Podcasts Archive - Page 34 of 71 - Retirement Wisdom

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Are you ready for the new retirement? The old-fashioned “full-stop” retirement simply doesn’t work for everyone. For many people, to retire happy, it includes some form of work – on your own terms. In a hybrid retirement, work – paid or unpaid – can provide meaning, connection, purpose, fulfillment – and some income. There are more options available today to create a hybrid retirement that works for you. But that may mean changing lanes. You’ll need to plan ahead and lay the groundwork. Justin Smith, CFP., CAP, CFA of Savant Wealth Management, offers his tips and a tool to help you think outside the box and navigate career crossroads.

Justin joins us from Phoenix, Arizona.

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Delaying retirement?  You could wait until you retire and ask What Now? – and then scramble – or drift.

Don’t be that person.

Instead, start planning for the non-financial side of retirement now. Delaying when to retire doesn’t mean delaying your preparation. Apply the same principles of design thinking that Nike and other leading companies use to design your future. Learn more about my One-on-One coaching and small group programs. Take the first step toward designing your new life today – schedule a call.

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Bio

Justin specializes in helping executives and successful professionals navigate the chapter between full-time work and full-stop retirement, which we call a “Victory Lap.” He has been involved in the financial services industry since 2005. Prior to joining Savant, he was a partner and portfolio manager for an independent Registered Investment Advisor firm in Chicago.

Justin earned a bachelor of business administration degree with a concentration in finance from the University of Michigan. He is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and has earned the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®) and the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designations. He is a frequent speaker on the topics of Victory Lap Retirement and tax-smart retirement planning.

Justin loves to cook (especially tacos!) and enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and three children. After living in the Midwest for many years, they truly appreciate everything Arizona has to offer. In the fall, you are almost certain to find Justin on his patio watching Minnesota Vikings or Michigan Wolverines football.

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For More on Justin Smith

Website

Download The Career Crossroads Workbook

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

How’s Your Network? – Kelly Hoey

The Unretirement Life – Richard Eisenberg

Breaking the Age Code – Dr. Becca Levy

Independence Day – Steve Lopez

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It’s Game Time!

Win The Retirement Game

 “Definitely the best book I’ve read on the non-financial aspects of retirement.”

Amazon    Barnes & Noble    Bookshop.org

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Wise Quotes

On Hybrid Retirement 

“I think this is becoming more and more of a movement. Nobody announced it, but it’s becoming more and more popular. 20 years ago there was really one path where it was somebody in the C-suite and then they would go serve on a board and they went from working 80 hours a week to working 20 hours a week. They’d still fly around and go to board meetings and things like that. But now that has been democratized and there’s countless different ways that people can take a hybrid path. And the big change I’m seeing is that a more people have access to these hybrid paths. Basically anybody who puts in the work can find something that checks all the boxes for them. And the other thing I’m seeing is that people are not waiting until 65 or full retirement age, or the point where they feel fully financial independent. They’re jumping off the treadmill earlier and then they’re playing that hybrid game longer.”

On Planning Ahead

“In the retirement planning game, you absolutely want to be looking forward and start planting the seeds for your next chapter. Often I find it could take two or three years or more for people to get into that retirement rhythm. So if you can start planting seeds, start testing things out, start doing some experiments, 2, 3 or 5 years early, you can give yourself a huge head start. Then you get to make the most of that retirement chapter that you’ve been looking forward to for so long.”

On Creating a Sabbatical or a Gap Year

“I’m seeing some people do sabbaticals where they will take a year or two off. Maybe it’s a trial retirement. They’re not sure if they’re actually going to come back after the sabbatical, but they’ll call it a sabbatical. And when they come back, maybe they go back to the same thing, or maybe they pivot. I’m seeing a lot of creative employment arrangements as well, where they might say to their employer or a prospective employer: Hey, I have all these different tools in my toolbox and you have this unique set of problems. Let’s think about a way we can solve for that and we can find mutually agreeable ways to make that work. Because for some of these folks at this stage in life, the top line compensation might not be their top priority. So employers –  the smart ones – are open to these types of arrangements. And I’ve seen people be able to get health insurance, which can be a big stumbling block for folks before their 65 Medicare eligibility. Maybe in this creative employment arrangement, they get health insurance as part of the deal, get remote work, go part-time, perhaps get two months off in the summer, whatever it might be. So that is becoming more popular as well. There’s just so many benefits from thinking outside the box here.”

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About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.
Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

He’s the author ofWin the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

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Intro and Outro voiceovers by Ross Huguet.

 

 

 

 

The Wizard of Oz is one of the most watched films of all time. Look closely and you’ll see that it contains valuable life lessons for any stage of life, including retirement. Peter Guzzardi joins us to discuss his book, Emeralds of Oz: Life Lessons from Over the Rainbow, which details nine Emeralds of Wisdom, along with 52 life lessons.

He joins us from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

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Delaying retirement?  You could wait until you retire and ask What Now? – and then scramble – or drift. Don’t be that person. Instead, start now. Apply the same principles of design thinking that Nike and other leading companies use to design your future. Learn more about my One-on-One coaching and small group programs. Take the first step toward your new life today – schedule a call.

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Bio

Peter Guzzardi has worked in publishing for more than forty years. Prominent books he has edited include Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, Deepak Chopra’s Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, Queen Noor’s Leap of Faith, Susan Cain’s Quiet, and Douglas Adams’s Mostly Harmless. And he’s the author of Emeralds of Oz: Life Lessons from Over the Rainbow. An independent editor and writer, he lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

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For More on Peter Guzzardi

Emeralds of Oz

Website (Download the handy Postcard of the 9 Emeralds and a Worksheet to apply them)

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

Chatter & Your Inner Voice – Ethan Kross

How to Make New Friends in Retirement – Dr. Marisa G. Franco

An Artful Life – John P. Weiss

The Emotional Side of Retiring – Kate Schroeder

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It’s Game Time: Win The Retirement Game 

           “Definitely the best book I’ve read on the non-financial aspects of retirement.”

           “I wish I had this book when I retired.”

           “This is a great gift for anyone anticipating retirement years”

Amazon    Barnes & Noble    Bookshop.org

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Wise Quotes

On the Lesson That’s Helped Him the Most

“I think in some ways the one that’s hardest for me to absorb kind of stands out. And that’s Number Five: You Already Possess What You Desire Most. And of course Dorothy’s companions are classic examples of that in the most wonderful way. But to take that in, what does that really mean for me? What does that mean for you? It’s really profound. We’re rushing around looking outside ourselves for the things that we think matter most for money, for success, For me it might be courage. I tend to suffer from anxiety. And so courage. I would never think of myself as a courageous person but this Emerald is telling me I am a courageous person and that courage, I’m not going to find it elsewhere.”

On Mistakes

“The notion that there are no mistakes, only lessons. And that’s so huge. When I grew up and it was all about getting the answers right in school and not making a mistake. And what you really don’t want to be is wrong. But what if you could just remove that? And what if it’s just that life is a series of experiments and explorations and it’s not going to be right or wrong, it’s just you’re going learn from them. So I’m going to take a different approach next time. What a relief that would be to be able to approach life that way.”

On the Beginner’s Mind

“As I look at the Emeralds, the first one is Listen to Your Longing. And that’s from the amazing moment in the barnyard where Dorothy begins to sing. And what a valuable place to start that is for all of us to listen to that longing. What is it we long for? But the second one is See the Situation As If For the First Time. And that one comes from the moment when Dorothy steps out into Munchkin Land because the expression on her face is just this appreciation for the miraculous. It’s like, Oh my gosh. And she’s so open to it. And this is something that in Buddhism is called Beginner’s Mind. This notion that if we can try to separate ourselves from our biases, from our sense that we know how this is going to turn out, even if it’s as mundane as your commute to the office. If you can just take out that notion that you know what it’s going to be like and approach it as though it’s kind of a miraculous thing that all these cars are flowing in the same direction. And look at the light d, the autumn leaves. It’s a way to breathe the miraculous back into your life, which just takes a little focus, a little concentration and awareness as all of these bits of wisdom do. One of the wonderful things about this interview is I had to go back and remind myself. We all stumble across wisdom and we think, Wow, that’s great. That’s really gonna help me a lot.”

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About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.
Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

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Intro and Outro voiceovers by Ross Huguet.

 

Planning for retirement? You need to also plan for your longevity. And your lifestyle choices will play be a big role in your longevity and satisfaction in retirement. Mike Drak, author of the new book Longevity Lifestyle by Design, returns to The Retirement Wisdom Podcast for an enlightening conversation on how to upgrade your retirement planning.

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Delaying retirement? Many of my clients are. But they’re using this time to get a jump on their future.

You could wait until you retire and ask What Now? – and then scramble – or drift. Don’t be that person. Instead, start now and design your new post-full-time work life.

Find how how the Designing Your Life process (developed by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans at Stanford) can help you unlock a new direction. Apply the same principles of design thinking that Nike and other leading companies use to design your future. Learn more about my One-on-One coaching and small group programs. Take the first step toward your new life today – schedule a call.

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Bio

Mike Drak is the author of his third book Longevity Lifestyle by Design: Redefining What Retirement Can Be. After a thirty-eight year career within the financial services industry, Mike Drak experienced what he has now termed “retirement shock”. As a result, Mike spent the next 6 years doing research about retirement which resulted in his best selling book “Victory Lap Retirement” based on his realization that full stop retirement doesn’t work for most people.

His second book “Retirement Heaven or Hell: Which Will You Choose?” shares some of Mike’s personal experiences in retirement and highlights how people can design and transition to their own unique retirement lifestyle. This book also outlines the valuable retirement lessons learned from the pandemic and introduces nine retirement principles that can support creating a long, healthy and fulfilling life.

Along with being a best-selling author, Mike is also a public speaker and retirement lifestyle designer. He has received awards for his writing and you can find his articles at Booming Encore.

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For More on Mike Drak

Longevity Lifestyle by Design book: Free Download   |  Amazon

Mike Drak’s First Visit with The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

Independence Day – Steve Lopez

How to Make New Friends in Retirement – Dr. Marisa G. Franco

Thinking Better to Live Better – Dr. Woo-kyoung Ahn

Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet

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Win the Retirement Game

(It Might Just Be the Most Important Game of Your Life)

What Readers Are Saying:

           “Definitely the best book I’ve read on the non-financial aspects of retirement.”

           “I wish I had this book when I retired.”

           “…the book is amazingly readable, and chock full of insights.”

           “This is a great gift for anyone anticipating retirement years”

Amazon    Barnes & Noble    Bookshop.org

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Wise Quotes

On Why People Fail Retirement

“I believe it’s just that they have the wrong beliefs about retirement. They don’t fully understand what’s coming their way. Many people think it’s just a financial situation. If you have enough money, you’re going to have a great retirement. And that’s not true. Many people think transitioning to a successful retirement will be easy. What can be hard about retiring? But it’s one of the hardest things you can do. And it’s one of the most stressful events that you’ll go through, too. People don’t realize that. People think when they retire, all their problems are magically going to go away. Well, guess what? They don’t. As a matter of fact, you’re going to have even more problems. And that’s what concerns me. How I read about the Great Resignation, all these people bailing into retirement early. And I’m going, I don’t know, you better, you think this thing through. And I expect a lot of these people will come back out of retirement because they’re going to find out it’s not right for them. You have to put a lot of thought into it. You have to educate yourself and you have to prepare. And preparing takes a long time, if you want to do it right. The decisions you make about retirement are going to impact the next 30, 40 years of your life. So you want to get it right or you’re going to have problems. And who wants to be miserable for 30, 40 years?”

On Longevity & Lifestyle Choices

“Research has shown, and this really woke me up when I read the research, that longevity is impacted 80% to 90% by your lifestyle choices. Which means we can control how long we’re going to live. Well, we can reduce risk. Now there’s always going to be a Black Swan event that might hit, maybe you get hit by a car or you get cancer or something like that. But we really can mitigate the risk and really increase the odds of us living a long and happy life. And so when I knew that, I said, Wow, okay. this is when I have to start looking at that and start planning for it. And that was again, one of the reasons why I decided to attempt this Ironman thing. One of the things is get healthy again. Right? Health is so important. And then I list seven other inputs that will increase your chances of living longer and better than most people. So I was very excited when I saw that. And then I noticed that a lot of these bad things are reversible. And that was music to my ears.”

On Why Work Can Be a Key Part of Retirement

“I believe that work – the right kind of work – work that you love to do, could be like a fountain of youth to you, a source of longevity, a source of happiness. And the happiness and longevity connection is very powerful. And so what you want to do is find or create work that you love to do. And it can either be paid work or unpaid work, but it gives you real good reason to get out of bed in the morning, Something to look forward to. Like early in our working years, that’s how we felt. And then it changed and now we can get back to doing that thing. So, I love to help a lot of people and I get excited about projects. I’m working on this new book project. I’m getting up at 4:30 in the morning. I don’t set the alarm, it’s just, I get excited and I get out of bed and I have all these ideas.”

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About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.
Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.
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Intro and Outro voiceovers by Ross Huguet.

 

A lot changes when you retire, including your social connectivity. Dr. Marisa G. Franco, author of Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make–and Keep—Friends, has research-based advice on making new friends as an adult, and creating new connections.

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Delaying retirement? Many of my clients are. But they’re using this time to get a jump on their future.

You could wait until you retire and ask What Now? – and then scramble – or drift. Instead, why not start now to proactively explore your options and design your new post-full-time work life?

Find how how the Designing Your Life process (developed by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans at Stanford) can help you unlock a new direction. Apply the same principles of design thinking that Nike and other leading companies use to design your future. Learn more about my One-on-One coaching and small group programs. Take the first step toward your new life today – schedule a call.

__________________________

Bio

Dr. Marisa G. Franco is the New York Times bestselling author of Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make–and Keep—Friends;  and she is a professor, speaker, and psychologist. Her research focuses on the powerful role of our communities in shaping who we are and why we flourish.

Marisa uses her expertise to advise clients and companies on how to nurture deeper connections. She believes that connections underlie everything—our health, our motivation, our work, and our sense of who we are.

Dr. Franco holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Maryland and works as a professor there. She writes for Psychology Today and she has been a featured psychologist in The New York Times, NPR, and Good Morning America.

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For More on Dr. Marisa G. Franco 

Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make–and Keep—Friends

Website

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

Where to Retire – Silvia Ascarelli

Plays Well with Others – Eric Barker

Thinking Better to Live Better – Dr. Woo-kyoung Ahn

The Emotional Side of Retiring – Kate Schroeder

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How to Win the Retirement Game

(It Might Just Be the Most Important Game of Your Life)

What Readers Are Saying:

           “Definitely the best book I’ve read on the non-financial aspects of retirement.”

           “I wish I had this book when I retired.”

           “…the book is amazingly readable, and chock full of insights.”

           “This is a great gift for anyone anticipating retirement years or already in the thick of it.”

Amazon    Barnes & Noble    Bookshop.org

____________________________

Wise Quotes

On Making Friends as an Adult

“So making friends is about having a certain type of setting or environment. Rebecca G. Adams, she’s a sociologist, describes it as having repeated unplanned interaction and shared vulnerability. So that’s school, right? You see someone every day, you have recess, you have gym, you have lunch, right? For some people that’s work, for other people not, because sometimes people go to work and they’re not quite vulnerable, which is why one study found that the more time we spend together at work, the less close we feel. And I think, in general, as we move forward to adulthood, we just don’t inhabit those same types of settings that really foster connection. So if we rely on this concept of making friends that we had when we were kids, we’re just going to be like, it should just happen, right? And then we don’t. We’re not realizing we’re not in that setting anymore. So it’s not going to just happen for you. And in fact, there is a study on older adults that found that people who thought friendship happened based on luck were lonely five years later, whereas those that saw it as happening based on effort were less lonely five years later because they made that effort.”

On Vulnerability & Initiating

“So, in the book I describe vulnerability as sharing something that’s authentic to you that feels risky or feels exposing or feels like someone could like shame or reject you for. So initiating is certainly one of those things, right? That tends to feel very vulnerable for people. But in general, we find in the research, and this is something of a thread that I’m going to pull out, is our brain’s negativity bias. When we predict the impact of our behaviors, our predictions are inaccurate and they’re often more cynical than the truth, right? So I talked about the liking gap as an example of that. But in the research on vulnerability, the example is research on something called the Beautiful Mess Effect. That when I picture someone doing something vulnerable, like talking about the flaws in their own body or confessing to someone that they love them, right? And I evaluate it, I see it more positively. But when I think of myself doing that same thing, I view it more negatively and I think people will view it more negatively. And so we have this bias when we think about ourselves, we’re like, People aren’t going to like this. They’re gonna think I’m weird. But when other people do the exact same thing, we’re like, Oh my gosh, that’s so great. They’re so authentic. They’re so genuine. They really trust me. Something that’s vulnerable that I struggle with is asking for support from other people. So what I’ve started to do is literally ask myself, What if this person asked for support from me? How would I read this? And then I try to use my answer to that question to evaluate the impact of how it’ll come up if I ask for support.”

On Defense Mechanisms

“When the self is involved, our self defensive mechanisms come into play and we don’t actually perceive the world accurately. So it takes us to take a step back and think of what if someone initiated with me? Wouldn’t I feel great that someone was really interested in getting to know me? Or if someone got vulnerable with me and I’d be like, Oh my gosh, I feel so close to them. I’m so honored that they were willing to share. And so we can sort of try to use that same process when we evaluate ourselves to get around the the defensive hijacking that our brain has when our brain is basically in survival mode –  protect the self at all costs. Not realizing that sometimes that can really harm our relationships and friendships.”

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About Your Podcast Host 
Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.
Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

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Intro and Outro voiceovers by Ross Huguet.

Am I ready to retire? Should I stay or should I go? Who will I be if I retire? Planning for retirement brings a plethora of questions to ponder. Esteemed LA Times columnist Steve Lopez shares his year-long exploration of these, and other questions, in his new book Independence Day: What I Learned About Retirement from Some Who’ve Done It and Some Who Never Will. His journey included conversations with a wide range of people with different perspectives on retirement that informed his own decision on whether to retire, keep going – or do something else. The observations and insights can help you retire smarter – in a way that’s right for you.

Steve Lopez joins us from Southern California.

Bio

Steve Lopez is a California native who has been an L.A. Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards for his reporting and column writing at seven newspapers and four news magazines, and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist for commentary – in 2012, for his columns on elder care; in 2016, for his columns on income inequality in California; in 2018, for his columns on housing and homelessness; and in 2020, for purposeful pieces about rising homelessness in Los Angeles, which amplified calls for government action to deal with a long-visible public crisis.

He is the author of three novels, two collections of columns and a non-fiction work called “The Soloist,” which was a Los Angeles Times and New York Times best-seller, winner of the PEN USA Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and the subject of a Dream Works movie by the same name. Lopez’s television reporting for public station KCET has won three local news Emmys, three Golden Mike awards and a share of the Columbia University DuPont Award.

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For More on Steve Lopez

Independence Day: What I Learned About Retirement from Some Who’ve Done It and Some Who Never Will

The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Unretirement Life – Richard Eisenberg

The Emotional Side of Retiring – Kate Schroeder

Purpose & a Paycheck – Chris Farrell

If You Love Your Work, What Challenges Will You Face in Retirement? – Michelle Pannor Silver

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Are You Ready to Retire?

How prepared are you for the non-financial side of retirement? Take our free quiz.

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How to Win the Retirement Game

(It Might Just Be the Most Important Game of Your Life)

What Readers Are Saying:

           “Definitely the best book I’ve read on the non-financial aspects of retirement.”

           “I wish I had this book when I retired.”

           “…the book is amazingly readable, and chock full of insights.”

           “This is the book I didn’t know I needed after retiring!”

           “This is a great gift for anyone anticipating retirement years or already in the thick of it.”

Amazon    Barnes & Noble    Bookshop.org

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Wise Quotes

On the Transition to Retirement

“…there are a lot of things that surprised me. One thing I had not given a lot of thought to, and I was persuaded by among other people, a woman by the name of Nancy Schlossberg, who is in her nineties and lives in Sarasota, Florida. I hope her house is still there after the storm. She talked about how much thought should go into this time in your life, because this is a huge transition. And it’s not just going from work to not working. There’s a transition in every aspect of your life and your relationship, say, with your spouse, or with your colleagues who will become former colleagues – do they still have time for you? Have you developed enough friendships, hobbies or causes that when you do finally leave your job and have all of that extra time, do you know what you’re going to do with it? Do you know if it’s going to be fulfilling? Do you think that you’ll still matter in the world? And I had been thinking more about a binary you’re working or you’re not working [question] and she opened my eyes and my mind to the nuances. Things like how your relationship with your spouse does change.”

On Lessons from the Pandemic

“And in my case, because of the pandemic, our office was closed. The newsroom was shut down. We’re owned by a doctor, and he did not want people in there. He did not want the office to become the venue of a super spreader event. And so we worked from home. And in my case, I’m out on the road a lot interviewing people, but essentially my home became my office – and my wife, Alison works at home. This is her office. And we would bump into each other a lot more than we [previously] did. And I said, You know what, Alison? This is kind of a preview of my retirement. And she said, if this is a preview, I don’t want to see the movie.”

On Conversations That Made Him Think

“…one is a priest by the name of Father Gregory Boyle. And Father Greg works in Los Angeles with a group called Homeboys, and he’s trying to rescue and redirect the lives of youngsters who have been in trouble as kids in Los Angeles and give them job skills and whatever other training they might need. It’s a two-year program. And Father Greg is legendary in the Los Angeles area. He reminds me of Sister Mary Scullion in Philadelphia, who’s another hero of mine I got to write about and get to know when I was at the Philadelphia Inquirer. In fact, Sister Mary visits Father Greg when she’s in Los Angeles, and she’ll check in with me, and I’ll go over there and have lunch with her or a cup of coffee. But these are living saints, the two of them, Sister Mary and Father Greg. So I went to see Father Greg. I was actually working on a column about an award he had just won.  Father Greg had briefly discussed retirement a couple years ago, and and I said, By the way, I’m really beginning to think about it now, much more seriously. How about you? And he looked at me kind of surprised, like was he really hearing me say that I might retire? And he said that he has [given] no consideration whatsoever to retiring now or ever. And I felt, I got to tell you, I felt pretty wimpy in that moment. Here I am ready to check out, and Father Greg, the same age as I am, sounded as committed and as energetic as ever. And he said, the work that he does is a passion, and it gives him a sense of relevance. And that’s what life is. Finding something that that gets you out of bed that serves others. And he just couldn’t quite understand how somebody like me, who can write stories about people like him and other people, would ever want to give that up. That’s sort of my religion – to try to find interesting people to write about and try to shine a light on people’s experiences, their struggles, their triumphs. And he just couldn’t think of what I might find in my life better than that. And I said, Really, Father Greg, never? You’re never ever going to retire? And he said, I’m a Jesuit. I’m going to retire in the graveyard. And so I felt like I think I love my work as much as Father Greg loves his, so it really stopped me. It had me wondering if I was making the right decision, if I ended up deciding to retire.”

On Meaning

“So I think what I discovered is that I really love what I do, and that if I do less of it or don’t do it at all, that I do have to carve out a life for myself where I can still give something. Be a better husband, be a better dad. Those are not things that I necessarily gave a lot of thought to in the last half century because I’ve just been racing, racing, racing to the next column. So,  I think that I want to find a way to matter, and I don’t really know what that way is yet, but it makes a lot of sense to me. Nancy [Schlossberg’s] argument is that she finds that people who are unfulfilled and unhappy in retirement didn’t find that reinvention, they didn’t find new purpose, the relevance that Father Gregory Boyle talks about. We’re on this planet such a short time, do something with it that you could feel good about and serve others in ways that enriches their lives and yours as well.”

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About Retirement Wisdom

Delaying retirement? Many of my clients are. But they’re using this time to invest in their future.

You could wait until you retire and ask What Now? – then scramble to play catch up.

Isn’t now a better time to proactively explore your options and intentionally design your new life?

Schedule a call to find how how the Designing Your Life process (developed by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans at Stanford) can help you unlock a new direction. Apply the same principles of design thinking that Nike and other leading companies use to design your future. Learn more about my One-on-One coaching and small group programs. Take the first step toward your new life today.

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About Your Podcast Host 
Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.
Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

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Intro and Outro voiceovers by Ross Huguet.