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Who will you become in your retirement?
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Retirement is not an end — it’s an open canvas. In this episode, Harry Agress, MD, author of Next Years Best Years: Taking Your Retirement to the Next Level, joins us to explore how retirement can become one of the most dynamic, creative, and fulfilling phases of your life. A retired radiologist and passionate photographer, Dr. Agress shares lessons from his own retirement journey — from trying an improv class with 20-somethings to donating his art to hospitals — and offers you practical insights to help you shape a retirement that’s vibrant, purpose-driven, and truly your own.
You’ll discover:
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How self-reflection and worksheets helped Dr. Agress navigate the transition into retirement
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Why embracing “The Four Freedoms” can unlock a new mindset
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The surprising benefits of trying new things — even improv!
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A simple but powerful idea: the 8-minute phone call that can rekindle relationships
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Why pursuing purpose — especially in service to others — fuels a more meaningful retirement
Whether you’re preparing for retirement or already in it, Dr. Agress offers a compelling vision of how to make your next chapter the best one yet.
Harry Agress, MD joins us from New York.
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Bio – Harry Agress, MD
Following a 36-year medical career in the field of Radiology, Dr. Agress has been retired for 10 years. He is an experienced teacher and nationally recognized lecturer who takes great joy in passing on what he has learned and experienced both in medicine and in retirement.
He has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show,” lectured at the 92nd St Y (NYC) and been featured and America’s Top Doctors.
He is a Clinical Professor at Columbia University (NYC) and continues to voluntarily teach medical residents both at Columbia and Weill Cornell Medical Centers.
In his new book, Next Years Best Years, Taking Your Retirement to the Next Level, Dr. Agress dives into the many exploits and research that he and others have discovered as they create a new post-career way of living; embracing the emotional, personal and practical side of one of the most unique opportunities of our lives.
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For More on Harry Agress, MD:
A Retired Physician Pursues a New Self Portrait in Photography
Q&A with photographer Dr. Harry Agress
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Related Podcast Episodes You May Like:
The Vintage Years – Dr. Francine Toder
Independence Day – Steve Lopez
Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile
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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast
There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.
About Retirement Wisdom
I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.
Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms.
About Your Podcast Host
Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.
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Wise Quotes
On the Transition to Retirement
“It is not a particularly simple transition unless you’ve worked on a lot of these issues before you retired, which I highly recommend. It is a time when actually it is a combination of being very happy, stress is down and everything else. But there’s a grieving process that I think a lot of people have to go through. And you just have to sort of accept it for a while that you have lost something. You have lost your career. You’ve lost some of your friendships on a daily basis and there are ways to to move on past that.”
On The Four Freedoms of Retirement
“One of the things that does make it easier is what I like to call The Four Freedoms, which is basically taking charge of your fears and anxieties about this new stage in your life and transferring it into freedoms. One of the the first one is fear of failure – and we don’t have to worry about this anymore! We’re not at work anymore. You can go try all kinds of things. I decided I wanted to try improv. I did it with a group where I was three times older than the average kid in this thing and you know it was intimidating for a little bit, but I really wanted to try it. And it turned out to be fine. But at the end when they’re all signing up for the next semester. I’m out of there and I thought I liked it, I felt good I tried it. One of the good things about improv is you don’t have to memorize lines and then and one of the big points is nobody else cares you know at this stage of our life no one cares if you don’t sing well no one cares. If you don’t write well and you just have this amazing freedom where failure just does not exist. Nobody cares so do things that you always wanted to. I think this is another great freedom – at this time you don’t have to worry about what other people think.”
On Self-Reflection
“One of the things you can do to help this along is think about the things you did in childhood that you really loved. And think about the things, what would you have done if you hadn’t done your career? Because the other big point I’d like to make is that this is a very dynamic process that can last for 25% of your life. This can go on for 20 or more years. So it’s not like, boom, this is just a one-time event. You’re gonna change, and I certainly did, in and out of the time that goes by in retirement. So I think it’s always a good idea to refresh, no matter what stage you’re at.”
