had been a Marine Drill Sergeant. This guy could be pretty refined or he could be pretty gruff, and he controlled the dial on that pretty well. And after he left his long career, to my astonishment, he took up painting – and he loved it. And of course, I’ve seen a lot of volunteerism amongst people, and that’s Meaningful Tapa. That’s doing something for others selflessly. And when you have a Meaningful Tapa then you’re no longer just a consumer of resources and a hedonist, you’re now a useful human doing something that benefits another. And without that, after a while, I learned life felt enjoyable, but a little bit hollow.” On the Value of a New Structure “If you think about building your life after your long career, as with building a house, the first thing you want to do is, is build a foundation and the framing for the house before you can put in the plumbing and the electric and the drywall and the appliances and so on. And so [structure] is the foundation and the framing for the house. And what it means is you need to put some regular things on your calendar. Some people like a lot of them, some people don’t like many, some people like them to be very prescribed in terms of their day and time, some like them to float. So there’s a variety of things you can put on your calendar. You can decide to get your butt up out of the house and have a lunch scheduled with friends a couple of times a week. That adds structure and it serves as a social connection. And if those people are interesting, then it may lead to activities together, and it may lead to inspiration for something you want to try yourself or do with a friend. And so getting some structure like that in place keeps you from feeling adrift. And the good thing is unlike during your long career, if there gets to be too much of it, you can take some things out. And if one day you decide, ‘well, it’s my regular exercise time, but yeah, I’ve got a great opportunity to go to lunch with Jane. So I’m going to do that instead and I’ll exercise tomorrow.’ So it doesn’t have to be super restrictive and rigorous, but it has to be enough, so you don’t feel adrift and untethered.” _________________________ For More on Andy Robin Website  Tapas Life: A Rich and Rewarding Life After Your Long Career _________________________ Related Podcast Episodes You May Like Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans Your Retirement Won’t Come with a Road Map – Carol Hymowitz The Future You – Brian David Johnson How to Build a Portfolio Career – Kate Schaefers Are You Ready for The New Long Life? – Andrew Scott With the Freedom to Retire, Where Will You Plant Your New Tree? – Don Ezra __________________________ About Retirement Wisdom Your retirement won’t be like anyone else’s. What do you want your new life to look like? Even if you have some ideas about your future, it can be hard to figure out exactly how to get there. You need a structured, principle-based process – and a guide you can trust. Our Certified Designing Your Life coach can help you envision and transition to your new life, using a proven three-phased approach. Imagine new possibilities, discover alternative pathways, and create an actionable roadmap to your new lifestyle. Take the first step today. Schedule a free call with Joe Casey to learn more about our coaching programs. _________________________ Explore retirementwisdom.com Access free tools and browse our retirement podcast conversations. _________________________ FREE Newsletter What Will Your “Retirement” Story Be? Wisdom Notes keeps ideas and inspiring stories coming your way once a month as you create your own. Sign up here:

Can you get stronger after 50? Strength training, done properly and safely, can bolster your wellness. It’s a key component of an overall fitness plan. Our guest, Dave Durell, shares his experience on how to do it right. Dave joins us from Florida. ________________________ Are you ready to discover your new life? Design Your New Life with a proven three-phase process to explore alternative versions of your future using the principles of design thinking. Schedule a call to learn how it can help you get unstuck & move forward. __________________________ Bio Dave Durell has formerly worked as a Strength and Conditioning Assistant with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a Strength and Conditioning Consultant to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Southeast Missouri State University. He has been published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research and has written 2 books on strength training. He holds a Master’s Degree in Health Fitness Administration and is a Master Level Personal Trainer and a licensed Physical Therapist Assistant. After turning 50, Dave started feeling the effects of age-related wear and tear on his body, just as many people do. Knowing he had to figure out how to change his own workouts to overcome these limitations, Dave called upon the knowledge and experience he had gained over 35+ years in personal training, athletic strength and conditioning, and physical therapy, and created the Stay Strong Forever program, a unique strength training system that is especially suited for those over 50. __________________________ Wise Quotes On Why You Need Strength Training “Once we get into probably our forties or so, there’s a physiological process called sarcopenia that begins to manifest itself. And it sticks with us for life. Sarcopenia is age-related muscle loss and experts estimate it causes us to lose around half a pound of muscle per year. On average, that’s about five pounds of movement producing muscle tissue per decade. This would be like the engine in your car shrinking and losing horsepower every year. It’s not a good thing. And it gets worse. Assuming we maintain the same eating habits throughout the years that lost muscle will be replaced by stored body fat.” On Recovery “Strength training is going to give you the biggest bang for your buck time-wise and done properly. It requires very little time under 45 minutes, a couple of times a week. Another point is strength training is instrumental in reducing the risk of injuries. So people that regularly engage in sports-type activities, whether they’re runners or they’re in the local cycling club, or they play tennis, strength training is important to help make you more resistant to the injuries you might possibly inflict during those types of activities. So it’s important for that reason. Of course, I’m not saying people should only do strength training and be sedentary the rest of the time. I’m a big believer that we rust out faster than we wear out. So I want everybody to be active, at least engaging in low moderate intensity, leisure activities or exercise on their non-strength training days.” __________________________ For More on Dave Durell Website __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like The Joy of Movement – Kelly McGonigal The Future You – Brian David Johnson How to Make Healthy Lifestyle Choices – Alan Carpenter Best of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast – On Successful Aging Believe In Yourself & Try Something New – Carol Cooke Tiny Habits Can Lead to Big Changes – BJ Fogg ____________________________ About Retirement Wisdom What do you want your new life to look like? Even if you have some ideas about your future, it can be hard to figure out exactly how to get there. You need a structured, principle-based process – and a guide you can trust. Our Certified Designing Your Life coach can help you envision and transition to your new life, using a proven three-phased approach. Imagine new possibilities, discover alternative pathways, and create an actionable roadmap to your new lifestyle. Take the first step today. Schedule a free call with Joe Casey to learn more about our coaching programs and what’s right for you. Explore retirementwisdom.com Access free tools, resources, and browse our retirement podcast conversations. It’s a free Retirement School. ______________________________ The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the policy, position, or opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast covers the non-financial aspects of retirement. From time to time we invite guests to discuss other aspects of retirement planning, including financial planning and health & wellness, solely for informational purposes. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.

Positive aging can bolster your retirement. It includes cultivating your mindset, your engagement, creativity, and gratitude. Author Stephanie Raffelock shares her insights on positive aging and explains how you can reclaim what you love. Stephanie joins us from Austin, Texas. __________________________ Are you ready to design your new life? Our group program kicks off on September 24th. It’s limited to 10 participants. Learn more here. _______________________ Wise Quotes On Reflection “There are these wonderful arcs in our life. We don’t get a chance to reflect upon them when we’re in the midst of them. When you’re in your thirties and you find a way to make a mortgage and marriage and kids work, we don’t really reflect on what that is. But I think when you get to be 70 years old, you can sit back and go, Wow, I did good. We both tried our best when I say we both. I’m thinking of my husband. So I think that’s one of the gifts of growing older. I think another gift of growing older is that we don’t have to be the center of attention anymore, not the way that we did in more youthful days. We can kind of sit back a little bit and become the observer and become the appreciator. …That’s part of the gift of aging that you can actually sit still long enough to ponder these things.” On Reclamation “I also think that there’s a period or an opportunity for reclamation. And what I mean by that is as we were growing up and becoming mature adults, there were things that we put aside because they just didn’t fit into the responsibilities and obligations that we needed to run our lives. For example, my husband was a musician and a bass player and loved the bass. And yet during most of our marriage, he didn’t touch the bass, but then we hit retirement years and suddenly he started playing the bass. Again, he reclaimed that for himself and the music keeps him mentally young and because of the magic of the internet he can play with any bands now online, he can go online and take online courses in the bass. And so there’s this great period of reclamation to you. We can reclaim those things. I think too that creativity is something that we can embrace in older years. We can give ourselves to the creative endeavor without having to worry about the accolades of fame and fortune around our art, our master gardening, our expert cooking, our writing. We can just do those things for the sake of creating and for the sake of art. And that definitely keeps us feeling, I think, vibrant and younger and gives us a sense of purposefulness in our life.” On Creativity “I think it’s a matter of surrendering what is it that you love to do that makes things, That can be master gardening, that can be music. It can be art, it can be any of those things. And I don’t think we’re as judgmental of ourselves at this phase of life as we were in our youth. So it doesn’t really matter what the picture looks like. You’re not trying to get into the Met. It’s just a matter of giving yourself to the process. It’s the process of creativity that I think speaks to our brain and our heart.” On Power “I think the big thing that we learned from women is that the word power means something different to women. And I think that as a culture, men and women have to redefine power for meaning more than it currently does. Power has been traditionally a male word. Men have power over something. It’s a warrior kind of word. Power means I can do what I want. I can take this from you. Power is for winners, that kind of power. When women talk about power, it’s more the sense of knowing themselves, standing in the knowledge of self, and approaching the world from a place that is more heart-oriented. Now, I don’t believe that men have to become like women or that women have to become like men. But what I see in the word power is that we have to find a greater balance with that word, that that word doesn’t necessarily have to mean I have power over you. That word can mean the power of self-confidence, the power of being kind, the power of giving ourselves, and giving of ourselves in the world. So I think that’s what men can learn from women at this particular time. And you will notice that women politicians use their power differently than men do.” Bio Stephanie Raffelock is a graduate of Naropa University’s program in writing and poetics. She has penned articles for numerous publications, including The Aspen Times, Quilters Magazine, Care2.com, Nexus Magazine, Omaha Lifestyles, and The Rogue Valley Messenger. Currently, she writes a monthly column for SixtyandMe.com. A recent transplant to Austin, Texas, she enjoys life with her husband, Dean, and their Labrador retriever, Jeter (yes, named after the great Yankee shortstop). Raffelock lives an active life that she fills with hiking, Pilates, and swimming in an attempt to offset the amount of time that she spends in her head thinking up stories and essays. __________________________ For More on Stephanie Raffelock Website A Delightful Little Book On Aging Creatrix Rising: Unlocking the Power of Midlife Women (New 8/24/2021) _________________________ Retirement Podcast Episodes You May Like Back to School in Retirement? – Nell Painter Believe In Yourself & Try Something New – Carol Cooke Are You Living Gratefully? – Kristi Nelson How to Live a Values-Based Life – Harry Kraemer What Can You Do to Age Better? – Anna Dixon The Skill Set for Life’s Transitions – Bruce Feiler _________________________ About Retirement Wisdom Your retirement won’t be like anyone else’s. What do you want your new life to look like? Even if you have some ideas about your future, it can be hard to figure out exactly how to get there. You need a structured, principle-based process – and a guide you can trust. Our Certified Designing Your Life coach can help you envision and transition to your new life, using a proven three-phased approach. Imagine new possibilities, discover alternative pathways, and create an actionable roadmap to your new lifestyle. Take the first step today. Schedule a free call with Joe Casey to learn more about our coaching programs. _________________________ Explore retirementwisdom.com Access free tools, resources, and browse our retirement podcast conversations.

Have you ever wondered about your family history and what it means for your legacy?  We asked Laurie Hermance-Moore, an accredited Genealogist to help us get smarter about the topic. We discuss: What a professional Genealogist does How understanding family history can be an important part of someone’s legacy What’s possible to learn about your family history – and what’s not The biggest obstacles to overcome in a family history project What you can do on your own – and where a professional Genealogist can help How she’s helped people discover their family history When someone may need a Forensic Genealogist Why this may be an interesting project in retirement Laurie joins us from Ohio. ___________________________ Ready to design your new life in retirement? Our group program kicks off on September 24th. It’s limited to 10 participants. Learn more here. __________________________ Bio Laurie Hermance-Moore is a history geek turned librarian, digital agency strategist, and professional genealogist. Her passion is helping individuals connect with the people that matter to them. As a researcher, she loves finding those elusive records that will solve a mystery—and creates experiences for her clients that bring an ancestor to life in the context of history. Laurie has more than 20 years of experience working in digital marketing agencies, serving other professionals at large companies. She enjoyed working directly with executives on strategic planning, developing brands, and conducting market research to better understand how consumers think and feel. Laurie is an adoptee that found her amazing birth family and now feels as though she’s been adopted a second time.  Because it took her fifty years to actually know who her family is, she figures that’s why she’s been blessed with especially interesting ancestors who were on the leading edge of westward migration. Laurie holds a B.A. History from the University of Kansas, a Master’s in Library Science from the University of Alabama, a Master’s in Marketing from Franklin University, and the Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University.  She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the National Genealogical Society, and serves on the board of the Ohio Genealogical Society as 1st Vice President. She received her accreditation in genealogy research in the U.S. Midwest states through the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen℠). She resides in Ohio with her husband and at least two cats. _________________________ Wise Quotes On the Gifts of Family History “What do you do with all the other things that you’re going to leave behind or could leave behind? So, I like to define legacy as the thoughtful and intentional process of deciding on the gifts to share with future generations. And those gifts can be a lot more than money. Those gifts can be your family history. They can be your story. They can be the traditions that your family has, they can be knowledge that you’ve gained. There’s a whole lot more there. That can be a gift to a future generation…I think that the important thing here is to figure out which are the things that really speak to your family’s history.” On Geneology Travel “…one of the most interesting and rewarding things that you can do is genealogy travel. So whether it’s to a place in the US, or Europe, standing on the land of your ancestors can really impact you. One time I was in Kansas City with a coworker and her family had traveled the Oregon Trail. And I said, well, we need to go out to Minor Park. And she said, Why? And I said, well, did you know that the routes of the Oregon Trail still exist in the Kansas City area? Because that’s where people started from. They went West to Independence, Missouri. But in this one city park, in, in Kansas City, the southern side of Kansas City, the wagons crossed a creek and they went pulling up a hill. And the rails where they ripped up the dirt are still there. She can stand there literally where her ancestors went over in a covered wagon. And this is from the Oregon Trail, which was at its height in the 1840s to 1860s. And you can still see those visible markings. And that’s why you travel for genealogy. It’s why you go look at the old records and hold a record that your ancestors signed because it connects you emotionally, physically.” _________________________ Retirement Podcast Episodes You May Like How to Live Your Legacy Now – Barbara Shaiman Why Settle for Happiness in Your Retirement? – Emily Esfahani Smith Are You Ready to Follow Your Own Path in Retirement? – Bob Lowry What’s Next for You? – Jeff Tidwell ___________________________ About Retirement Wisdom Your retirement won’t be like anyone else’s. But what’s next isn’t always clear. What do you want your new life to look like? Even if you have some ideas about your future, it can be hard to figure out exactly how to get there. You need a structured, principle-based process – and a guide you can trust. Our Certified Designing Your Life coach can help you envision and transition to your new life, using a proven three-phased approach. Imagine new possibilities, evaluate alternative pathways, and create an actionable roadmap to your new lifestyle. Take the first step today. Schedule a free call with Joe Casey to learn more about our coaching programs. _________________________ Explore retirementwisdom.com Access free tools, resources, and browse our retirement podcast conversations.

Planning for retirement is a delicate balancing act. Focusing on the practical realities is essential. But it’s important to imagine your future with a sense of adventure, too. Harriet Edleson, the author of 12 Ways to Retire on Less: Planning an Affordable Future joins us to discuss how to plan your retirement with both in mind. We discuss: The hopes and dreams people have for their retirement How a sense of adventure can boost your retirement planning The realities of retirement today – and the implications that can be underestimated How to find the perfect location for your retirement Considerations for Staying-in-Place The case for – and against – working longer A case study from her book 12 Ways to Retire on Less Common mistakes people make in planning for retirement – and how you can avoid them ________________________ Ready to design your new life in retirement? Our group program kicks off on September 24th. It’s limited to 10 participants. Learn more here. ________________________ Bio Harriet Edleson is the author of 12 Ways to Retire on Less: Planning an Affordable Future. She writes for the Washington Post Real Estate section and MarketWatch.com. A former staff writer for AARP and contributing writer to Kiplinger’s Retirement Report, she has written the Retiring feature for the New York Times. _________________________ Wise Quotes On the Dreaming Aspect of Retirement Planning “…I think that the dreaming aspect is something that gets the wheels spinning and thinking about something other than the kind of life that you’ve had for maybe 30, 40, or whatever number of years where you were in some kind of a routine, some kind of a structure where you had to be somewhere, you had to do something. Maybe you had to answer to a supervisor, people call it their boss, whatever. And now you can really – if you plan correctly – do what you want. And so you have to stop before you retire and think about what it is that you would enjoy, what maybe you haven’t had time to do, or [how] to rekindle an older interest.”   What If Money Were No Object? “Will I have enough? Will I run out? Which a lot of people have the fear of. And then once you’ve got that straightened out, then you think what are the things that I really would love to do? I’d love to get a second home. For example, I’d love to ski. Again, there are people who want to do these things. There are people who might want to travel around the world. So then you figure out: how much is this going to cost me? So the dreaming has to be in the context, of course, of what you can afford. But at some point, you can just say: If money were no object, what would I want to do? And you can sit down with your spouse of 30 years or partner, whoever it is that you share your life with, or if you’re solo,  and actually write down some of those things: if money were no object, what would I want to do? I want to take a balloon ride, whatever it is that you think you might want to do- or d0 you want to be able to fly back and forth between three homes, whatever it is, actually allow yourself to fantasize a bit and get away from the same little box that you have been in for maybe…20, 30 or more years.”   On Deciding Where to Retire “…List your priorities and then figure out places that would match those. And the second thing is to consider places that you vacation to and love, but realizing that the vacation time will be very different than living there in all four seasons if you think you may be doing that. So you might want to test out the place in the different seasons and check out the weather. And when you talk about the weather, think about the weather with today’s climate change, not the weather that was 10 years ago because of weather may be very different now. And you may be [surprised] when people tell me it’s 110 here. …Well, when you moved there, what was it? Oh, it is 85 on the hottest days. So be really careful with the weather. And then transportation is a really big part, because transportation turns out to be after housing, the second most expensive item when you retire. And then the third most would be healthcare. But then after about 75, healthcare becomes the second most costly element in retirement. So when you’re looking at these different states and these different locations, you may be driving now, but there may come a time where you’re no longer able to drive. And so, if that wonderful, isolated home on a mountaintop or wherever is going to be a place where you can get around, and then that’s a whole other topic – about how to get around and how to figure out the transportation element.” _________________________ For More on Harriet Edleson Website Harriet Edleson’s book: 12 Ways to Retire on Less: Planning an Affordable Future The Washington Post article mentioned in this episode: A ‘new adventure’: Pandemic drives demand for vacation homes _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Be Interested In Your Retirement Won’t Come with a Road Map – Carol Hymowitz The Future You – Brian David Johnson Who Will Take Care of You When You Are Older? – Joy Loverde When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill With the Freedom to Retire, Where Will You Plant Your New Tree? – Don Ezra Retirement Planning Includes Getting Good at Getting Older – Rabbi Laura Geller __________________________ About Retirement Wisdom Your retirement won’t be like anyone else’s. So plan for it with that in mind. But what’s next isn’t always clear. What do you want your new life to look like? Even if you have some ideas about your future, it can be hard to figure out exactly how to get there. You need a structured principle-based process – and a guide you can trust. Our Certified Designing Your Life coach can help you envision and transition to your new life, using a proven three-phased approach. Imagine new possibilities, evaluate alternative pathways, and create an actionable roadmap to your new lifestyle. Take the first step today. Schedule a free call with Joe Casey to learn more about our coaching programs. _________________________ Explore retirementwisdom.com Access free tools, resources, and browse our retirement podcast conversations.

  To celebrate the 100th episode of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, we’ve invited three special previous guests for a panel discussion on the challenges retirees face today, how to age wisely, and retire happy. We are grateful for all our guests who’ve shared their insights and wisdom on our retirement podcast – and to you, our listeners. We discuss: What makes retirement so different today The biggest challenges today’s retirees face and how to retire happy Their favorite stories from the retirees they’ve profiled What people who are still working full-time need to know about life in “retirement” What should retirement be called now? The key ingredients of a life well-lived – that are often overlooked _______________________ Ready to design your new life in retirement? Our group program kicks off on September 24th. It’s limited to 10 participants. Learn more here. ________________________ Top Retirement Podcasts to Follow in 2021 The Retirement Wisdom Podcast was named to Feedspot’s list of the best retirement podcasts. ________________________ Bios Melissa Davey Melissa Davey is a documentary filmmaker who lives in Valley Forge, PA, and created Beyond Sixty (now available on TV and streaming platforms). She is a wife, a mother, and a grandmother to three young boys. She is a world traveler and curious about everything unknown. She recently retired after more than two decades from GENEX Services Inc., where she was recruited to build and operate the company’s Social Security representation division. GENEX is the largest Managed Care case management organization in the U.S.  Prior to GENEX, Melissa had almost twenty years of diversified experience in the field of disability. She held senior leadership and management positions throughout her career. Melissa’s second act is fueled by a lifelong passion for film and story-telling. Previous conversations: What Do You Really Want to Do?  |   Take the Detour — Richard Haiduck Richard Haiduck is a former life sciences executive and mentor and now has an active retirement. He is becoming the Voice of Boomer Retirement Stories. He is immersed in challenging the boundaries of his own retirement, while observing the experiences and areas of curiosity of his fellow retirees. At age 7, he was sure he wanted to be an author. Now, 66 years later, that dream has become a reality. The inspiration for the book came from hearing about the meaningful journeys in retirement taken by friends and colleagues. They were doing fascinating activities at this stage of their life, and often completely new directions from their prior careers. The idea that these stories could become a book became a driving force for Richard. His 75+ interviews and his frequent social media interactions have developed his perspectives and insights on the retirement activities of the boomer generation. Richard’s prior roles as both a leader and a mentor have been based on his ability to listen and to get people to share their feelings. He uses a style of interviewing with short, open questions to get people to open up about their retirement stories. The result is Shifting Gears: 50 Baby Boomers Share Their Meaningful Journeys in Retirement now available as an audiobook. He graduated from Miami University and got his MBA from Xavier University. He is happily married to his wife of 52 years and has 2 daughters and 4 grandsons. His own retirement has been hyperactive. He learns new things through weekly interactions at Stanford, formerly via attending lectures and via zoom during the pandemic. Each year he reads about 100 books and bikes more than 3000 miles. He mentors organizations serving refugees and small farmers in Ghana. He combines family time with domestic and international travel. Previous conversation: Are You Ready to Shift Gears? — Dr. Thelma Reese Thelma Reese, is the co-author of How Seniors Are Saving The World: Retirement Activism to the Rescue! with BJ Kittredge. She earned B.S., M.Ed., Ed.D. degrees, all from Temple University, and began teaching third grade in 1954. When her two daughters were in school, she began her graduate studies in Educational Psychology, was awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship and was active first in the field of Reading Psychology and Education.  She taught as an adjunct professor at Temple University and Arcadia University. When her children were grown, she became a professor of English and director of special programs at Community College of Philadelphia. After early retirement at CCP, she created the Advisory Council for Hooked on Phonics and was its spokesperson in the ’90s. In that role, and as director of the Mayor’s Commission on Literacy for the City of Philadelphia, she appeared frequently on television and hosted a cable show in Philadelphia. She was a founder of Philadelphia Young Playwrights, chaired the Board of Children’s Literacy Initiative, and organized the World Symposium on Family Literacy at UNESCO in Paris in 1994. She is co-author, with Barbara M. Fleisher, of The New Senior Woman: Reinventing the Years Beyond Mid-Life (Rowman & Littlefield).  Their second book, The New Senior Man:  Exploring New Horizons, New Opportunities was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2017.  Her latest book is How Seniors Are Saving the World:  Retirement Activists to the Rescue!, co-authored by BJ Kittredge, published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2020. Reese and Fleisher created the blog ElderChicks in 2012, which is ongoing since the passing of Dr. Fleisher in October of 2016. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Harvey Reese, who is an artist and the author of several books, including How to License Your Million Dollar Idea (John Wiley, publisher). Previous conversations: How Seniors Are Saving the World With Activism |  The Unique Challenges Men and Women Face in Retirement __________________________ Wise Quotes On an Intergenerational Retirement “… start broadening your interests. And I think one of the important things that’s going to help you in whatever you decide you’re going to do, is to make sure you don’t put yourself into a bubble with other people who have just retired. Make sure that you lead an intergenerational life as much as you possibly can. I think that it’s stimulating. It will keep you informed about what’s going on from the very young people. And you’re still going to learn stuff from the very old people. The more your life is not circumscribed just by your age cohort, the more interesting it will be and the more opportunities you’re going to find for things that you really want to focus on and be active in. I think it’s very stimulating. I just read a great quote from somebody very young, who sold it to a tee shirt company. It says: Don’t Believe Everything You Think. I thought, Wow, what a good thing to think about. And it’s coming from somebody in her twenties – and that’s wisdom. So you’re going to find it all over the place. I think that if you stay in this one generational bubble, you miss an awful lot.” – Thelma Reese   Self-Awareness “… there is this piece that comes with aging that’s hopefully there when you’re ready to take that detour. And that is self-awareness. And that self-awareness, if you’ve allowed that to grow, brings you to a greater level of fulfillment in every part of your life. And it gives you the guts to try something completely different because you’re truly aware of who you are and what value you have, and what you’re able to give to others, which is so important. And we don’t take time probably to think about that when we’re younger. I think that does come with age, but you talk about a life well lived, I’m feeling that now more at 70. I feel proud of myself and excited for me and what the future holds for me. And I think that that comes from being aware of now who I am and what my limitations are, the good, the bad, the ugly – all of it – and what I’m able to give to the world. So with that comes this great sense of freedom and ability to move forward.” – Melissa Davey   On Reflection “Each life teaches you something new and what it teaches is something new. It leads you to do the kind of reflection in we’re going to still call retirement because that’s the name of the show. But this period of life that we’re addressing today, provides it for you. And it’s the time. And I think the older you get, if you’re fortunate and you still [are healthy], you’re able to reflect more and more. And that makes you grow more and more. It’s when you stop growing that everything is over. It doesn’t matter. As long as you’re growing and you’re seeing life, and seeing what other people live through, it gives you a whole different perspective on yourself and your own life – and what’s worth complaining about, and what’s worth looking at and thinking, maybe I can fix this. And while you’re fixing something else you’re really fixing yourself.” – Richard Haiduck _________________________ For More About our Guests Melissa Davey Richard Haiduck  Thelma Reese _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland What Can You Do to Age Better? – Anna Dixon Successful Aging – Daniel Levitin Retirement Planning Includes Getting Good at Getting Older – Rabbi Laura Geller Tiny Habits Can Lead to Big Changes – BJ Fogg Advice for Successful Career Women Transitioning to Retirement – Helen Dennis Who Will Take Care of You When You Are Older? – Joy Loverde __________________________ About Retirement Wisdom Your retirement won’t be like anyone else’s. So plan for it with that in mind. But what’s next often isn’t clear. What do you want your new life to look like? Even if you have some ideas about your future, it can be hard to figure out exactly how to get there. You need a sound process – and a guide you can trust. Our Certified Designing Your Life coach can help you envision and transition to your new life, using a proven three-phase approach. Imagine new possibilities, evaluate alternative pathways, and create an actionable roadmap to your new lifestyle. Take the first step today. Schedule a free call with Joe Casey to learn more about our coaching programs. _________________________ Explore retirementwisdom.com Access free tools, resources, and browse all 100 of our retirement podcast conversations.