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The Key Decisions for Retirement Success – Wade Pfau

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Retirement Wisdom · Oct 25, 2021 ·

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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.

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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^®).

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For More on Wade Pfau

Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating the Important Decisions for Retirement Success

Retirement Researcher Website

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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.”

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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

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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.

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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 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.

Retirement Wisdom · Oct 18, 2021 ·

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.”

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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

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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.

Retirement Wisdom · Oct 11, 2021 ·

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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

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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

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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.

What Will Your “Retirement” Story Be? Wisdom Notes keeps ideas and inspiring stories coming your way once a month as you create your own.

Retirement Wisdom · Oct 4, 2021 ·

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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For More on Milledge & Patti Hart

Their Book: The Resolutionist: Welcome To The Anti-Retirement Movement

Their Website

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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

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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.

Retirement Wisdom · Sep 27, 2021 ·

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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For More on Michael Clinton

Roar: into the second half of your life (before it’s too late)

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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

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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.

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Explore free tools at retirementwisdom.com

Browse all 4 seasons of our retirement podcast here to get smarter about your next phase.

The Key Decisions for Retirement Success – Wade Pfau

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