The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

Don’t drift into your retirement. Design it. Join us in the next Design Your New Life in Retirement group program starting April 26.

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Who knows more about whether or not you’re ready to retire? Your financial advisor – or you? While you’re diligently planning for your retirement and dreaming to retire happy, the retirement landscape keeps evolving around you. Let’s take a look at what’s happening in the world of retirement with Nate Miles of Allspring Global Investments. He joins us to the discuss key trends highlighted in their latest study on retirement, including happiness in retirement, retirement readiness, what retirees regret – and more.

Nate Miles joins us from North Carolina.

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Bio

Nathaniel (Nate) Miles is head of Global Client Strategy at Allspring Global Investments. As the leader of this business, Nate leads a team of investment specialists centered on client-type expertise, which enables Allspring to be more relevant and impactful with clients. Client-type areas of expertise include Defined Contribution, Pension/LDI, Insurance, Liquidity, Foundations and Endowments, and Wealth. Nate joined Allspring from its predecessor firm, Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM). He joined WFAM from WisdomTree Asset Management, where he served as U.S. head of retirement solutions. In this capacity, he oversaw the creation and execution of marketing strategies and distribution for retirement business across all platforms. Prior to this, Nate worked as a managing director at State Street Global Advisors and as head of U.S. investment strategy with its defined contribution team, where he began his investment industry career in 2005. Nate earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and financial management with honors from Wilfrid Laurier University. He has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation and is a member of CFA Society Boston.

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For More on Nate Miles 

The 21st annual Allspring Global Investments Retirement Survey: A Clear Vision of Retirement

Allspring Global Investments

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

Life in Retirement: Expectations & Realities – Catherine Collinson

Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson

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Wise Quotes 

On Happiness in Retirement

“The one thing that we found out every year is our study says and relates how happy retirees are. So that wasn’t new, but we are trying to get to the why. And one of the things we found this year for the first time was that on average retirees could have their spending decline by 25% before it significantly impacted their happiness. So that was a bigger number than I expected, but was corroborated by the fact that when we asked them about their spending on things like their needs, wants and wishes, that only tallied up about 64% of total income. So those numbers actually jive together and I think are a nice story and a nice finding from this study.”

On Retirement Readiness

“Advisors ranked their clients as 40% of them being generally ready for retirement. Near retirees were down below 40%. So there was actually a positive spread. I would say advisors believed them to be a little more prepared, but retirees were up around 77%, so clearly much happier. So overall we had advisors at about 50% of their client base being ready for retirement versus a total population of 64%. But that’s really broken down between those two groups where the retirees were much more confident than near retirees.”

On Regrets

“It was a little bit harder to find regrets because our retirees tend to be generally pretty happy. They don’t tend to have much complaint about retirement. It is generally better than they expected.  One was the too early crowd. We saw some that retired before age 50, 38% suggested that it was too early. They wished they would’ve hung on and worked a little bit longer. So yes, they were able to retire, but I think they thought there’s probably more that they could have done in the workforce and it had that social component to it and could’ve stayed a little bit longer.” So that was one in terms of retiring too early and when they did state they retired too early, it was five years too early.”

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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 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 1.2 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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The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily 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.

Looking for an active retirement? Design it with others.

Join us in the next Design Your New Life in Retirement group program starting April 26.

Today’s Building Blocks: Fun and Wellness

Spring is right around the corner and it’s a great time to explore new outdoor activities and re-energize your routines by trying something new. Caroline Paul’s newest book, Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking — How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives As We Age, delves into the science and psychology of the outdoors – and our place in it as we age with real-life stories of women living it today.

Caroline Paul joins us from San Francisco.

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Caroline Paul has always filled her life with adventure. Now 60, she expects this new stage of life to be every bit as invigorating and full of high adrenalin escapades as the last. But as she skateboards, paddles a SUP, or surfs in cold winter swell alongside many men her age, she sees fewer and fewer older women. Isn’t the outdoors a vital elixir? Shouldn’t adventure be something we pursue as we age?

Caroline grew up in Connecticut, graduated from Stanford University and originally planned to be a documentary filmmaker. In her adult life, Caroline has been an extremely active athlete: she’s not only been a white-water raft guide and a private pilot, but also has competed in the U.S. Nationals for the sport of Luge, mountain-biked in such places as China and Vietnam, flown her para-glider in Brazil, sea-kayaked in Alaska, and skied the back country of Denali and the Sierras. One of the first women to join the San Francisco Fire Department, Caroline wrote the book, “Fighting Fire“, about her experiences as a firefighter; this book was published, to great acclaim, in 1998.

Caroline is also the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure” and “Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology“, which has been translated into fifteen languages, the middle-grade book “You Are Mighty: A Guide to Changing the World“, and the novel “East Wind, Rain”. Her TED Talk, “To Raise Brave Girls, Encourage Adventure,” has been viewed over 2 million times. A longtime member of the Writers Grotto, she lives in San Francisco.

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For More on Caroline Paul 

Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking — How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives As We Age

carolinepaul.com

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Joy of Movement – Kelly McGonigal

The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer

Growing Old, Staying Rad – Steven Kotler

The Power of Fun – Catherine Price

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Mentioned in This Episode

https://www.retirementwisdom.com/podcasts/breaking-the-age-code-dr-becca-levy/

Caroline Paul on The Tim Ferris Show (2016)

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Wise Quotes

On Outdoor Adventure

“Everything about outdoor adventure hits all the pillars that we need for fulfilling aging and – all in one fell swoop. So I realized during the research of this book that we need to have community as we age. We need to have purpose as we age. We need to have novelty. And of course there’s health. And then the final one, which is lesser known, is the positive mindset about our own aging. And if you go outside you actually in one fell swoop hit all of those.”

On Awe

“There was adrenaline, but that wasn’t the actual experience. And what I found was that what I was experiencing was awe. And by the time I handed in my book in there had been other books about it, but I did not know much about it at all when I was writing it. And I realized that awe is what you experience in the face of something bigger than you. And it’s mostly considered a religious word most of the time, but we’re bringing it more into our vocabulary. But all is something obviously that the outdoors often inspires and turns out it’s really good for you. They’ve shown that. They did a study in San Francisco where they asked people, older people 60 to 80 to take walks. But during those walks to look at everything with what they called childlike wonder. They call those awe walks. And then they sent out another control group. Those people just walk like we normally walk, which is thinking about our to-do lists and worrying about things and looking at our phone. And they found that the people who were on the awe walks looking around them with childlike wonder just changed markedly physiologically. Their immune systems were bolstered, their anxiety went down, they did tests to show they felt more compassion. They felt physically better. And there were all these metrics that people you can look into that are astonishing. And so it turns out that awe is really good for us and we should be seeking it more. And so of course, you don’t have to wing walk. Walking makes awe easier. It just happens. It blows your brain, but you can go outside and just practice awe by looking at things with that deep attention and wonderment.”

On Novelty

“I wanted to look into people learning something new at a later age. As we get to a certain age, we stop trying new things, partly because we know what we like, and there’s good in that. But in fact, novelty is really important for our brain as we age to stave off all the cognitive decline that we’re so worried about as well as for our emotional well-being, of course, and giving our lives purpose and spark. And so I thought, well, I think I’m going to go learn to fly a gyrocopter.”

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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 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 1.2 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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The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily 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.

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Today’s Building Block: Personal Growth

If you’re planning for retirement, you’re well-versed in figuring out how to balance work and life. You may be tempted to think you won’t need to worry about that once you retire. But not so fast. If you’re planning an active retirement, you’ll need to be thoughtful in balancing the different domains of life and creating harmony among them. Several practices from Stew Friedman’s Total Leadership model can help you be  intentional about your next phase of life. Start with Stew Friedman’s free tool at Total Leadership.org:

Stew Friedman joins us from suburban Philadelphia.

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Stew Friedman, founder and CEO of Total Leadership, is an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been on the faculty since 1984.  He worked for five years in the mental health field before earning his PhD from the University of Michigan.  As founding director of The Wharton Leadership Program, in 1991 he initiated the required MBA and Undergraduate leadership courses.  He also founded Wharton’s Work/Life Integration Project in 1991.  Friedman has been recognized by the biennial Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers every cycle since 2011 and was honored with its 2015 Distinguished Achievement Award as the world’s foremost expert in the field of talent. He was listed among HR Magazine’s most influential thought leaders, chosen by Working Mother as one of America’s most influential men who have made life better for working parents, and presented with the Families and Work Institute’s Work Life Legacy Award.

While on leave from Wharton for two-and-a-half years, Friedman ran a 50-person department as the senior executive for leadership development at Ford Motor Company. In partnership with the CEO, he launched a corporate-wide portfolio of initiatives designed to transform Ford’s culture; 2500+ managers per year participated.  Near the end of his tenure at Ford, an independent research group (ICEDR) said the LDC was a “global benchmark” for leadership development programs.  At Ford, he created Total Leadership, which has been a popular Wharton course since 2001 and is used by individuals and companies worldwide, including as a primary intervention in a multi-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health on improving the careers and lives of women in medicine and by 135,000+ students in Friedman’s first MOOC on Coursera.  Participants in this program complete an intensive series of challenging exercises that increase their leadership capacity, performance, and well-being in all parts of life, while working in high-involvement peer-to-peer coaching relationships.

His research is widely cited, including among Harvard Business Review‘s “Ideas that Shaped Management,” and he has written two bestselling books, Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life (2008) and Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life (2014), now being taught as a MOOC on Coursera. His third Harvard Business Press book was Parents Who Lead: The Leadership Approach You Need to Parent with Purpose, Fuel Your Career, and Create a Richer Life (2020). In 2024, The Wharton School Press published a new edition of his landmark study of two generations of Wharton students, Baby Bust, 10th Anniversary Edition: New Choices for Men and Women in Work and Family.  Work and Family – Allies or Enemies? (2000) was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the field’s best books.  In Integrating Work and Life: The Wharton Resource Guide (1998) Stew edited the first collection of learning tools for building leadership skills for integrating work and life.

Winner of many teaching awards, he appears regularly in business media (The New York Times cited the “rock star adoration” he inspires in his students).  Friedman serves on a number of boards and is an in-demand speaker, consultant, coach, workshop leader, public policy advisor (to the U.S. Departments of Labor and State, the United Nations, and two White House administrations), and advocate for family-supportive policies in the private sector. Follow on Twitter @StewFriedman and LinkedIn, read his 50+ digital articles HBR.org, and listen to his podcast  Work and Life with Stew Friedman, which began in 2014 as a nationally broadcast show on SiriusXM Wharton Business Radio.

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For More on Stew Friedman

Total Ledadership.org

the Total Leadership book

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace

Working Identity – Herminia Ibarra

Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller

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Mentioned in this Podcast

How Seniors Are Saving the World With Activism – Thelma Reese

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Retiring? Check out these Best Books on Retirement

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Wise Quotes

On Four Way Wins

“So people come up with ideas for real world experiments toward what I call four way wins. What can you do? What steps can you take within your scope? It doesn’t have to be huge. In fact, smaller is better because it’s more likely to be doable that you believe is going to have a positive impact on your work, your home, your community, and for you personally. And people worldwide have been doing this, hundreds of thousands of them coming up with ideas for innovation that they then try in the laboratory of their real lives. And there’s all kinds of experiments that people try…People come up with all kinds of wonderful creative ideas, but we identified nine different archetypes for the things that people do. And then they try them and they gather data on what works and what doesn’t after creating a simple action plan and a scorecard. And then they learn from these experiments what it takes to create change that’s really sustainable because it works not just for you, not just for your family, not just for your community, not just for your professional life, but for all of those different parts.”

On an Ideal Day in the Future

“The way we do that is real simple exercise that is really powerful. It is to simply imagine a day in the future, and usually we choose 15 years out, which for retirees is pretty scary or can be, but it’s a useful marker because it’s too far out to plan, but it’s far enough that you could sort of see it. So just imagine an ideal day, 15 years from now, what are you doing on that day, morning, afternoon, evening, with whom and why? With what impact do you expect to be having? And so when people do that, very often, even elderly people, they realize, wow, that is the day I want to be living. Maybe I should take some steps to make that the day I’m living right now. So part of the purpose of articulating your vision of an ideal future is to inspire you and then others to be making that more of your life presently. So the revealing and engaging kinds of experiments involve people taking that leadership vision and sharing it with other people and asking them to do the same, or I mentioned earlier about how people uncover their values powerfully by looking at their own life histories and identifying the episodes in their histories, even going back to childhood that have shaped their values to bring those stories and to practice doing so, but to bring them into the real world of real relationships and ask others to do the same.”

On Service 

“Please do the model of Learn, Earn, Serve. In terms of life stages, I think it’s been true for many people, although I think it’s misguided and that we should be learning, earning, and serving in every phase of our lives, even if in different measure across the different phases. So certainly as you have, if you’re lucky, more opportunity to serve others who were in greater need than you, and that’s most of humanity, you’re going to feel better about yourself if you do that, people are going to want to be around you more if that’s something that you care about. There are people who reach old age and they just want to be alone. And certainly there are days when I would rather be on a mountaintop and not interacting with any other human being, and I try to create some space for activities of that sort. You need to just be with yourself sometimes. But in terms of service, I mean, that is a great and noble activity. And again, it keeps you vital and you’re going to feel better about leaving the earth, leaving the world of your real relationships. If you feel like you are using the resources that you’ve got, your skills, your attention, maybe some of your treasure to be helping others, that’s certainly what other people are looking for you to do.”

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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 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 1.2 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.

Let’s delve into one of your most important and longest running relationships – your relationship with food. Like all relationships, it’s emotional. Dr. Jud Brewer joins us to discuss his new book The Hunger Habit:Why We Eat When We’re Not Hungry and How to Stop. He shares how to practice mindfulness, replace judgment with curiosity, change your habits and cultivate a healthier relationship with food.

Dr. Jud Brewer joins us from Rhode Island.

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Jud Brewer, MD, Ph.D. (“Dr. Jud”) is a New York Times best-selling author and thought leader in the field of habit change and the “science of self-mastery,” who blends over 20 years of experience with mindfulness training and a career in scientific research. He is passionate about understanding how our brains work, and how to use that knowledge to help people make deep, permanent change in their lives — with the goal of reducing suffering in the world at large.

Dr. Jud is the director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center, where he also serves as an associate professor in Behavioral and Social Sciences at the School of Public Health and Psychiatry at the School of Medicine at Brown University. Additionally, he is the executive medical director of behavioral health at Sharecare, the digital health company helping people manage all their health in one place, and a research affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, Dr. Jud held research and teaching positions at Yale University and the University of Massachusetts’ Center for Mindfulness. Read more about his research.

As a psychiatrist and internationally known expert in mindfulness training for treating addictions, Dr. Jud has developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including both in-person and app-based treatments for anxiety, emotional eating, and smoking (Unwinding Anxiety, Eat Right Now and Craving to Quit).

Based on the success of these programs in the lab, he co-founded MindSciences, Inc. to create app-based digital therapeutic versions of these programs for a wider audience, working with individuals, corporations, and health systems to put effective, evidence-based behavior change guidance in the hands of people struggling with unwanted behaviors and “everyday addictions.” Sharecare, Inc. acquired MindSciences in 2020.

Dr. Jud has also studied the underlying neural mechanisms of mindfulness using standard and real-time fMRI and EEG neurofeedback, adding to the understanding of the brain’s “Default Mode Network” and the role of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in self-referential thinking.  He regularly gives talks on the intersection of modern science and ancient meditative practices, helping to expose a modern audience to specific techniques and insights first discovered 2,500 years ago.

He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, trained US Olympic athletes and coaches, foreign government ministers and corporate leaders. His work has been featured on 60 Minutes, TED, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, TIME, The Washington Post, Forbes, CNN, BBC, NPR, and more.

His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and American Heart Association, among others.

In addition to The Hunger Habit: Why We Eat When We’re Not Hungry and How to Stop, he is the author of The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love, Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017) and the New York Times best-seller, Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind (Avery/Penguin Random House, 2021).

Dr. Jud and his wife Mahri live in Massachusetts where they enjoy biking, hiking, and meditating with their cats, Samson, Ananda and Julian of Norwich.

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For More on Dr. Jud Brewer

The Hunger Habit:Why We Eat When We’re Not Hungry and How to Stop

Dr. Jud.com

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer

Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff

Tiny Habits Can Lead to Big Changes – BJ Fogg

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Our second Design Your New Life in Retirement program of 2024 starts on April 26th – Learn more and join us

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See our recommended Best Books for retirement here

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Wise Quotes

On Habit Loops

“And the way it works is we get people to map out these habit loops. What type of food am I reaching for because I’m hungry or because I’m bored, sad, angry, tired, lonely? And just to put these into categories, the hunger out of true physiologic need is called homeostatic hunger. We’re out of homeostasis, out of balance. And that which is coming out of emotion. It’s a misnomer. I love the term because it’s a misnomer. It’s called hedonic hunger. We’re not hungry, but we’re eating because of an emotion. So when it comes to the latter, well, when it comes to either, we can start paying attention. And so we can just ask the question, why am I eating? Am I hungry or is it something else?”

On Mindfulness

“Here is how we break bad habits. And how this works is one simple ingredient which is paying attention. We have to pay attention to see that it’s really good or it’s really not so good. And in fact, my lab did a study so we could actually have people pay attention as they overeat. Are you ready for this? It only takes 10 to 15 times of somebody overeating for that reward value to drop below zero, and they start to shift that behavior. Notice how he didn’t mention the word willpower at all. This is about awareness and it doesn’t take that long, which is really good news.So mindfulness is a concept, and it can mean many things to many people…So here, mindfulness is like salt. It’s made up of different elements. The element of awareness is one, and the element of curiosity is another. So maybe salt’s a good analogy here. So you’ve got to be aware, but you also have to bring this attitude of curiosity for it to equal the compound of mindfulness. And so really it’s about this curious awareness…  So it’s really about paying attention.”

On Growth Mindset

“So often we get in the habit of beating ourselves up and judging ourselves, thinking that that’s going to propel us into behavior change. Well, in fact, what it does is it locks us into not being in a place where we can grow. It puts us into a fixed mindset instead of our growth mindset. So bringing kindness to every moment and every step of the journey is really important…I see people struggle with this all the time, change is scary because our brains don’t like change. And so just knowing that our brains going to resist because our brain is set up to say, Oh, this is different. Is it dangerous? And so looking around reminding ourselves, Yeah, this seems scary, but that’s just my survival brain saying, Hey, are you sure you want to do this? And then we can look around and reassure our brains, this isn’t dangerous. It might actually be anti-dangerous, it might be helpful and healthy. That can help us lean in. And the curiosity can go a long way for that as well. So we move into our growth zone instead of getting stuck in our panic zone.”

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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 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.

You’ll need more than a vision for a great retirement.

Early Registration for our 2nd Design Your New Life in Retirement small group program of 2024 is now open.

Starts on April 26th. Join us 

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Today Building Blocks: Wellness and Work

Is there something you love to do that could help others?  Harry King, 81, found a way to return to work part-time doing something he loves – helping others get fit.

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Retiring? See our Best Books on Retirement here

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For More on Harry King

This 81-year-old fitness trainer rejoined the workforce after retirement: ‘We can do more than most people think we can do’

See Harry King & Team in Action on Good Morning America

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Joy of Movement – Kelly McGonigal

How to Get Stronger After 50 – Dave Durell

The Unretirement Life – Richard Eisenberg

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Wise Quotes

On Purpose

“You’ve got to have a sense of purpose to get up every day. That’s important. If you can’t define that, you’re going to waste some valuable years. Our later years we can do so much and achieve so much and enjoy life so much. Look for things that you enjoy doing. Look for the things that affect you emotionally and define that purpose. Look for it and find it. What do you want to achieve?  What can you do to make the world a better place? And do it. If you can get paid for it, that’s great. If you do it as a volunteer, that’s great too.”

On Challenge

“We need to challenge ourselves on a regular basis. Let’s not be complacent with our lives. There’s so much out there, so much a life we have to live. And the more we challenge ourselves, those mountains we climb, not Everest, but the other mountains we have in front of us that we can climb, that make us stronger. Tthat makes us enjoy the victories and helps us enjoy the victories. We’ve got to pursue those things. That’s my philosophy.”

On Working in Later Life

“Just because we’re aging doesn’t mean we can’t do different jobs. Today, we age a whole lot stronger. I started to say slower, but our mental capacity is stronger. I think for the most part, we’re smarter. I think we’re stronger physically, or we can be, and we should be. We’re living longer, obviously, so let’s give us a chance to be productive as we age. Help that employer…be willing to take a chance on that older guy.”

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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 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.

You’ll need more than a vision for a great retirement.

Early Registration for our 2nd Design Your New Life in Retirement small group program of 2024 is now open.

Starts on April 26th. Join us 

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Who can benefit from your life story? What do you want your children and grandchildren to remember about you? The concept of legacy is being redefined and goes beyond financial assets to value hard earned life lessons and wisdom. Dr. Jandi Kelly, of A Talk to Remember, shares her insights on life purpose and ways to share your life story and wisdom across generations.

Dr. Jandi Kelly joins us from Bend, Oregon.

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Dr. Jandi Kelly is the founder of A Talk to Remember, a boutique production company that helps families and organizations capture their legacies in documentary films and oral history projects. For the past fifteen years, Jandi has worked as a university researcher, instructor, and administrator at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Michigan and her academic scholarship focuses on the topics of teaching and learning, life purpose, and identity development. Her research has been featured in The Journal of Higher Education and other publications. Jandi and her family live in Bend, Oregon, where she serves on the board of trustees for an independent K-12 experiential learning school.

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For More on Dr. Jandi Kelly

A Talk to Remember 

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

A Round of Golf with My Father – William Damon

The Vintage Years – Dr. Francine Toder

The New Age of Aging – Maddy Dychtwald

Inward Traveler – Francine Toder PhD

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Wise Quotes

On Life Purpose

“…it’s helpful to actually define what we mean by life purpose…One of the definitions that I really appreciate is how our talents that we enjoy using intersect with the need in the world or our community that we find to be personally meaningful. And what I really like about that definition is that unlike some specific personal goals that we may have, it extends beyond aims of personal meaning to a desire that we want to make a difference in the world. And so therefore, it’s self transcendent in nature. What the research demonstrates is that having a sense of purpose is associated with a host of benefits across the lifespan as well as later in life. When we think about how life purpose can be beneficial throughout our lives, one of the most overarching benefits is that it really helps us live with greater intentionality in how we spend our days and to remain true to ourselves while benefiting the greater good. And so, in a way, we can think about purpose as a guide that takes us in the right direction. And I know that you had one of your earlier conversations was with Bill Damon out of Stanford, the renowned developmental psychologist, and he likens purpose to an ultimate concern or a final answer to the question of why. So why am I doing this? Why am I striving to accomplish this end? And in that way, purpose is the reason behind our immediate goals, and it’s a motive that drives most of our daily behaviors.”

On Storytelling 

“…when we think about the contributions that we want to make through our stories, we not only have an ability to really impact youth when it comes to the wisdom that we’re passing on, but we also see as we tell our stories that our lives have purpose….And with that, when we think about the stories that we have and when we are afforded time, especially later in life, to really do an inventory of our life, we have an ability to carry our life lessons and experiences with us. And not only do we bring them with us, but they provide a rich opportunity for learning about how we might want to build a rewarding future and repeat some of the things that worked well in the past and maybe take a different path than where we may have misstepped in the past…75% of retirees across the US, as well as 83% of adult children have indicated that their memories, values and life lessons are the most important elements of their legacies that they want to pass on to loved ones. And it makes sense because in the long run, we can’t keep the money with us. It comes and it goes, and at the end of the day, it isn’t our house, it isn’t our property that is going to matter the most to us it’s our relationships and our values are what are really at the core of what matters.”

On Celebrating Life Together

“The Wall Street Journal recently published an article that one of adult children’s greatest regrets is that only one in three adults know the stories behind their parents’ accomplishments. And it’s something that I’m sure we’ve all heard, and when I talk to folks about what I do, I can’t tell you how many times I hear, I wish I just had five more minutes with my Mom, or I wish I would’ve asked Dad that question. And so I think that seeing that just sense of peace and relief that my parents’ story was down was definitely one of the greatest outcomes. And then also another thing that’s documented again and again in the literature is just the benefits of sharing our personal stories to strengthening our interpersonal relationships. So it’s not only a benefit for when we’re gone, but while we’re still here and how we can celebrate our lives together.”

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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 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.

Early Registration for our 2nd Design Your New Life in Retirement small group program of 2024 is now open

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Aging in place? Downsizing? Decluttering? Moving? These topics can give pause to those of us of a certain age. Syndicated columnist and author Marni Jameson reframes those terms with an alternative choice: rightsizing. So forget downsizing. Instead focus on what is the right size home for your lifestyle going forward. And Marni Jameson expands the menu of options to include upsizing, same-sizing and bright-sizing as you consider where to live next.

Marni Jameson joins us from Florida.

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Marni Jameson is the author of Rightsize Today to Create Your Best Life Tomorrow: A Motivational Guide for Those Seeking Their Ideal Home Later in Life. Marni is a nationally syndicated home-design columnist, award-winning journalist, speaker, and frequent TV guest. Her humorous and helpful column, “At Home with Marni Jameson,” appears weekly in two dozen papers nationwide, reaching several million readers and more through social media and her blog. Her fans include readers who have been following the author’s home adventures for two decades. She has been featured on such primetime shows as NBC Nightly News and Martha Stewart Living. As one reviewer wrote, “Think Erma Bombeck meets Rachael Ray in one humble yet helpful package.” She is the author of seven books, including Downsizing the Family Home: What to Save, What to Let Go, a #1 Amazon bestseller that won numerous awards.

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For More on Marni Jameson

Rightsize Today to Create Your Best Life Tomorrow: A Motivational Guide for Those Seeking Their Ideal Home Later in Life by Marni Jameson

At Home with Marni Jameson

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff – Matt Paxton

Where to Retire – Silvia Ascarelli

Where Will You Live Next? – Ryan Frederick

Thriving in Place – Lisa Cini

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Retiring soon? Visit our recommended Best Books on Retirement

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Wise Quotes

On Rightsizing

“It’s really about what do you need in your life going forward. I like to define right-sizing as moving to or creating a home that is the perfect physical, emotional, social and financial fit. So I think about four puzzle pieces, the physical…the emotional… the social and  it’s got to be financially comfortable for you, obviously, or that’s not going to work. So all that has to click. What happens is that people get to the sort of freedom threshold, their late fifties, early sixties where they are no longer commuting to a job. They may have bought the house they live in because it was near their work or near their kids’ schools or the schools they wanted their kids to attend. And fast forward 20, 30 years we’re about where you are and the kids are out of the house. The schools don’t really matter to you anymore or at all, and you are working remotely or you’re retired or you’re planning to retire or you can work from anywhere. And so why are you living in this house that has five bedrooms and you still have your kids’ Cub Scout uniforms in the attic? I mean, this is nuts. So really start envisioning what would you do. What would it look like? What would your house be like? Do you want more bedrooms so you can have the grandkids stay with you? Do you want fewer because nobody’s coming anymore? You want to lock and go travel?”

On Challenges in Rightsizing

“The biggest obstacles I hear people have are it’s just too much trouble. I have too much furniture, or there are too many memories here. And this sort of complacency kicks in this inertia and people get weighed down by stuff. It makes me sad that their stuff would be preventing them from living their best life in the best place for them. But you look to a point, you need to learn how to let go and just keep evolving and stop living in the past and live for now and the future because darling, that’s all we’ve got.”

On Upsizing & Same Sizing

“The variety of ways to right size include is not limited to smaller, I had a couple…that had a beautiful house on the lake where they raised their kids and they had a lot of parties, but it was too big. After the kids left, they sold that house and bought two, they bought a small lock-up and go house in Florida where they’re from, and they bought another small house in Wisconsin where their first grandbaby was going to be born. So they now have two houses for the price of one. It’s worked beautifully for them. Others have upsized. They just really wanted that bigger house. They always lived a little too tight. The grandkids are coming. It’s actually a third of people who buy a house after age 55 upsize. Half, either same size or upsize. So that’s why it’s rightsizing. It’s not about downsizing, it’s really, really about what you need, what you can afford, and what’s a good fit.”

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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 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.

Today’s Building Blocks: Lifelong Learning & Fun  – Are you ready to age adventurously?  If you’re making plans to travel this year, why not combine it with a learning adventure? Road Scholar is a not-for-profit organization providing educational travel programs primarily geared toward older adults with an impressive range of options to explore the world. Kelsey Knoedler Perri and Kerry Bennett join us to discuss how Road Scholar can help you combine travel, learning and fun in 2024.

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Retiring? See our Best Books on Retirement

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Kelsey Knoedler Perri is the Public Relations Director at Road Scholar, the nonprofit world leader in educational travel for older adults. She has worked in travel and tourism throughout her career and has been with Road Scholar since 2016. There she has developed her skills in and knowledge of communicating with and marketing to adults over 50 who #AgeAdventurously. She has special expertise in digital communications, social media, and public relations. She holds an MFA in creative writing and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Kerry Bennett is a retired marketing professional from Northern Arizona University who lives in Flagstaff, AZ. Since retiring, she has become an avid traveler, volunteer, and lifelong learner. She has been on seven learning adventures around the world with Road Scholar, including her most recent: a service program on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. She also volunteers for Road Scholar as an Ambassador, helping spread the word about the organization’s mission through in-person presentations and events.

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For More on Road Scholar

Website

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Mentioned in this Podcast Episode

Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

Learning is a Lifetime Sport – Tom Vanderbilt

The Power of Fun – Catherine Price

Lifelong Learning – Michelle Weise

The Fun Habit – Mike Rucker, PhD

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Wise Quotes

On Learning Adventures

“Our mission always has been and always will be education. So everything we do is about learning. But now our programs are more a mix of classroom learning and experiential learning. So not just lectures in a lecture hall, you’re staying in a hotel room, you’re not staying in a dorm anymore, which is nice. And so we’ve evolved into being more of an educational travel organization…When you travel with Road Scholar, you’re really getting what you pay for and you’re going to be there to learn. You’re not there to sit on a beach and read a book or to go shopping. You’re there to learn. And that’s really what it comes down to. But we also offer financial aid. We offer caregiver grants for full-time, family caregivers. We have a scholarship for retired educators. So that’s also part of our whole nonprofit thing.”

On Solo Travelers

“30% of our travelers each year go solo. We have seen that trending upwards. We’ve seen more solo travelers in general over the past 10 years and 80% of those solo travelers are women.  [We] see a mix of couples, solo travelers, friends who are traveling with other friends, siblings traveling together, parents with their adult children, also people who came as solo travelers on a pass trip and then they met somebody on a trip and then they went a trip together again.And I started to hear more anecdotally that there were a lot of married women who were traveling with us without their husbands. And I just thought that was really interesting. So I want[ed] to get down to some actual data on that. So I did a study and we looked at both data that we had in our system as well as doing a survey. And what we found was that at least 60% of our solo travelers are married people who travel without their spouse on World Scholar programs. I was really surprised by that. It was more than even I expected. And so we surveyed them and the number one reason that they said that they travel without their spouse is because their spouse is just not interested in travel. So that’s really interesting. So I think what we’re seeing as far as a trend is these married folks traveling solo, we’re definitely seeing more interest from women to travel in general, but also to travel solo.”

On Intergenerational Trips

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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 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.

Today’s Building Block: Work (yes, work…) What makes transitions so hard to navigate?  Herminia Ibarra, a thought leader on leadership and career development and author of Working Identity, shares her insights on creating new options as you prepare for your transition to retirement.

Herminia Ibarra joins us from London.

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Comments? Leave a voice message here

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Herminia Ibarra is the Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. Prior to joining LBS, she served on the INSEAD and Harvard Business School faculties.

An authority on leadership and career development, Thinkers 50 ranks Herminia among the top management thinkers in the world.

She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, a judge for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, a Fellow of the British Academy, and the 2018 recipient of the Academy of Management’s Scholar-Practitioner Award for her research’s contribution to management practice.

Herminia is a member of the London Business School governing body. She chaired the Harvard Business School Visiting Committee, which reports to the university’s board of overseers, from 2012 to 2016, having been a member since 2009, and served on the INSEAD board of directors.

A native of Cuba, Herminia received her MA and PhD from Yale University, where she was a National Science Fellow.

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A second and updated edition of her groundbreaking book Working Identity was recently published by Harvard Business Review Press.

Whether as a daydream or a spoken desire, nearly all of us have entertained the notion of reinventing ourselves. Feeling unfulfilled, burned out, or just plain unhappy with what we’re doing, we long to make that leap into the unknown. In this powerful book, Herminia presents a new model for career reinvention that flies in the face of everything we’ve learned from ‘career experts’. While common wisdom holds that we must first know what we want to do before we can act, Ibarra argues that this advice is backward. Knowing, she says, is the result of doing and experimenting.

Based on her in-depth research on professionals and managers in transition, Ibarra outlines an active process of career reinvention that leverages three ways of ‘working identity’: experimenting with new professional activities, interacting in new networks of people, and making sense of what is happening to us in light of emerging possibilities. Through engrossing stories, Ibarra reveals a set of guidelines that all successful reinventions share. She explores specific ways that hopeful career changers of any background can.

A call to the dreamer in each of us, Working Identity explores the process for crafting a more fulfilling future.

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For More on Herminia Ibarra

Website

Working Identity by Herminia Ibarra

Articles

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Check out our Best Books on Retirement

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Mentioned in This Podcast Episode

The HBR Guide to Designing Your Retirement

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace 

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

Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson

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

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Wise Quotes 

On Transitions

“Transitions necessarily imply a loss of a sense of identity, a loss of something that has been meaningful and valuable. You’re moving away from someone you’ve been, but the future you isn’t clear yet, or the future destination or the next role isn’t clear yet. So you’re kind of hanging in limbo and that’s very uncomfortable. We live in a world in which certainty is valued, know who you are and the nature of this process and part of what makes it productive is questioning who you are, but that’s necessarily uncomfortable. So that’s number one. Number two is more specific, particularly today and particularly at mid-career and beyond. These transitions tend to be what I call in my academic jargon under-institutionalized. And what that means is they are not structured. It is not like an MBA job market. It is not like when you want to make partner in a law firm, you know what steps to take. The destination’s often unclear. You don’t know how long it’s going to take. Job search processes today are longer. Companies are taking longer to vet people. So it’s kind of open-ended, How long is it going to be? Where am I going? You’re not going through it necessarily with other people. So it’s hard to benchmark how am I doing? There’s lots of different steps you could take. So say you are an insurance executive and you want to be an entrepreneur to create a wine business. What are the steps? Well, it’s not fixed. It’s not like go to law school, join a firm. There’s lots of different pathways to that. So there’s a lot of uncertainty and ambiguity and openendedness in the process. And we as human beings struggle with that.”

On New Options

“The opportunity is that lots of paths open. Nobody is asking people to simply hang up the boots at age 65 and go play golf. Fewer people are doing a conventional retirement. That creates the challenge of choosing, crafting, and creating because you’re going to have to create your own. So often in our careers we get moved along by our occupation, our profession, our company. Now you have to invent your own. There’s lots of options open. Do you take on another role? Do you create a portfolio of roles? Do you work part of the time and save part of the time for leisure or do you stay, remain in working but more under your own control? There’s lots and lots of options open.”

On Her Possible Selves Exercise

“It’s called the Possible Selves exercise. And I think it is by far the most successful exercise I ever do with my students and participants. And it’s a very simple exercise. Anybody can try it at home. You take out a piece of paper or your iPad and you list as many ideas as you possibly can for who you might become in the future, including things you want, including things a lot about, including things that you maybe have a bit of curiosity about, including things you don’t want but are being thrown at you, including what other people want. But it really generates a portfolio. And there’s two ways in which that is helpful and interesting. The one is, it’s freeing. It allows you to be what we are as humans, divergent, not necessarily consistent, and it allows you to make the most out of the questions.”

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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 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.

Feedback or suggestions for this retirement podcast?  Leave a voice message here

Today’s Building Block: Wellness

What does an emotionally intelligent retirement look like? In this 4th edition of the Retirement Roundtable, two of our favorite previous guests, Kate Schroeder & Nick Wignall, return to discuss the questions to ask yourself now to be well prepared for the emotional aspects of the transition to retirement.

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Bios

Kate Schroeder is a psychotherapist in private practice. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Nationally Certified Counselor, and owner of Transformation Counseling, LLC.

With over 25 years in the mental health field, her clinical background includes experience as a school counselor, mental health therapist in an urban university’s counseling center, individual, couples, group, and family therapist, and clinical researcher. Within these settings, Kate has provided individual, group and family counseling for clients experiencing difficulties in areas including depression and anxiety, adjustment and transitional concerns, C-PTSD, acculturation and multicultural issues, family and childhood conflicts, interpersonal relationships, grief and trauma, eating disorders, LGBTQ issues, self-efficacy, career exploration and various other interpersonal conflicts. Kate also holds certification as a massage therapist, physical trainer and physical education teacher. In addition to her private practice, she also teaches graduate courses to counselors in training.

Kate joins us again from St Louis.

Nick Wignall is a licensed clinical psychologist who is Board-certified in behavioral and cognitive psychology. He’s the founder of the popular newsletter, The Friendly Mind, with practical, evidence-based advice for emotional health and wellbeing. The newsletter is read by 50,000+ people each week and his writing has been featured in media outlets like NBC, Business Insider, Inc Magazine, Aeon and Medium. Nick is the author of Find Your Therapy: A Practical Guide to Finding Quality Therapy, .a guide to learning about the most important factors in choosing a therapist and how to go about finding a good one, either for yourself or someone you love. He did his doctoral training in clinical psychology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, including research in human genetics and psychopharmacology. Prior to that, Nick earned his Masters in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s in English Literature from the University of Dallas.

Nick joins us again form Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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For More on Kate Schroder & Nick Wignall

Kate Schroeder

Nick Wignall

First Visits to the Podcast:

The Emotional Side of Retiring – Kate Schroeder

Coping Strategies & Moving Forward – Nick Wignall & Verla Fortier

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Retiring? Check our recommendations on the Best Books About Retirement

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Mentioned in This Podcast Episode

Source: Our World in Data   Who do we spend time with across our lifetime?

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Self-Healing Mind – Gregory Scott Brown, M.D.

The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace

Chatter & Your Inner Voice – Ethan Kross

Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

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Other Retirement Roundtable podcast episodes

Michelle Pannor Silver Ted Kaufman, and Bruce Hiland 

Fritz Gilbert, Dr. Barbara O’Neill, and Mark Shaiken

Melissa Davey, Richard Haiduck and Thelma Reese

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Wise Quotes from This Retirement Roundtable

On Exploring Who You Are

“So much research out there now shows that adjusting to retirement has its own set of difficulty and challenges for many, many people, especially for a lot of people who’ve identified a lot with their work and they’ve gotten a lot of accolades and self-esteem and identification from the work that they do. They often struggle in some cases more than many other people because work was such a big part of their environment. There’s been a big huge association between work and mental health. And so it really underscores the necessity of having conversations like this because we have to think, when we think about retirement without a doubt, we have to just like people start saving financially for retirement very early on, beginning that early preparation and exploration of your emotional self and who you are as a person and what brings you meaning is really going to be the key to be able to find balance and integrate long before it comes time to actually hang up your keys and move into that retirement place. So my biggest emphasis for folks who are in this part of their life is that if you haven’t already, there is definitely a necessity for you to begin exploring who you are. And I’m not talking about the who you are in terms of your work….But I’m talking about those deeper places of learning who you are, about what brings you deep meaning, what gives you purpose, what kinds of people do you like to interact with. And I’m not saying you tolerate, I’m saying what feeds you. And so the years leading up to retirement are incredibly pivotal for increasing this, I believe pretty essential to begin asking yourself questions like: What do I want out of my life? What do I want out of this next part of my life? …So I think starting early to learn about this emotional part of who you are is critical. If someone wants to successfully retire, you’ve got to begin the exploration now.”                 – Kate Schroeder

On Wisdom

“…I remind myself all the time, it’s not what you know about yourself that’s going to get you anywhere in life or not. It’s what we don’t know that keeps us from getting there. That’s the piece we have to work on. And so to me, emotionally intelligent people are willing to do that. They’re willing to feel a little something along the way and understand that life is up and down. And in the process of discovering myself, that’s going to be part of the learning is making room for all of those feelings. And really the last thing I’ll say about this is I think it’s so crucial to help people learn. We talk about meaning and purpose that comes to us through the form of our feelings over time. What we have to do is also make sure that we have a strong connection to our bodies and who we are, because our bodies are going to be the conduit for so much wisdom and information about what feeds us and what doesn’t.”       – Kate Schroeder

On Labelling Emotions 

” …a very small, but powerful, habit I think people can build to start to improve emotional awareness and intelligence is to notice that urge to intellectualize, to avoid the actual emotion by using a concept or an idea and instead say it like a 6-year-old, how would a little kid describe how I’m feeling right now? And just say that maybe it’s to someone else, you’re in a conversation or maybe just in your own self-talk, when you’re reflecting on how you’re feeling, use language that’s plain and direct when it comes to your feelings and your emotions rather than these kind of convoluted, overly conceptual intellectualization. And that’s one way I think to start to get, it’s a cheesy word, but in touch with what you’re feeling, which is the the doorway to emotional intelligence and understanding yourself on that level a lot better.”     – Nick Wignall

On Identity

“…there’s this old saying, and we’re all athletes here, but in sports and people would say the best offense is a good defense. But I think when it comes to coming out of retirement and these questions of identity and purpose and loss, really, I think you can flip that to pretty good effect, which is the best defense is a good offense. And what I mean by that is I think a lot of people get stuck trying to cope with loss, trying to mitigate the effects of a lot, like: Oh my God, I was this a partner, a VP in this big company. I had so much prestige and influence and respect and all that, and how do I deal with the loss of that? And I’m not saying that’s not an important question, but there’s a sense of proportionality where if all your time and energy is going to mitigating and coping with one particular loss in one aspect of your identity, there’s opportunity costs there. That’s all time and energy that could be put toward. What can I build? What can I bring in? What new aspects of my identity can I uncover or construct? Or whatever kind of metaphor you want to use. My guess is that most people would be far better off channeling more of their energy in that direction rather than putting it all into playing defense and coping with a particular loss…The overall mindset is like, this is who I am, and now it’s gone and I’m a shell of myself now because of that. No, that was one part of who you were at this stage of life. There are almost an infinite number of possibilities going forward, and that sounds nice. You’re listening to this, you’re like, yeah, yeah, okay, that sounds nice. But to really think about that, what would that mean if I saw myself as full of potential options going forward?”    – Nick Wignall

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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 The Multipurpose Retirement.™ 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 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.

The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast are solely those of the guests and do not reflect the opinion of the host or Retirement Wisdom, LLC. The Retirement Wisdom Podcast primarily 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, psychological  and/or medical professionals on those matters.