The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

A study by Stanford and Encore.org found that the majority of older adults want to give back in some way. Jim Ansara, an AARP 2024 Purpose Prize winner, is making a big difference in his retirement with his organization Build Health International. How might you redirect your skills and experience to make a difference? Jim Ansara joins us from Beverly , Massachusetts. ____________________ Bio Jim Ansara is a retired general contractor who founded Shawmut Design and Construction in Boston in the early 1980’s and led it to become one of the top 25 construction companies in the US. While at Shawmut he led several volunteer teams of employees to build low-tech, clean water systems in Nicaragua with the organization, El Porvenir. After retiring as Chairman of the Board, Jim redirected his energy to the developing world. In 2009 a trip to Haiti with Dr. Paul Farmer led to an invitation to build a small community hospital with Partners in Health (PIH) in Haiti’s Central Plateau. The process took a major turn when a massive earthquake struck the country on January 10, 2010. For three-and-a-half years after the earthquake, through the outbreak of cholera and political unrest, through hurricanes and unbearable heat, Jim, his partner Dr. David Walton of PIH, and hundreds of Haitian and Dominican workers persevered to build Haiti’s new 340-bed National Teaching Hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti. Since its completion, the mission to build and equip global health care infrastructure has continued via a new non-profit, Build Health International, based in Beverly, MA. The BHI team has undertaken projects in low-resource settings across 22 countries with PIH, the Kellogg Foundation, Cure International, Direct Relief International and numerous other NGOS. For Jim’s philanthropy he has received Honorary Doctorates in Humane Letters from Amherst College and Salem State University, as well as distinction from Partners in Health, Health Equity International, The American Red Cross Northeast MA Chapter, the Political Asylum and Immigration Representation Project, Summer Search Boston, and more. He serves on the board of Health Equity International, and in years past on the boards of Salem State University, the Boston Children’s Museum, Youth Build, and City Year. _____________________ For More on Jim Ansara Build Health International (BHI) Health Equity Humanitarian Delivers Hospitals for the Poor ____________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Changing the World One Small Act at a Time – Brad Aronson Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller The Best Day of My Life So Far – Benita Cooper Why People Make a Career Change with Purpose Top of Mind – Chris Farrell ____________________ Wise Quotes On Learning and New Challenges in Retirement “I’m passionate about tackling challenges and solving problems. And one of the things that really excites me in life is learning, not necessarily learning in traditional methods, but learning by sort of immersion, where I’m trying to keep my nose and mouth just above the flood tide. And I need a level of sort of challenge and the accompanying freneticism in my life to really be happy. I’d like it to be different. I’d like to be a more relaxed and easy-going person, but at 67, that’s not going to change probably. So it’s really a combination of those two things. And I found, and this is an area, Build Health International, where I could really exercise both of those things. It’s informative about who I am and who I’m not.” On the Transition to Retirement “I’d like to say that I got to where I am by lots of self reflection and and and that kind of thing, but it’s not true. I really fell into it. But I kept sort of trying to figure out what was next for me. And I was also clear on what I didn’t want to do. I knew some people who had sold companies and made some money, and many of them manage their money and got into business, either as consultants or advisors. One guy even started a hedge fund – that didn’t work out well. Lots of things like that. And I was clear that I didn’t love business. What I was able to eventually figure out is what I loved about being in business was the challenges, the problem solving, and the community I got from it. I wasn’t a particularly naturally social person. I got a lot of my community from work. Just learning was piece of it. And that’s what I loved about being in business. I didn’t love making money. I enjoyed the benefits of it, but it wasn’t my purpose. And I also knew that I was the beneficiary of lots and lots of hard work, plus great timing and things broke my way. I wasn’t a brilliant entrepreneurial entrepreneur. And I think that’s one of the things that confuses a lot of people who, like me, got really lucky once. Now, I also had to go through a transition, which was interesting, which luckily I was warned about. When you’re a CEO of a larger company, lots of things get done for you, and you’re used to being taken incredibly seriously, even if people think they’re really stupid ideas, and people say, Yes, I’ll get on that. And quickly that vanishes. And luckily I’d been warned about that. But that’s also very difficult for some people. I’m not saying everybody starts with that. But if you do, it can be a hard transition and I was able to come to terms with that fairly quickly and realize that I wasn’t special.” On an Advisor Who Tells You the Truth  “CEOs and executives, I think, live in sort of a feedback bubble where you don’t have a lot of people telling you the truth and their unvarnished opinions. You don’t have somebody saying That’s the stupidest damn idea I’ve ever heard. How can you think that? You just don’t have that. And it’s probably even less today as people are more politically correct and more cautious about what they say. And you really really need that. And I had one advisor who I had a love -hate relationship with but always respected ,Tom Feely, who was my CPA for many years and who also served as a strategic advisor. It’s an odd combination. And I would meet with him a couple times a month in person. I’d talk to him on the phone sometimes every day and he would not only push me but he would tell me when I was full of it or off base in no uncertain terms. And that was so valuable and it’s so hard to find those people in your life. So if in a transition like this if you can find people who will tell you that unvarnished truth you know whether you want to hear it or not that’s super valuable.” On Forging Your Path “Not everyone’s going to want to do what I’m doing, and I understand that. Everybody’s going to be different, and everybody’s going to want to plug in to whatever they’re doing at different levels and different ways. I think a lot of people are going to be more balanced about their approach than I am, which is probably good. But, I think it’s not just what you’re passionate about. I think that’s a piece of it. But it’s also what you can be effective at. Because if you’re not effective, it’s just not going to work. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs going on to second careers, where they’re not effective and not necessarily qualified, and they struggle.” ____________________ 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 the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s 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 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

Lauren Dunning, Director on the Future of Aging team at the Milken Institute, dives into the fascinating world of aging and its implications for healthspan and longevity. She discusses innovative housing and care solutions for older adults, emphasizing the importance of intergenerational connections. Dunning highlights the rise of technology among seniors, like using AI companion robots and smartphones, to enhance social interactions. She also touches on the impact of a positive self-perception on longevity and the role of policy in countering ageism.

Christine Benz, Director of Personal Finance at Morningstar and author of "How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement," dives into the emotional and social aspects of retirement. She discusses the importance of finding purpose and maintaining connections post-work. Benz emphasizes balancing relaxation with meaningful pursuits and highlights the concept of 'microjoys'—the small daily pleasures that enhance happiness. She also explores how embracing hobbies like birdwatching and taking sabbaticals can lead to a fulfilling retirement.

A lot changes when you retire. That can be daunting, but it also presents valuable opportunities. It gives you a window to recreate a new approach to life now that you’ll have the time and freedom to pursue what you’d like to do. Teresa Amabile, co-author of the new book Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You, joins us to discuss the key lessons from over 200 interviews with 120 people and their experiences in retiring. Teresa Amabile joins us from Massachusetts. _____________________ Bio Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, Emerita and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School. Originally educated as a chemist, Teresa received her doctorate in psychology from Stanford University. She studies how everyday life inside organizations can influence people and their performance. Teresa’s research encompasses creativity, productivity, innovation, and inner work life – the confluence of emotions, perceptions, and motivation that people experience as they react to events at work. Teresa’s work has earned several awards: the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Management’s OB Division (2018); the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (2017); the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israel Organizational Behavior Conference (2018); the Center for Creative Leadership Best Paper Award (in Leadership Quarterly) (2005); and the Torrance Award from the National Association for Gifted Children (1998). In 2020, she was named one of the top 50 scholars, by citation count, in business/management (PLOS Biology). She has presented her theories, research results, and practical implications to various groups in business, government, and education, including Apple, IDEO, Procter & Gamble, Roche Pharma, Genentech, TEDx Atlanta, the Society for Human Resource Management, Pfizer, and the World Economic Forum. In addition to participating in various executive programs at Harvard Business School, she created the MBA course Managing for Creativity, and has taught several courses to first-year MBA students. Teresa was the host/instructor of Against All Odds: Inside Statistics, a 26-part instructional series originally produced for broadcast on PBS. She was a director of Seaman Corporation for 25 years, and has served on the boards of other organizations. Teresa’s discoveries appear in her book, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. The book, based on research into nearly 12,000 daily diary entries from over 200 professionals inside organizations, illuminates how everyday events at work can impact employee engagement and creative productivity. Published in August 2011 by Harvard Business Review Press, the book is co-authored with Teresa’s husband and collaborator, Steven Kramer, Ph.D. Her other books include Creativity in Context and Growing Up Creative. Teresa has published over 100 scholarly articles and chapters, in outlets including top journals in psychology (such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and American Psychologist) and in management (Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal). She is also the author of The Work Preference Inventory and KEYS to Creativity and Innovation. Teresa has used insights from her research in working with various groups in business, government, and education, including Procter & Gamble, Novartis International AG, Motorola, IDEO, and the Creative Education Foundation. ___________________ For More on Teresa Amabile Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You  by Teresa M. Amabile , Lotte Bailyn, Marcy Crary , Douglas T. Hall  and Kathy E. Kram ___________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Balancing Act in Retirement – Stew Friedman Retirement Rookies – Stephen & Karen Kreider Yoder Independence Day – Steve Lopez ___________________ Wise Quotes On the Developmental Tasks in Retirement “We found four jobs, essentially, four tasks that people have to do when they retire. Now, this work can be fun and exciting, at least parts of it, but it does take time and effort. The first task is deciding when and how to retire. This is a big deal for most jobs and most professions in the U.S. because we do not have a mandatory retirement age, as many industrialized countries do. So the decision is a thing that we have to deal with. The second task is detaching from work, tangibly ending, finishing up your work, doing the HR paperwork, but psychologically as well. And that part is a lot more difficult for many people, because they have to deal with a trio of losses, or at least big changes. One is identity. Another one is relationships that you’ve had for maybe decades at work. And the third is life structure loss. So your life has been really structured by that thing that’s occupied 40 or maybe 50 or more waking hours of your life for decades. So there’s that life structure loss. And that can all make detaching from work that second task kind of challenging. We saw many ways that people could deal with that successfully, but it is work. And the third task is exploring and experimenting to build a provisional retirement life, once you are in retirement. This can involve exploring and experimenting with new activities, relationships, groups, new organizations to join, places to be. That exploration actually can start before you retire. Some people  started dipping their toe into some things.But it usually happens in a big way after people retire in those first months and and really first year sometimes. And the fourth task is consolidating a quasi-stable retirement life. So figuring out from that provisional retirement life what seemed to be working well for you and and keeping those elements in your life, investing in them more if you feel like it and settling into something that feels more or less like a settled rhythm and routine for your life.” On Life Structure “Let me just explain this concept of life structure. Your life structure basically just includes everything in your life at a given point in time. Activities and relationships, groups and organizations you belong to, places where you spend your time. In our data, we saw a constant interplay, a kind of dance throughout the retirement transition between people’s life structure and what we psychologists call their self. The self includes everything central about a person. There are multiple identities. A person can be an engineer and a leader and a grandparent. So multiple identities, their values and priorities, their needs, their personalities, even their health.” On The 4 As “The four A’s…are alignment, awareness. agency and adaptability. So alignment is developing the realization that you should try to work toward good alignment between yourself and your life structure. And that just means looking at your life structure realistically and honestly and looking at yourself as you are now and seeing Does that life structure align well with who I am? And for that you need the second A, which is awareness. So you need to develop a good awareness of what the dynamics in your life structure really are and how they’re affecting you. You also need to develop good self -awareness. That’s often tougher for many of us. And it sometimes takes talking with a trusted other person, a mentor, a therapist or a counselor, sometimes a coach. I know you coach people, a trusted friend or a family member to help you reflect on who you are now. What’s really important to you? What are your needs? What are your most important values? So that A of awareness is absolutely necessary for you to develop that alignment that you need. And also to develop alignment, you need to exercise agency and that is to have the courage to proactively make changes in your life structure if you see that there are elements that aren’t working so well for you or maybe the agency to try to make some changes in yourself. And finally, because, as you said, life happens. We can’t exercise agency over everything in our lives. In fact, the truth is we can exercise agency over very few things in our lives. So we need to develop adaptability when things happen that we cannot control, we can’t change, this is our life and we need to figure out how to adapt, how to adjust.” ___________________ 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 the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s 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 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

It’s time to look back at our best podcast conversations from earlier this year. We’ve covered smart moves you can make to optimize your physical and cognitive health and longevity; how a Life Calculator can give you a wake up call and stop you from procrastinating, and why more people are rejecting the idea of a traditional retirement – and choosing their own adventure. We also explored why our retirement system in the US needs an overhaul; how you can make today your last bad day; how social connections affect your health – and what you can do about it. Listen in for insights to help you retire smarter. Want to listen it any of of the full conversations? How Not to Age –Dr. Michael Greger  Live Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Why We Remember – Charan Ranganath Unretired – Mark Walton My Last Bad Day – Michael O’Brien The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy – Teresa Ghilarducci The Laws of Connection – David Robson ______________________ Other Best Of Episodes You May Like Best of 2024-Part One Best of The Retirement Wisdom Podcast 2023 – Part Two The Very Best of 2022 The Best of 2021 – Retirement Wisdom _______________________ 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 the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s 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 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

What constitutes a good life? Marc Schulz, co-author of The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, highlights useful insights from the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has been running for over eight decades. You’ll hear advice you can use in building your good life. Marc Schulz joins us from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. _____________________ Bio Marc Schulz is the associate director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and the Sue Kardas PhD 1971 Chair in Psychology at Bryn Mawr College. He also directs the Data Science Program and previously chaired the psychology department and Clinical Developmental Psychology PhD program at Bryn Mawr. Dr. Schulz received his BA from Amherst College and his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a practicing therapist with postdoctoral training in health and clinical psychology at Harvard Medical School. ______________________ For More on Marc Schulz The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness ______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson Happier Hour – Cassie Holmes, PhD Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer _______________________ Wise Quotes On Relationships and Well-Being “One is a finding that should be familiar to many of your listeners. We really want to take care of our body like we’re going to be in it for a long time. Let’s shoot for 100 years. And what does that mean? That means that we want to move our body. Exercise is good for us. We want to avoid smoking. We want to moderate our drinking of alcohol. And we also want to, particularly as we age, to go to doctors and make sure that we’re getting treatments that are important to maintain our health, because many of us develop different kinds of challenges as we get older, physical and medical challenges that are important to take care of. The study also has made important contributions to recognizing that stuff happens to all of us, that very few lives happen without adversity, and how we meet adversity, and particularly the feelings and emotions that adversity tends to engender, are really important for our health and our well -being. But the big finding, and this is the finding that we talk about most in our book, The Good Life, is that it’s very clear across this 86 years of research, and hundreds of papers, that the most important predictor of health and happiness throughout the lifespan is the quality of our relationships with others. How connected we are, how much we can rely on other support, and how much we’re able to do that are really key predictors of how happy we’ll be and how healthy we will be. And it’s all kinds of relationships. It’s not just the person who you may have been lucky enough to spend a good portion of your time with. So it’s not just our marital partners or our intimate partners, it’s friends, neighbors, people we work with, people in our communities, it’s all types of relationships that matter.” On Social Fitness “So we talk about this idea of social fitness as being really important. Obviously, it’s a metaphor like physical fitness and some of the lessons about physical fitness apply here. We want to, first of all, assess where we are, and to be thoughtful about where we are. And this comes from our research when we interviewed people, for example, in their 80s and we asked if they had regrets. Most of the regrets that people had had to do with losses in relationships. People that they had been friendly with, that they lost touch with, people who maybe they hadn’t been as kind to as they wish they had. And this could be the person that they were married to. It could be children. It could be people they worked with. But people talked about remorse and regret around not building and sustaining relationships over life. So we know that if we don’t attend to them, just like our muscles, our fitness in the social domain tends to atrophy. So we need to kind of lean in, be proactive about our engagement with others, and it helps to step back and assess where we are. So what’s going well in my social connection sphere? Who am I spending time with? Are those the people I want to spend time with? Who am I not spending time with that I have a strong connection or I’d like to develop more of a connection with? So that assessment is a critical part of physical fitness and it should be part of social fitness. And then it’s really about leaning into this and walking the walk. So what do I mean by that? We want to spend the time that we think is important on relationships. That means making time to talk to people regularly, to go on walks with people that we care about, to go to social engagements in which we might meet new people or sustain relationships that are important to us.” On Paying Attention “Attention is just so important. You learn stuff when you write books, and one of the things we learned early on when we were writing the book is the language we use around attention. We pay attention, and that suggests how much of an important resource attention is. It’s something we control or we try to control, and we can give it to people. We can lavish people with it if we prioritize them in our lives. What’s particularly important is we’re in an era where there are lots of attempts to grab our attention. So phones and technology are particularly good at grabbing our attention away from other people, and we need to proactively, intentionally focus our attention on the people that are important to us. That’s the way that we build relationships, and it’s a way we convey to others that they’re important to us. So paying attention on purpose, listening with curiosity, those are the things that are really important. For many of us in this busy world filled with technology, having the experience of being particularly in person, having someone pay attention to us is an incredible feeling. It’s sometimes something we sadly forget because we don’t have the experience enough. So really critical for people to do that. It’s something that we hope we might get from parents or grandparents. It’s a gift that people can give to others, including parents and grandparents. But it’s true in all relationships. It means really listening and being curious.” ________________________ 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 the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy. He’s 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 1.4 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.  

Ed Slott, a nationally recognized IRA distribution expert and best-selling author, sheds light on the ticking retirement savings time bomb. He discusses the hidden tax liabilities of retirement accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s, warning savers about future tax burdens. Slott emphasizes the benefits of transitioning to Roth IRAs for more tax-efficient growth and highlights how personal financial goals intersect with estate planning. He also explores the impact of retirement income on Medicare premiums, urging proactive planning for a secure financial future.

Make no mistake. There’s a lot you can’t control about your retirement. The economy. The markets. That neighbor. But there is something you can control that will make a big difference in your quality of life. Your mindset. Michael O’Brien shares his compelling story and how he learned how to prevent bad moments from turning into bad days. Michael O’Brien joins us from the Garden State of New Jersey. _______________________ Bio Michael O’Brien is President and Founder of Peloton Coaching and Consulting. As a certified executive coach, he has advised, motivated, and inspired Fortune 500 executives, entrepreneurs, and other difference-makers at organizations like Brother International and Johnson and Johnson. He also serves as a mentor and volunteer with organizations that promote professional growth, such as the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and James Madison University’s College of Business. Before starting Peloton Coaching and Consulting, he was a healthcare sales and marketing executive and received his marketing degree from James Madison University. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters. Michael is the author of two books, his inspiring memoir: Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life and the companion work, My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days: a practical and powerful guide to lead a life free of bad days. ________________________ For More on Michael O’Brien Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days Website ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet _______________________ Wise Quotes On His Last Bad Day “But as I went through my recovery, I tried to put up this good front, like, Okay, we’re going to make it. But I wasn’t believing any of my hype. A mentor came to me and said, Hey, listen, everything in your life is neutral until you label it. You get to look at this any way you want to. And so then I started to realize, Okay, well, we’re all living moments. Every day is filled with a whole bunch of moments. And if I have people in my life who I love and love me back, then I can’t call a full day a bad one. That’s why I came back to call my, that accident day, my last bad day. I’ve had definitely bad moments since then, but I still have a lot of love in my life. So I can’t call a full day a bad one. But I also knew this, that I had to find a way to ground myself because my recovery felt so overwhelming. I had to figure out, much like in sports, how to slow the game down. Everything was just coming at me, much like life today. And I just knew I had to slow things down a bit to create some space so I could be thoughtful and intentional about how I wanted to go forward.” On Who You Surround Yourself With “I think it’s very important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. And I think this is a big thing because for a lot of us men, especially as we think about retirement, a lot of our relationships are work relationships that we think those guys are our friends, but they’re really our colleagues. And some of them are friends, and they’ll stay friends for a while. And I think it’s very important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. But it’s a minority of the relationships we have, maybe on one hand or both hands. So as we go into this next phase of our lives, into retirement, men or women, it’s good to have people around you who can bring out the best in you, to help maybe clarify things when you get stuck or challenge you so you can be the best you can be – or to be there in celebration or to be there for a crisis or some type of comfort. So that’s helpful because the people around you can help shift your perspective around change.” On Gratitude “I think a gratitude practice is key, so to be grateful is one of the 20 [lessons]. I didn’t know anything about gratitude, except maybe around Thanksgiving – give thanks. But we didn’t use the word gratitude. During Thanksgiving, when I was growing up, my parents weren’t tuned into that it was like, Well, where’s the turkey? Come on, let’s eat, watch the game. And so I didn’t know about gratitude until really coming through my accident recovery. Gratitude is really a process of understanding what you still have and what’s working in your life. And when you go really deep, you can even be grateful for some of the tough moments because our tough moments tend to give us the most growth – not guaranteed, but a lot of times. And a lot of people will say to me, Well, if you’re grateful for everything, do you lose your edge? Do you lose your thirst for more? And to that I say absolutely not. You can be grateful for what you have and still be thirsty and driven for more, as opposed to leaving that your glass is always half full or like half empty. and you’re coming from that place of depletion as you go after things. For me, gratitude is about No, I have an amazing cup and it’s pretty full. It’s pretty amazing. And I’m looking for a bigger glass.” ________________________ 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.

Retiring right requires a smart strategy. And if you didn’t get started early in your retirement planning, the second best time to start is now. Rick Atkinson, Founder & President of RA Retirement Advisors in Toronto, shares his insights and advice. ___________________________ It’s Back to School time. Here’s your reading list to peruse: Best Books on Retirement ___________________________ Bio Rick Atkinson is Founder & President of RA Retirement Advisors specializing in retirement planning. For over 15 years, Rick has been helping people live their ideal retirement. As a human resources management specialist with over 30 years’ experience in industry and government service, Rick honed his understanding of what is required to lead a satisfying life after work. He then transferred this to writing and speaking about retirement planning and facilitating workshops and coaching. He is the author of five books including Don’t Just Retire – Live It, Love It! and Strategies for Retiring Right! Rick has written lead stories for well-known journals, as well as stories for various daily Canadian newspapers, and has appeared on Canadian radio and TV. Rick is an acclaimed speaker on holistic retirement planning appearing at groups from 10 to 300. He has spoken at conferences and service groups across Canada, and facilitates workshops and webinars for companies, cities, government agencies and religious organizations and service clubs. Rick has an MBA from York University and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia. He is also a CHRP (Certified Human Resources Professional); CMC (Certified Management Consultant); Advanced Level, Ontario Society of Training & Development. Recently made a Fellow of Distinguished Financial Services (FDFS) for his service as an influential thought leader. As a point of pride and growth, for 10 years, Rick travelled extensively to Canada’s Arctic as a CESO (Canadian Executive Service Organization) volunteer advisor to mentor Inuit supervisors and managers, and to impart his human resources knowledge and insights. Rick’s volunteering was part of the Government of Nunavut’s Initiative Program. ___________________________ For More on Rick Atkinson Books Website ___________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland Ready to ROAR? – Michael Clinton ____________________________ Wise Quotes On Deciding When to Retire “So I think this whole piece of work stress for some, but for some others, what I found is that they have a feeling of unfulfillness –  that work is holding them back, that they’ve got things that they want to pursue, a passion project. They want to start a business,. They want to do extensive traveling. But there are others that, and I’ve had this myself, people saying, Why aren’t you retired? You’re X years old. Why are you still working? I met a couple and the wife had said to the husband, I didn’t sign up for this. He just told me he’s not going to retire. I thought we would have time together. There’s another situation that says, is this the right time? I’ve met many people who have sat down with their financial advisor and the financial advisor had said, You know what, you got enough money to keep you going well into your 90s. And they walk out of the office and say, Hey, maybe that’s it.” On Mistakes to Avoid in Planning for Retirement “Oh, there’s a whole myriad of things that you need time to think about these and plan for them rather than just the day you retire. Another mistake that I find that people make is that they concentrate so much on the money. The recession in 2008 devastated a whole bunch of folks and their retirement monies. And to my mind, it’s not the money that you amass, but the monetary trick is how to determine how much money is going to make you feel secure. The [other] mistake that I find that people make is they think that retirement is like an extended holiday. Here’s, here’s all of the stuff I did in my golf holiday. I did the projects around the house, etc. I’m just going to do that when I retire. Well, you and I know there is a honeymoon period that happens when you retire in the first few weeks and months. This is wonderful. There’s no cares, no pressure. But that wears off and that becomes a feeling of disenchantment kind of comes in. If you’re golfing five days a week, then starts to become like a job. The projects at home don’t have any appeal anymore, and so what I find is that when people think it’s just an extended holiday, they start to feel frustrated. They feel a bit disappointed and they seem to get caught up in this vortex they can’t get out of.” On Attitude in Retirement “And that is the number of people that go into retirement with a negative attitude. They see themselves as non-productive, non-contributory, life is over, and as you know, it takes courage to have a good retirement. It takes commitment. It takes desire. And we’ve got to remind ourselves all of the things that we have been successful at. We were successful at getting an education, raising a family, holding a job. And those things all seem to be hard to us, but we did it. So why not the same positive attitude into retirement?” _________________________ 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.  

Cathy Bishop-Clark, a recent retiree from Miami University after 34 years, shares her rich journey of transitioning into retirement. She emphasizes the emotional complexity of leaving a fulfilling career and the necessity of a retirement mentor. Cathy discusses her adventurous spirit, including cycling across America, while navigating the joys and challenges of retirement alongside her husband. The conversation touches on the importance of prioritizing health, social connections, and exploring new experiences to thrive in this new phase of life.