What are the keys to happiness in retirement? It goes beyond financial security. And if you want to retire happy, what should you focus on? Our guest today is Dr. Barbara O'Neill, author of Flipping the Switch: Your Guide to Happiness and Financial Security in Later Life. Although she is not a fan of the word retirement, she's researched what it takes to make one of life's transitions and retire happy.

I discuss with Dr. O'Neill:

The story of her next chapter (so far) after leaving Rutgers University

How the pandemic will impact retirement, short-term and longer-term

What areas people are the most – and least – prepared for in later life

Why she doesn't like the R-word - and what she prefers to use instead

Why letting go and looking forward are both important - and how they can be challenging in life's transitions

What she thinks are some of the most challenging switches to flip

What she's learned in navigating her own life transition

Her alternative approach to FIRE (FIND)

When people should begin to start planning for life after full-time work

She joins us from Florida.

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Bio 

Barbara O'Neill, Ph.D, CFP®, CRPC®, AFC, CHC, CFEd, CFCS, CPFFE, is the author of Flipping the Switch: Your Guide to Happiness and Financial Security in Later Life.

As the owner/CEO of Money Talk: Financial Planning Seminars and Publications, Dr. Barbara O’Neill, CFP®, AFC®, CRPC®, writes, speaks, and reviews content about personal finance. A Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, after 41 years of service as a Rutgers Cooperative Extension educator and personal finance specialist, Dr. O’Neill has written over 160 articles for academic publications and received more than 35 national awards and over $1.2 million in grants to support her financial education programs and research.

Employed by Rutgers since 1978, she provided national leadership for the Cooperative Extension programs Investing For Your Future and Small Steps to Health and Wealth™ for over a decade. Part of her work time is bought out to provide personal finance training for military family service professionals (for the eXtension Military Families Learning Network) and for New Jersey financial educators as part of a state Department of Education contract.

She is also the author of two trade books, Saving On a Shoestring and Investing On A Shoestring, and co-author of Money Talk: A Financial Guide for Women.

She is a certified financial planner (CFP®), chartered retirement planning counselor (CRPC®), accredited financial counselor (AFC), certified housing counselor (CHC), and certified financial educator (CFEd). She also holds the CFCS (certified in family and consumer sciences) and CPFEE (certified personal and family finance educator) credentials from the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS).

Dr. O'Neill received her Ph.D. in family financial management from Virginia Tech, a master's degree in consumer economics from Cornell University, and a bachelor's degree in home economics education from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oneonta. She has received over three dozen awards for personal or program excellence, including a 2016 AAFCS Distinguished Service Award, and over $1 million in grants and contract funding to support her financial education programs and research. In 2003, she served as president of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education (AFCPE).

From 1996-2000, Dr. O'Neill directed the five-year MONEY 2000™ Cooperative Extension savings and debt reduction campaign in the 1990s that resulted in over $20 million of documented economic impact nationwide. In addition, she has delivered almost 300 national/regional conference presentations throughout her c...