Season 5

Planning for retirement is complex and challenging. My guest today, Rodney Brooks, shares his insights on retirement and we discuss his new book Fixing the Racial Wealth Gap: Racism & Discrimination Put Us Here, But This is How We Save Future Generations on the challenges African Americans face in retirement planning.

We discuss:

• How he first become interested in writing about personal finance and retirement
• After writing about retirement, how his life in “retirement” is going
• What likely surprises people should be prepared for in retirement
• The benefits of working longer
• What regrets people have shared with him about their retirements
• His new book Fixing the Racial Wealth Gap: Racism & Discrimination Put Us Here, But This is How We Save Future Generations
• The size and scope of the wealth gap and the health gap
• The unique challenges African Americans face in planning for retirement – and Black women in particular
• His views on the most important things people need to do to plan for a successful retirement
• How people can learn more

Rodney Brooks joins us from Maryland.

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Bio

Rodney Brooks is a veteran journalist, writer and author specializing in  retirement planning and other personal finance issues.  He’s written for many national publications, including USA TODAY and The Washington Post, His columns currently run in U.S. News & World Report and AARP’s Senior Planet. Brooks is a contributor for National Geographic, Next Avenue, and many others. He has also written about professional athletes and their finances for the Undefeated, an ESPN website.

He is author of the book Fixing the Racial Wealth Gap:what has put us here, but how we can save future generations.

He is co-author of Retirement Planning Essentials: A Guide to Living Well Without Running out of Money. He is also the author of Is One Million Dollars Enough: A Guide to Planning for and Living Through a Successful Retirement..

Prior to retiring in 2015 after 30 years, Brooks was Deputy Managing Editor for Personal Finance and retirement columnist for USA TODAY, where he coordinated all personal finance on all platforms for USA TODAY.

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For More on Rodney Brooks

Fixing the Racial Wealth Gap:what has put us here, but how we can save future generations.

Website: rodneyabrooks.com

Cornell Alumni profile

Follow on Twitter @Perfiguy

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Wise Quotes

On Retirement Today

“I don’t really consider myself retired because retirement has changed and retired people people do many things in retirement. They don’t sit home or watch westerns on TV like our daddies did. People keep busy and that’s hard for a lot of people. My son-in-law asked: So, when are you really gonna retire?  I said I don’t really anticipate it because what would I do.”

“People aren’t really prepared for figuring out what to do, if they don’t have things planned out yet. I had a friend,  a good friend, who called me up and said Rodney, there’s nothing to do! Well, think about that before you retire. I always tell people make sure you have a plan for how you’re going to spend your time. If you’re not going to work, have a plan to do something. Volunteer. You’ll get real tired if you play golf every day or do all those home projects you thought you would get to [one day]. You’ll run through those, but get bored really quickly.”

On the Health Gap

“African Americans suffer disproportionately from 8 of the top 13 leading causes of death in the United States,  for a bunch of reasons. Black Americans have higher rates of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes, and  you have to add murder in there. But, many people don’t realize that Alzheimer’s is is twice as likely to happen to a Black woman than a white American. I did a story on Blacks and Alzheimer’s and I was shocked at the numbers. I really didn’t really know that there was a racial component there. But then you have a lack of access to medical care, when you especially when you’re talking about the lower income who sometimes forego doctors or dentists. And there are severe that can be severe consequences if  you don’t take care of your dental health that a lot of people don’t realize. And that’s one of the reasons that COVID had such a huge impact early on in the Black community because of its health disparities.”

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

With the Freedom to Retire, Where Will You Plant Your New Tree? – Don Ezra

Can Working Remotely Beat Ageism? – Kerry Hannon

What Are The Keys To A Successful Retirement? Fritz Gilbert

Advice for Successful Career Women Transitioning to Retirement – Helen Dennis

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About Retirement Wisdom

Planning for retirement goes well beyond your 401k or IRA.

How will you invest your time after your full-time working years?

You’ll need another portfolio.

I help people create an active multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many, like me, it includes a new version of work – redefined on your own terms.

Schedule a call to see if a 1-on-1 program or a small group Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

Retirement planning entails a series of important decisions, including lifestyle decisions with long-lasting consequences. My guest today, economist Larry Kotlikoff, discusses his new book, Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money,Less Risk, and a Better Life, and how to make smarter lifestyle decisions by understanding the true price tags for each of them.

See below for Larry Kotlikoff’s full bio and links to learn more.

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Retirement Wisdom is partnering with One Day University to bring you a FREE live-streamed talk with renowned Amherst Professor Catherine Sanderson, on January 18th, at 7 pm ET | 6pm CT | 4 pm PT.

Professor Sanderson will present a live-streamed, one-hour version of her most popular course, Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness, including time for Q&A in real-time.

If you can’t tune in live, everyone who RSVPs will receive a link to watch the class anytime they want. To RSVP today for this free class, just visit: www.onedayu.com/retirementwisdom

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Bio

Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a William Fairfield Warren Professor at Boston University, a Professor of Economics at Boston University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., a company specializing in financial planning software, a Research Associate of the Gaidar Institute, and a Research Fellow of the Goodman Institute.Kotlikoff is also a New York Times Best Selling author. The Economist Magazine ranked Kotlikoff one of the world’s 25 most influential economists. His website is

Professor Kotlikoff received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1977. From 1977 through 1983, Kotlikoff served on the faculties of economics of the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale University. In 1981-82 Professor Kotlikoff was a Senior Economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Professor Kotlikoff’s writings and research address personal finance, inequality, taxation, Social Security, climate change, investing, healthcare, deficits, and insurance.

Professor Kotlikoff is author or co-author of 20 books, hundreds of professional journal articles, and a multitude of op eds and blogs. His most recent books are Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money,Less Risk and a Better Life, You’re Hired, Get What’s Yours – the Revised Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security (a NY Times Best Seller co-authored with Philip Moeller and Paul Solman), The Clash of Generations (co-authored with Scott Burns), The Economic Consequences of the Vickers Commission, Jimmy Stewart Is Dead, Spend ‘Til the End, (co-authored with Scott Burns), Generational Policy (MIT Press), The Healthcare Fix, and The Coming Generational Storm (co-authored with Scott Burns). Kotlikoff’s columns have appeared in The NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Hill, The Financial Times, The Times of London, Forbes, CBNC, Bloomberg, PBS NewsHour, The Dallas News, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Seattle Times, Vox, Fortune, Seeking Alpha, Yahoo.com, VoxEU, Huffington Post, and other leading media.

Kotlikoff has served as a consultant to the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Harvard Institute for International Development, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Swedish Ministry of Finance, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Italy, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the Government of Russia, the Government of Ukraine, the Government of Bolivia, the Government of Bulgaria, the Treasury of New Zealand, the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Joint Committee on Taxation, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The American Council of Life Insurance, Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Investments, AT&T, AON Corp., and other major U.S. corporations. Kotlikoff has provided expert testimony on numerous occasions to committees of Congress including the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Budget Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. Kotlikoff’s company markets economics-based financial planning software, including maxifiplanner.com, maximizemysocialssecurity.com, and analyzemydivorcesettlement.com. In 2016, Kotlikoff ran for President as a registered write-in candidate. His platform – You’re Hired – is available at Kotlikoff.net.

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For More on Laurence J. Kotlikoff

Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money,Less Risk, and a Better Life

MaxiFi financial planning software

Get What’s Yours – the Revised Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security (a NY Times Best Seller co-authored with Philip Moeller and Paul Solman)

Website: Kotlikoff.net

Follow on Twitter @Kotlikoff

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Wise Quotes

On the Biggest Mistakes People Make in Planning for Retirement

“People are focused on their life expectancy rather than their maximum age of life. They think they’re going to die on time. Wall Street is pushing people to focus on your actuarial lifespan. We can’t think about playing the odds with our life because we might live to our maximum age of life, we have to plan for that catastrophic event. This is a catastrophe financially. Emotionally, it’s terrific. You get to see your grandkids for longer, but financially it’s the worst possible outcome – living to your maximum age of life – because you have to keep paying for yourself. So, we’re saving far too little. We’re thinking that our employers are going to take care of us through the 401 (k) somehow [through] the contributions we make and they make, but it’s probably far too little. We need to save. Especially with these low interest rates. We need to save a ton and/or work much longer than we had wanted to do or expected to. So I so talk about this in the book about retirement being financial suicide for most of us. It’s a decision to take the longest vacation of our lives – and every year you retire early, you’re putting yourself in more risk to run out of money.”

On the Risks of Early Retirement

“I’ve run the software under the hood in the book to figure out and to explain to people how much their living standard could drop if they haven’t saved enough and if they have these extra years to finance. So the big risk is running out of money. And the other big risk is being bored. I think you can only play so many golf games. Most people who are retiring early are not physically unable to keep working and I talk about that, based on the data.”

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Key Decisions for Retirement Success – Wade Pfau

Are You Ready for The New Long Life? – Andrew Scott

Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland

Ways to Retire on Less – Harriet Edleson

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About Retirement Wisdom

Planning for retirement goes well beyond your 401k or IRA.

How will you invest your time after your full-time working years?

You’ll need another portfolio.

I help people create an active multipurpose retirement, with the right mix of interests, activities and pursuits to invest your time wisely. And for many, like me, it includes a new version of work – redefined on your own terms.

Schedule a call to see if  a 1-on-1 program or a small group Designing Your New Life program can give you an edge in your next chapter.

Visit retirementwisdom.com for tools and resources to help you retire smarter.

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The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host, or of 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, not advice. Listeners are advised to consult qualified financial and/or medical professionals on those matters.