The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

Dr. Anna Dixon, CEO of the Centre for Ageing Better, joins our retirement podcast to discuss her new book, The Age of Ageing Better?: A Manifesto For Our Future. With an ageing population, governments and corporations have been slow to adapt, but there's a lot within our control when it comes to ageing well. 

We discuss:

The mission of UK's Centre for Ageing Better

What actions governments and institutions can take to create a society that can age better

The most common misperceptions about ageing

What people can do to combat ‘day-to day’ ageism

Why she writes of The Loneliness Myth

Life lessons from the pandemic - what we should keep and let go of

How we should be preparing for retirement today

Her advice for those of us who want to age better

Dr. Dixon joins us from London.

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Bio

Dr. Anna Dixon is Ageing Better's Chief Executive, leading the vision of creating a society where everyone enjoys a good later life.

Anna has more than 15 years experience of working at the interface of research, policy, and practice. She has a successful track record of working at the highest levels of government to bring about positive change. Throughout her career, she has been committed to ensuring the voice and needs of the citizen are at the heart of her work.

Anna joined Ageing Better in September 2015 and has taken it from start-up to become an established organisation.

Prior to joining Ageing Better, Anna was Director of Strategy and Chief Analyst at the Department of Health from 2013-2015. She has also held positions at The King’s Fund, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Department of Health and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.

In 2005-6 she was awarded a Harkness Fellowship in Health Policy by the Commonwealth Fund of New York. She has a PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Wise Quotes

On Ageing Populations

"This age shift that I describe with many more of us living longer, and effectively the face of the population changing, with this many more older people. And it does mean redesigning work so that people can stay in work for much longer. It means both adapting our current homes, but also making sure that as we build new homes for the future, that we design them so that they're fit for an aging population. They remain good places to live, even if we develop maybe dementia or mobility issues or different things that we might want to do or need in our later lives. So lots of actions, I suppose the key thing is just to say, it's action across all parts of society and it's action, both from national governments, but also from the private sector and the third sector."

 

On Redesigning Retirement

"If we're talking about a hundred-year life, the expectations that we get to a certain birthday and it's a time to hang up our boots. I think we do need to rethink [retirement] - and many people already are. People are transitioning differently, sometimes requesting part-time work to be able to get a different work-life balance. Many people who at least enjoy their work, and physically able to, are continuing to work. Obviously, other people are having to work out of necessity. Let's be clear, retirement savings are not what they were, the sort of pension, and Social Security. Certainly here in the UK is not very generous and people are having to continue to work to top up their income to maintain any sort of reasonable standard of living. So I think we need to get more realistic about a longer working life and the different sort of retirement rather than one in which we sort of from one day to the next stop ...

Our guest, Cindy Cox-Roman, a market researcher and gerontologist, joins our retirement podcast to share her perspective on the vital role of Personal Agency.

Psychologist Albert Bandura defines personal agency as "the human capability to influence one's functioning and the course of events by one's actions." As you plan for your life in retirement, it's wise to include personal agency so you can be in the driver's seat of your retirement.

I discuss with Cindy:

How she became interested in Gerontology

What themes are emerging in her research on people 50+

What personal agency is - and why it's important

How personal agency can change over the life course - and any gender differences she sees

What influences agency

How agency can be strengthened

What she's learned about mindful aging - and her advice on aging mindfully

Her new additional role with HelpAge USA

Cindy joins us from Washington, DC.

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Bio

Cindy Cox-Roman is a market researcher, gerontologist, and founder of WIT Consulting LLC, a strategic research firm based in Washington, DC. She works with clients to bring the voice of older people to the design of products, services, and systems. As of October 1, Cindy became the Interim CEO of HelpAge USA, the only US nonprofit that is exclusively focused on the wellbeing and inclusion of older people in low- and middle-income countries.

​Earlier in her career, Cindy headed up the New York Custom Research practice of Yankelovich Partners, a social trend research firm studying the attitudes and opinions of the American public and business leaders. Before that, as a Vice-President at Y&R, she led the development of consumer insights and strategy for global advertising campaigns. She also helped establish the company’s first office in Budapest, Hungary, soon after the Berlin Wall came down in the early 1990s.

Cindy holds a Bachelor’s degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and a Master’s degree in Gerontology from the University of Southern California. Recently she has been conducting independent research on older people and personal agency, or the idea of being in the driver’s seat of your life. She’s passionate about this topic and is here to talk more about it today.

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Wise Quotes

On Uncertainty

"And [the research] is a work in progress, but I'll share some themes that have come out, which are also supported by other academic research. And they're very clear and they're very compelling. A major theme is a disconnect between what we often hear about people in their fifties, sixties, seventies, et cetera - that this is the time when you really know yourself. You have life figured out. You have a lot of self-confidence. You see these quotes all the time in interviews with celebrities and things like that. And certainly, there can be a lot of that, but there is a disconnect between that and the reality that for a lot of people, this can be a time of great uncertainty and that's not talked about as much. So in the first research study that I did, I talked qualitatively to primarily women, but also some men about this time in their life.  And one thing I asked a typical research question: If there were three words to describe this time in your life, what would they be? And there was a wide variety of things, but one consistent theme made it clear that this is what I'd call an 'UN' time - because the words that people tended to consistently use to describe this time of the life were words like unpredictable, unsure, and unsettling. Part of it can be the political environment and the economic environment, et cetera. Those are all [key] things, but this was more about internal uncertainty and being unsettled.

2020 is changing life in many ways, including the way we work.  The trend toward working virtually was already well underway, but now remote work from home jobs may become more common going forward. Working virtually expands options for older workers who want to work longer, but with greater flexibility.

Kerry Hannon joins our podcast to talk about her new book Great Pajama Jobs: Your Compete Guide to Working from Home. She notes how remote work from home jobs level the playing field by focusing attention on performance and productivity.

I discuss with Kerry her views on:

The benefits of working virtually for mature workers - and the upside for employers.

If it's possible for people to redeploy their skills in new areas, while also shifting to remote work from home jobs.

How someone knows if they’re a good fit for working virtually.

How to be successful – and happy -  working virtually.

How people working remotely should approach networking.

What someone who wants to create ongoing remote work with their current company should do.

What people should pay attention to in a job search targeting remote work from home jobs, beyond the technical skills a job requires.

Kerry joins us from Washington, DC.

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Bio

Kerry is the best-selling and award-winning author of 14 books. Her latest book, Great Pajama Jobs: Your Compete Guide to Working from Home is now available. Never Too Old to Get Rich: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Business Mid-Life, published by John Wiley & Sons, in 2019, and is a #1 bestseller on Amazon and was selected by The Washington Post for its Book-of-the-Month Club in September.

Other best-selling and award-winning books penned by Kerry include: Money Confidence: Really Smart Financial Moves for Newly Single Women, Great Jobs for Everyone 50+: Finding Work That Keeps You Happy and Healthy . . . And Pays the Bills, Love Your Job: The New Rules for Career Happiness, Getting the Job You Want after 50, and What’s Next?: Finding Your Passion and Your Dream Job in Your Forties, Fifties and Beyond.

She has spent more than three decades covering all aspects of careers, business and personal finance as a columnist, editor, and writer for the nation’s leading media companies.

Kerry is currently an expert columnist and regular contributor to The New York Times, MarketWatch, Forbes, and is personal finance and entrepreneurship expert on the PBS website NextAvenue.org. Her areas of expertise include small business, personal finance, retirement, wealth management and career transition.

She has appeared as a career and financial expert on The Dr. Phil Show, ABC, CBS,, CNBC, NBC Nightly News, NPR, Yahoo Finance and PBS.

In addition to delivering practical advice for mid-life workers seeking to land rewarding jobs, find financial and personal rewards and ride the age wave of longevity with grace, a key passion for Kerry is helping and advising women on how to take charge of their own financial planning, at all stages of their lives, to prepare themselves for a financially secure future.

Her earlier books include Suddenly Single: Money Skills for Divorcees and Widows and The 10-Minute Guide to Retirement for Women.

Kerry is a former National Press Foundation Fellow, a former Fellow of the Columbia Journalism School and the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center’s Age Boom Academy. She is also a former Metlife Foundation and New America Media Fellow on Aging.

She has testified before Congress about the importance of older workers.

Kerry graduated from Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she serves on the Board of Visitors. She received a bachelor’s degree from Duke University,

Ageism in the workplace is increasingly an obstacle to working longer. Patti Temple Rocks, author of I’m Not Done: It’s Time to Talk About Ageism in the Workplace, shares her story and why she's fighting for change. Her book offers a portrait of the costs of ageism and recommends solutions that CEOs and HR can implement.

We discuss with Patti Temple Rocks:

Why she's on a mission to combat ageism in the workplace

When she first noticed ageism in the workplace

The signs and subtle signals of ageism

Why ageism is bad for business

How companies benefit from a multigenerational workforce

What CEOs and HR can do to create an inclusive culture with age diversity

What she's learned for her personal journey

How 5:45 AM Soul Cycle sessions helped in her transition

Her advice for people who aren't done and want to work longer

Patti joins us from Chicago.

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Bio

Patti Temple Rocks is the author of I’m Not Done: It’s Time to Talk About Ageism in the Workplace. Her book, an Amazon bestseller, was ranked as one of INC Magazine 9 Books Every Professional Should Read in 2019 and Kirkus described her book as a “compelling argument and a spirited call to action against workplace age discrimination.” Patti is also a Forbes contributor and public speaker.

In close to four decades in the communications business, Patti has held senior leadership positions in four different areas of the industry: PR, Advertising Corporate, and Start-up. Patti is known as an inspirational leader, innovative thinker, problem-solver, growth driver, passionate brand steward, and both an agent for change and a counselor during that change.

Patti was the Managing Director for the Chicago office of IPG Public Relations agency, Golin, and led the agency to consistent growth, while providing counsel and ideas to clients including McDonald’s, Walmart, Humana, Tylenol, Unilever, Discover, Dow, and ConAgra. As the Chief Reputation Officer at Leo Burnett, Patti sat on of the agency’s Global Leadership Council, where she provided global strategic leadership of communications, and experienced first-hand the seismic shifts that were happening within the ad industry. While Chief Brand and Reputation Officer for Dow Chemical, Patti was the principal architect behind the company’s “Human Element” campaign, an award-winning rebranding effort that lifted Dow’s reputation scores by the most significant margin in its history. And as Founder of Temple•Rocks Communications in the 90s, she learned how to serve a wide variety of smaller clients while simultaneously getting married, giving birth, making cold calls, fixing copy machines, and built a successful start-up agency along the way.

Most recently, proving that she truly wasn’t done, Patti rejoined the creative agency world. In April of 2019, she accepted a role as Senior Partner ICF Next (formerly Olson Engage) where they utilize her “Wisdom, Experience & Connections” (Chapter 6 in her book) as she leads Client Impact across their combined advertising and PR group, Brand Engage.

Patti, an avid traveler who never says no to a travel opportunity and a lifelong Cubs fan, is most proud to be mother to Jake, step-mom to Eric and Danielle, and “Gigi” to five-year-old twins, Liam and Teagan. She lives in the Chicago suburb of Geneva, with her husband Bob and her two golden retrievers, Rose and Rizzo.

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Wise Quotes

On First Noticing Ageism

"And so I started to realize that there was a code language that maybe I didn't fully understand. And so from that moment on, I just think I became acutely aware of some of this behavior that exhibits in workplaces because there is just this unchecked assumption that people reach a certain age a...

What's life in retirement like for a retired lawyer? And what does a career change for lawyers look like after years in practice? In this episode of our retirement podcast, we talk with retired attorney Mark Shaiken, about his book And... Just Like That: Essays on a life before, during, and after the law, about his story and his advice on second careers for lawyers (and non-lawyers as well).

We talk with Mark about:

How he decided to become a lawyer

His replacement word for retirement - and what his afterlife is like as a retired lawyer

What his transition to retirement was like

How a teacher may have put his interest in art on hold - and what it's like working in a creative field today

What he's learned about himself in his life as a retired lawyer

How lawyers can use their skill-set in other ways in second careers for lawyers

His advice for those considering a career change for lawyers - or a career change or non-lawyers as well.

Mark joins us from Denver, Colorado.

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Bio

Forty-one years in the law and then one day, no more law, just like that.

After retirement, Mark Shaiken authored: And... Just Like That: Essays on a life before, during, and after the law.

Mark is a survivor of a decades-long career in the corporate bankruptcy trenches. He sat for 10 years on his law firm’s board of directors and was a member of its strategic planning committee. He holds his B.A. from Haverford College and received his J.D. from Washburn University. He is a graduate of the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts’ Leadership Arts program. He holds seats on Art Boards, sits on Habitat for Humanity, Metro Denver’s audit and finance committee, and is a member of the Downtown Denver Partnership’s Mobility and Housing Councils. He now measures his life by what he gives and enjoys that immensely. Mark has now started his next book “Fresh Start,” a bankruptcy novel.

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Wise Quotes

On Transitioning to Retirement

"I think that I am correct that lawyers go through this process of why did I become a lawyer? Was this really the thing I should have done perhaps more than other professions? Because I think I hit a chord that resonated with the readers about that path. And I sure spend an awful lot of time during my career, trying to think of other things to do, maybe dreaming of other things to do, and certainly negotiating with myself as to how much longer I would hang on as an attorney. But I finally found my path out and I took it. And now I'm in the not-for-profit world where I feel like I get to ask every day at the end of the day, what I gave and I'm, I enjoy that immensely. That's quite different than what you find in the law firm world, where you, you tend to be measuring your career by what you get. And I certainly did some of that during my career, but now I get to measure my life by what I'm giving. And that makes me really happy."

 

On the Non-linearity of Life 

 

"I don't think there's much about life that's linear - even if it's somebody that's always known what they wanted to do. And then, [once you decide to do something different] there's nothing about life that's linear, which makes it kind of interesting. The ups and the downs can be scary, but that's what living on Planet Earth is. So nothing that I have ever done has been linear, including in this afterlife. I've learned a lot of things, post my law career, but I didn't know about myself. That makes even what I'm doing now, not particularly linear, but I'm used to that at this point. And so it doesn't scare me as much as it might have when I was, you know, 25 or 30."

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Do your ideas about retirement include volunteering? Retirement is not the end, it's the beginning of a new phase of life. And a volunteer opportunity provides a new pathway. Two retirees volunteer, become friends, and later write a book about it. In this episode of our retirement podcast, we talk with the authors of  The Paths We Cross. The book is a joint memoir detailing their lives and their experiences as volunteers with AARP.

We discuss with the authors:

What attracted them to AARP's Tax-Aide Program

What they think people need to know about volunteering, and how to find the right volunteer opportunity

What led them to write a book together –and what was it was like to write a book together

What they know now about retirement that they didn't know before

What they are finding to be the best things about life in retirement –and the biggest challenges

Their advice on retirement for someone who’s planning to retire soon

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Wise Quotes

On Retirement

"...Retirement can be fun if you choose to do the right thing."

On Goals

"...Set goals for yourself, goals that will fulfill your needs. Think about what you'd like to do that you couldn't have done before. Maybe a hobby, maybe something else, but set your goal before you retire."

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Bios

Noam Eimer is an information technology professional with a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Newark College of Engineering (now known as NJIT). Born in Israel only a few years before the country’s declaration of independence, Noam immigrated to the United States in 1964 to pursue his education after serving in the Israeli army and has lived there ever since. He has extensive experience in project management, business process engineering, large-scale application development, and new business development projects. After a 35-year career, he retired from active employment but continues to contribute his knowledge, expertise, and time to create value for his community on a volunteer basis, most notably through the AARP Tax-Aide Program. Noam has resided in the Philadelphia area with his wife for the past five decades where they also raised three children.

Bruce Satalof is a business professional with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from St. Joseph’s University. Born in West Philadelphia, Bruce was the youngest of four boys to parents whose Depression Era roots were a strong influence. Whereas he thrived in sports and business endeavors, it wasn’t until his 30’s that he felt compelled to pursue a college degree in order to realize his full potential. After attending night school while working full time and helping to raise two children, Bruce achieved his dream in 2004 when he received his degree in Business Administration. Having retired from active employment after a 32-year career, he was able to continue applying his management skills as a volunteer in the AARP Tax-Aide Program. Bruce continues to live in the Philadelphia area with his wife and has found his post-retirement ventures to be a fulfilling part of his life's journey.

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Related Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Skill Set for Life’s Transitions – Bruce Feiler

How Seniors Are Saving the World With Activism – Thelma Reese

From the NBA Hardwood to the Altar – Steve Javie

How to Live Your Legacy Now – Barbara Shaiman

Retired, But Not Done Yet – Dr. Cynthia Barnett

Making Sense of Medicare – Dan Petkevich

Retirement Planning Includes Getting Good at Getting Older – Rabbi Laura Geller

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Related Blog Post

https://www.retirementwisdom.

Parenting adult children and maintaining strong relationships with adult children, takes adjustment and flexibility. As parents get older, so do their children. While you'll always be their parent, the lives of adult children bring new dynamics and complexities. Careers, spouses, and in-laws enter the picture. And sometimes family estrangement can occur.

In this episode of our retirement podcast, our guest is Tina Gilbertson, author of Reconnecting with Your Estranged Adult Child.

We discuss with Tina:

What the research shows about how common this is and how it's trending

What causes some relationships with adult children to fracture

The different types of estrangement

How the path to reconciliation begins

What successful reconciliations have in common

How to keep relationships with adult children healthy

Tina joins us from Denver, Colorado.

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Wise Quotes

On Compassion

"The first step to reconciliation is to recognize that reconciliation is required and find compassion for yourself for finding yourself in this painful, difficult, sometimes excruciating position. Compassion is always the very first step...So the first step is self-compassion. That's also important because when you can find compassion for yourself, you naturally find that you feel more compassion also for your child. And that is a good basis for forming a connection. That mutual compassion is sort of I'm okay. You're okay. I'm a good person. You're a good person. That's why that in my mind is Step One."

On Boundaries

"...When we talk about healthy relationships, one thing that almost automatically comes up is boundaries and respecting boundaries. And some people don't like the concept of boundaries because it feels aggressive or it feels cold. But I think that is a misinterpretation of what boundaries are meant to do. We have fences around our yards, but we also have always a gate in the fence that can be opened and closed. It's not a moat. It's just saying, this is my yard. And that is not my yard. And so respecting boundaries is an important thing for parents to do with adult children. But it's also a thing too, that they need to require of everyone else, including their adult child. "And it may seem it's counterintuitive to talk to a parent. Who's been rejected on willingly about holding her own boundaries. And yet it's terribly important because many parents feel like doormats like their child is walking all over them."

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Bio

Tina Gilbertson is a psychotherapist who specializes in supporting parents of estranged adult children and is the founder of the Reconnection Club, the essential online resource for parents of estranged adult children.

She is the author of Constructive Wallowing: How to Beat Bad Feelings By Letting Yourself Have Them and Reconnecting with Your Estranged Adult Child. Her weekly podcast is called The Reconnection Club Podcast.

As an expert on relationships and communication, she's been featured in dozens of media outlets including Forbes, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and Fast Company.

Tina holds a master's degree in counseling psychology, is licensed as an LPC in Colorado and Oregon, and is also a Board-Certified Telemental Health Provider, offering online therapy to clients in both states. Though her office is currently in Denver, she offers training and consulting all over the world.

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For More on Tina Gilbertson

Tina's website

Her latest book Reconnecting with Your Estranged Adult Child 

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Skill Set for Life’s Transitions – Bruce Fei...

Are You Ready for Your Next Transition?

Life's transitions come at you more often than you might think. And when you're transitioning to retirement, you may be dealing with other life transitions simultaneously, such as becoming an empty nester or relocating. Author Bruce Feiler's new book reveals interesting data points on various types of life transitions and how often they tend to occur. Based on 225 interviews with people from all walks of life, Feiler details the common types of transitions - Disruptors and Lifequakes - and examines how they arise, involuntarily, and voluntarily. Best of all, the second half of the book outlines valuable tools you can use to manage transitions effectively.

Bruce Feiler is a master storyteller and this book is a pleasure to read. Most important, it's a Gamechanger. It's a paradigm shift that will reframe how you view the transition into retirement life.

We talk with Bruce Feiler about:

What inspired him to write Life Is In The Transitions

Why we expect life to unfold in a linear fashion, yet it is inherently non-linear

What surprised him in the data that emerged from the interviews

How Disruptors become Lifequakes

Why we resist transitions

How creativity can be useful in transitions

How this can be used in education, so it's not always 'learned the hard way'

His advice for people transitioning to retirement, perhaps earlier than planned

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Bio

Bruce Feiler is one of America’s most popular voices on contemporary life. He is the author of six consecutive New York Times bestsellers; the presenter of two prime-time series on PBS; and the inspiration for the drama Council of Dads on NBC. Bruce’s two Ted Talks have been viewed more than two million times. Employing a firsthand approach to his work, Bruce is known for living the experiences he writes about. His work combines timeless wisdom with timely knowledge turned into practical, positive messages that allow people to live with more meaning, passion, and joy. His new book, LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS: Mastering Change at Any Age, describes his journey across America, collecting hundreds of life stories, exploring how we can navigate the growing number of life transitions with greater purpose and skill.

For more than a decade, Bruce has explored the intersection of families, relationships, health, and happiness. His book The Secrets of Happy Families collects best practices from some of the country’s most creative minds. The Council of Dads describes how, faced with one of life’s greatest challenges, he asked six friends to support his young daughters. The book was profiled in PEOPLE, USA Today, and Time and was the subject of a CNN documentary hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Since 2001, Bruce has been one of the country’s preeminent thinkers about the role of spirituality in contemporary life. Walking The Bible describes his 10,000-mile journey retracing the Five Books of Moses through the desert. The book spent a year and a half on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into fifteen languages.

Bruce Feiler has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and Gourmet, where he won three James Beard Awards. He is a frequent commentator on radio and television. A former circus clown, he has been the subject of a Jay Leno joke and a JEOPARDY! question, and his face appears on a postage stamp in the Grenadines.

A native of Savannah, Georgia, Bruce lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Linda Rottenberg, and their identical twin daughters.

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Wise Quotes

On Life Transitions

"...there has not been a book on life transitions, a major book in 40 years. Like this is a concept that we have expelled from our c...

How to Take Control of Your Career in Turbulent Times

Is it time to switch careers? Or perhaps pursue early retirement and create a second career? Savvy career planning requires you to be thinking two steps ahead in the best of times. However, in times like these, your awareness needs to be sharpened. It's wise to tune in intently to what's happening, in and around you, that may affect what's next for you. Maggie Craddock's new book Lifeboat: Navigating Unexpected Career Change and Disruption, offers a strategy and valuable guidance on how to take control of your next career move in a dynamic and uncertain world.

In this episode of the Retirement Wisdom podcast, we discuss:

What inspired her to write her third book Lifeboat

How a Big Ship mindset can take a toll on you

How to spot Icebergs that may affect your career planning and direction

Why you need to be aware of inner icebergs as well as external ones

Her own Lifeboat experience that spurred a career change to more meaningful work

How cultivating courage, inner wisdom and emotional agility can help you take control of your life & career

Her advice on how to start building a Lifeboat mindset

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Bio

Maggie Craddock is an executive coach who has worked with clients at all levels on the professional spectrum – from people entering the workforce to Fortune 500 CEOs. She has been featured on CNBC, National Public Radio and quoted in national publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.

Maggie is the author of "Lifeboat: Navigating Unexpected Career Change and Disruption", "Power Genes: Understanding Your Power Persona and How to Wield it at Work", and "The Authentic Career: Following the Path of Self-Discovery to Professional Fulfillment".

She has also written several nationally syndicated articles on behavioral dynamics in the workplace, and her work has been discussed in publications ranging from Harvard Business Review to Oprah Magazine. She is a popular keynote speaker at leadership conferences for her corporate clients and industry networking associations.

Before building her executive coaching business, Maggie worked for over a decade on both the buy and the sell sides of the financial services industry. As a Portfolio Manager at Scudder, Stevens & Clark, Maggie managed $3 billion in short-term global assets. She received two Lipper Awards for top mutual fund performance: Best Short-Term Multi-Market Income Fund, ranked #1 by Lipper in a universe of 77 funds, and Best World Income Fund over $1 billion in size, ranked #1 by Lipper in a universe of 7 funds.

She also served as a National Director of Consultant Relations at Sanford C. Bernstein, representing the firm across all asset classes including emerging markets, domestic and international fixed income, and domestic and international equity to major consultants and pension fund clients nationwide.

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Wise Quotes

On the Lifeboat Mindset

"This is about actually tapping into difficult feelings, acknowledging them. If you're anxious, if you're envious, if you're resentful, whatever it is, face it, acknowledge it. And then bring yourself back to the present moment so that you don't get pulled into a narrative from the past and capsized by the feelings. It's really about learning to process that emotional energy. And the reason it's so important to be in touch with what you're feeling, particularly when the feelings are big, is in situations where you have more questions than answers. You need to notice those red flags because you may need to course-correct. And then finally the Lifeboat process is about what I call this inner alignment of really aligning your thoughts, your feelings,

The Keys to Growing Young

Can friendship, optimism, and kindness help you live to 100? Marta Zaraska, author of Growing Young joins The Retirement Wisdom Podcast to explain how the research indicates it can through the mind-body connection.

We discuss with Marta:

What inspired her to write Growing Young

Where some of us may be overinvesting and underinvesting based on scientific research on longevity

How optimism and pessimism may affect longevity

Why superfoods, supplements and "quick fixes" aren't the wise moves to make

Her favorite stories from her travels and experiments while researching her book

Which things lower and which things raise mortality risk based on the research, including a few that may surprise you

Lessons that may be helpful in quarantine

What Longevity Habits to create

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Wise Quotes

On Optimism

"There is so much research showing that optimism can add anywhere from four to 10 years of life.  The number 10 years keeps reappearing in studies over and over. For example, Catholic Nuns, which are perfect groups of study because, you know, they all live in basically the same environment, their whole lives, especially those who entered very, very young. And there was a study exactly like that. They eat the same thing. They wake up at the same hour, they live in the same place doing exactly the same things. And there was one famous study that analyzed their diaries and those who are using the most cheerful language, the most optimistic language outlasted those who are using very gloomy, pessimistic words in the writing by exactly about 10 years. And the same was shown, for example, on autobiographies of famous psychologists on even the orangutans in zoos, you know, when they are evaluated by the zookeepers. Those who have the most cheerful, outgoing personalities outlive the more pessimistic, gloomy orangutans by 10 years as well. So it keeps coming back to the 10 years."

On Longevity Habits

"When I think about diet and exercise, which again, are still important, but it's very much inward-looking. So it's very much an 'all about me' kind of thing - my body, my diet, my exercise. But when I think about those soft longevity habits, it's more about looking outwards outside of yourself. I'm thinking about other people. So, when you wake up, just think: What can I do for others today? How can I be nicer? How can I contribute to my neighborhood, to my family? How can I be nice to my partner or to my neighbors or to my friends? -  things like that. Very, very simple, but this is a change of perspective. And I think that this can make a tremendous difference. Of course, there are very practical suggestions in my book as well. For example, do more things in synchrony with others.

On Synchrony

"There is an amazing effect with synchrony actually has an asset. For example, when we do things in sync with others, that boosts of those social hormones that we get out of it is actually double. So for example, when you dance with other people and when you sing with them, it makes you feel connected. And it releases all the social hormones that have beneficial health effects for you, such as endorphins, which are natural painkillers. But when you do it in synchrony, the effects are doubled. So for example, chorus singing or line dancing is kind of my career. So there are very, very practical tips out there as well for people to try."

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Bio 

Marta Zaraska is a science journalist whose work has been published in The Washington Post, Scientific American, New Scientist, and The Atlantic.

​Her first book, "Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million Year Obsession with Meat" was chosen by the journal Nature as one of "the best sci...