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.

Check our Best Books for Retirement ________________________ Have you considered phased retirement? Most working people dream about that day when they’ll ride off into the sunset and into retirement. But a full stop retirement isn’t for everyone. It can make the transition to retirement quite challenging. Many people are choosing insread to glide into retirement. Phased retirement is trending as a way to gradually retire, on your own terms. It’s essential a flexible work arrangement. Our guest today is Jennifer Barnes, a CEO, who shares her experiences with phased retirement in her company. Jennifer Barnes joins us from San Diego. ________________________ Bio Jennifer Barnes, CEO of Optima Office, graduated with a Finance and Marketing degree from the University of Arizona, earned an MBA from San Diego State University, and completed the Becker CPA coursework. She spent 15 years as a Controller for numerous companies and non-profits throughout San Diego before starting her first company in 2012, which was the 5th fastest-growing company in San Diego in 2016 and made the Inc 5000 in 2017 and 2018. Jennifer has won numerous awards as the CEO of the two companies she founded. Her favorite is the best place to work because having high retention and happy staff is what drives her. Both of her companies have made it into the Inc 5000 and SDBJ’s fastest-growing companies list. Between 2021-2023, Jennifer was named Woman of the Year by SDBJ, received the top corporate citizen award, made it in SD’s top 500 most influential leaders, and the top 50 Women of Influence in Accounting and Finance for two years in a row. She was also recognized as a finalist for the Entrepreneur of The Year 2024 Pacific Southwest program. Jennifer has sat on many boards in her career and currently sits on the board of The Better Business Bureau, NuFund Venture Group (formerly Tech Coast Angels), Junior Achievement, and a publicly traded company, Presidio Property Trust (SQFT). She volunteers her time at SDSU and the REC at Miramar College by participating in mentor programs and as a judge in various student competitions. She is currently a member of Rotary 33, Vistage International, Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), Young Executives Council, and Social Venture Partners. ______________________ For More on Jennifer Barnes Company Website Fortune Article: I’m a CEO and 12 of my employees are in ‘flextirement.’ With boomers opting not to retire, the arrangement will become more common _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like  Is Your Company Ready for the Aging Workforce? – Paul Rupert Unretired – Mark S. Walton _______________________ Mentioned in This Episode Poem – The Summer Day by Mary Oliver _______________________ Wise Quotes  On Why Phased Retirement Works  “What’s interesting, Joe, is that at Optima, we’ve always had a flexible work environment and we didn’t really think about it as flex retirement because we’ve always allowed employees to work whatever hours made sense for them. But as we looked at our workforce, we realized that many of our employees are over 50, some over 60 and some are even 70 and over. And what we find with these employees is they have a wealth of knowledge. They are so experienced, they’ve worked in so many different industries, and they can really add a ton of value to our clients. And so if we can capture these people’s attention and get them to work with us on hours that make sense for them, whether it’s 16 hours a week or 30 hours a week or somewhere in between, it is incredibly efficient. It is such a huge value add to our clients. The employees themselves really get a chance to work for different companies and not fully retire but still be engaged and many of them say, keeps them young.” On Leading a Team with Flexible Retirement “When we’re on, we’re on. And so when you’re billing clients and you’re working on an hourly basis to help people, you got to have 100% of your time focused. It’s a constant work in progress, learning and engaging with your team. But I find that when you take good care of people, and they will then take good care of your clients, and they’ll do a great job. …Higher retention is paramount, and especially in a services business, like Optima Office.” _______________________ 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.  

The early registration discount for Design Your Life in Retirement ends on August 15th. Register here ______________________ If you’re pondering early retirement, have you considered another option? For some people a sabbatical offers an an opportunity to recharge, reflect and to experience a new adventure. Steve Hoffman’s book A Season for That details the experience of an extended leave with his family in a winemaking village in France. It may inspire you to imagine what a sabbatical experience may do for you. While your vision for a sabbatical may be quite different, you’ll be interested in hearing what he learned from it – and how it’s shaping his ideas about retirement. Steve Hoffman joins us from Minnesota. _______________________ Mentioned in This Episode The Sabbatical Project | Inspiration for the Experience of a Lifetime _______________________ Bio Steve Hoffman is a Minnesota tax preparer and food writer. When he dies, the tax-preparer-food-writer industry will die with him. He is a French speaker and shameless Francophile. His writing has won multiple awards, including the 2019 James Beard M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. He has been published in Food & Wine, The Washington Post, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Artful Living magazine. His first book, A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France, published in July 2024, edited by Francis Lam. It is the story of his family’s gradual (then precipitous) acceptance into a tiny winemaking village, of his bottom-up education in Mediterranean food and wine, and of a hard-won self-acceptance in mid-life. Hoffman shares one acre on Turtle Lake, in Shoreview, Minnesota, with his wife, Mary Jo, their elderly and entitled puggle, Jack, roughly 80,000 honeybees, and a nesting pair of sandhill cranes who summer in the back yard. _______________________ For More on Steve Hoffman A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France Website _______________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta Practicing Retirement STILL – Mary Jo Hoffman Inward Traveler – Francine Toder PhD _______________________ Wise Quotes On Investments for Retirement “I would wish on behalf of my clients that they started spending their money a little bit earlier in a lot of cases. Money is a means not an end. It’s very easy to slide that over into the 401k and you’re watching that grow and it seems as if you’re accomplishing something that’s more or less automated. And there can be a form of losing sight of other important things that are really also investments, if you think about family, if you think about friendships, and if you think about skills that are outside of work. Those are investments too, and they have an ROI, and they pay off later and they require a certain amount of deferred gratification, but they’re in many ways as important. But I do think that those other things are more intangible, they’re harder to put a price tag on.” On Seasons of Life “And when you live in wine country you realize not every vintage is better than the last vintages. There are good vintages and bad vintages, but they come around every single year, and you live your life there by saying, Okay, this is the season for the harvest, this is all we do right now, this is what this part of the world is offering us, and we have no choice but to do this because this is what the season tells us we need to do. And if that leads to a bad vintage, that’s okay, you did your best. And then that same harvest is going to come around next year, and you’re going to give it another effort. So I just found it a really refreshing way of looking at life. And then there is an additional element to that which is that there are sort of seasons of the year, but then there are seasons of a life. And there are times when you need to be a parent, and you can’t do other things that you might like to do if you’re going to be good at that part of your life. And so, there was some choosing that that got presented to me at the end of that book, and, and some hard choosing. And I tried to let my choices be guided by trying to recognize Well, what is this season of my life?” On Practicing Retirement “I think one of the pitfalls of our thinking about retirement is often that we believe it’s going to be starting over, or it’s going to be escaping from all that we didn’t like about what came before. And inevitably, whether you like it or not, it’s an extension of all that you’ve done before. So I would say thinking of it not as a new life, but Act Three of an ongoing unfolding life is really important. The other thing I would say is with this idea of practicing for retirement is thinking in decades is really valuable. Retiring is not the answer to problems, it will exacerbate them in many ways. And so I think, on thinking in decades, I also think of double checking your relationships. Do you, and if you’re married, and your spouse share a narrative about what this Third Act is going to look like? A lot of people go in just thinking they’re on the same page, and then they stare at each other across the coffee table on Day One and say, Who the hell is this? Checking your marriage, checking your friendships, have you are you just maintaining them? Are you actually investing in them? And checking in with your kids? Is there some repairing to be done? Can you pave the way for those relationships to be something that enriches this Third Act rather than potentially causes you to have to work at things that could have been handled earlier?” _____________________ 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.

Do you have your affairs in order? There’s a lot to consider with something that is often put off: End-of-Life Planning. Attorney Adam Zuckerman, founder of Buried in Work, a website with resources to simplify estate planning and end-of life planning tasks. Adam joins us to discuss the steps you should take, the differences between wills and trusts, how assets are distributed and more. Adam Zuckerman joins us from Maryland. ______________________ Bio Adam Zuckerman is an experienced attorney and the founder of Buried in Work. His platform focuses on making estate planning accessible and comprehensive for everyone. Adam’s personal experiences and professional expertise make him a visionary in transforming how we think about securing our legacies. Formerly, he was Director, Ventures & Innovation at Discovery, Inc. His role was often described as the company’s global intrapreneur and futurist,responsible for identifying new technologies for implementation, investing in startups, and serving as the primary contact for startups. Adam earned his BA in Political Science, and his JD, and MBA from Washington, University in St. Louis. _____________________ For More on Adam Zuckerman Website – Buried in Work.com _____________________ Podcast Episodes  You May Like Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Ride or Die – Jarie Bolander On My Way Back to You – Sarah Cart ____________________ Mentioned in This Episode In Memoriam – Bob Newhart _____________________ Wise Quotes On Estate Planning “Using the legal background and my business background, I was executor. My Mom’s still around. I hopped in and started taking very diligent notes of everything that I was doing to transition the estate. When I met with my Mom’s financial planner to show her everything I had done and I was literally, this is the reason why I called this company Buried in Work. This is the form that I filled out. She said it was the most comprehensive transition she’s ever seen in her life and I had to give it away. We created a website. We thought it would just be a small site that had a few tips and tricks to help people in a similar situation. What we found was very surprising. In under a week, we had over 10,000 visits to the website and since then it has turned into an online repository for do-it-yourselfers and for people that are seeking guided approach and help for end of life products, for estate tips, for simplification of that entire process. Buried in Work came out of an experience and is helping a lot of people. Most people think that having a will or having a trust is estate planning, and that is a very comprehensive component to it. It’s a foundational component to it, but the reality is, it is so much more than that. Comprehensive estate planning really means that you have to have your family members, your heirs, your loved ones in a position to step in, in the event that you are incapacitated. It leads up to everything. They have to have advanced directives in place to know where they are, because the reality is that after you pass away, the estate takes on average in America 570 hours to administer, and that’s a lot of time that most people don’t have. So what comprehensive estate planning really means is positioning everyone to have the information and the resources they need, so when things do get tough and complicated, they aren’t figuring things out for the first time.” On Getting Organized “Our recommendation is first of all, get organized. Figure out what you want to do. Get all your documents in place because that is an important step in the process. In step three, you have to tell those individuals who are going to be impacted and the key people in your life. Because if you have these documents in place and they don’t know where to go and look, then it’s as if they don’t exist at all. ” _______________________ 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. ________________________ 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.

  Don’t put it off: Design Your New Life in Retirement Group Program Register here ______________________ Last week before heading off on a family vacation in Colorado, I was reminded of the power of a deadline. Getting things done before vacation is one thing, but are there things you really want to do but are putting them off? Jodi Wellman, author of  You Only Die Once: How To Make It To The End With No Regrets, discusses how to leverage the power of  temporal scarcity, and offers practical advice on how to break out of autopilot to live more fully.  Jodi Wellman challenges us to confront our mortality head-on and use it as motivation to live more purposefully. Her work combines insights from Positive Psychology and her personal experiences, with a refreshing take on how awareness of death can actually enhance our lives. You’ll want to try out Jodi’s Life Calculator and discover how to “live like we mean it.” Jodi Wellman joins us from California. ___________________ Bio Jodi Wellman is a former corporate executive turned executive coach and the author of You Only Die Once: How To Make It To The End With No Regrets. She has a Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she is an instructor in the Master’s program and a trainer in the world-renowned Penn Resilience Program. She is a Professional Certified Coach with the ICF and a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach from CTI. She has coached and spoken with clients like American Express, Fidelity, pwc, Royal Bank of Canada, BMW, and more, and runs her own business, Four Thousand Mondays. She lives between Palm Springs and Chicago with her husband and cat, Andy. _________________________ For More on Jodi Wellman You Only Die Once: How To Make It To The End With No Regrets Website Life Calculator _________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Edit Your Life – Elisabeth Sharp McKetta Happier Hour – Cassie Holmes, PhD The Wisdom and Wonder of Uncertainty – Maggie Jackson The Portfolio Life – Christina Wallace __________________________ Wise Quotes On The Value of Deadlines “And it’s all about how when we are made aware, consciously, we focus on the ending of something that is temporary or rare, like a limited time only thing. Well, our perception of its value definitely increases. If we knew we would live forever, which sometimes is a fantasy. And to be honest, other than it sounding exhausting, if we knew we were going to live forever, we would never take action on anything because there’d be no real literal deadline. You’d just say, Yeah, I’ll go and take that college course maybe like in the next thousand years, because you could do it. But we’d never get anything really done. We unfortunately need the deadline and it can be a bummer, but it’s the activating force that can help us to get going on our dreams and our intentions.” On the Life Calculator “So my company, I called 4,000 Mondays, because we roughly get 4,000 weeks, with the math of working backwards. First of all, if you want to calculate how many Mondays you have lived so far, good for you. And let’s celebrate those years and Mondays. That’s amazing. But more importantly, what do you have left? So for example, I know I have 1,814 left if I live an average female life to 83. Men live till an average of 78, at least in the US to make this a localized calculation. And the math would be that you take either the 83 or the 78 or 80 if you don’t identify with other gender, and minus your current age, and then multiply by 52. And that number is designed to make you go Oh!” On Identity & Purpose in Retirement “Identity is a real thing. A lot of people will end up re-evaluating life in a new retirement or even, have been in retirement for a while. and say, it actually gives me such delight to know that my purpose is to just be a really good grandfather or I’m the best dog parent there is, or it could be something else. People feel often times like passion and purpose are these elusive things that we feel like we’re missing out on and we want more of – and usually it comes through experimenting. So if there’s something you’re kind of curious about or wondered about, maybe being a Big Brother, or  wondered about getting involved to mentor some of the new startups in town? Because I worked in a business for 19 ,000 years and how do I apply to help them? Go give it a go, give it a try. Sometimes it doesn’t spark and that is expected and  it’s okay to say, You know what, I gave it a go. I’m going to try the next thing, because not everything will take. But when you find something that gives you that little pitter-patter, that little feeling of, Oh, good, I feel like I in some way made a difference today. And in Psychology, it’s that stage of development where it’s like generativity versus stagnation. Generativity is really what most people are yearning for in a post- retirement phase, which is: let me still feel like I’m able to contribute.” ___________________________ 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.

  How will you make a difference? Registration for the next Designing Your New Life Group is now open. Learn more here. ________________________ When it comes time for your next chapter, do you want to make a difference? One avenue to do so is through mentoring. In director Jay Silverman’s new heartwarming film “Camera” Beau Bridges plays Eric, an aging repairman who forges an unusual friendship with Oscar, a bullied nine-year-old who can’t speak, but finds a voice through photography under Eric’s mentorship. Jay Silverman joins us from Los Angeles. ________________________ Bio For over 40 years, Jay Silverman has excelled as a leading Director, Producer, and Photographer specializing in award-winning films, television, digital, and print campaigns; having worked with renowned celebrities such as Denzel Washington, Beyonce, Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Foxx, and Ray Charles. His advertising clients include IBM, Coors, Panasonic, Disney, Budweiser, CBS, ABC, Pepsi & Apple. His current dramatic feature ‘Camera’, stars Golden Globe, Emmy, and Grammy Award Winner Beau Bridges, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Scotty Tovar, Bruce Davison, and Miguel Gabriel, released on Amazon and Apple in July 2024. Jay’s narrative films have been awarded numerous Best Feature and Audience Awards at festivals across the country, along with being honored with Belding, Telly, Promax, and Lucy Awards for his commercial work. In addition, he has also been recognized for his achievements in creating and producing many national PSA campaigns for the American Cancer Society, the Foundation for the Junior Blind, the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, and the Sierra Club. Some of his early directorial work was for the original launches of the smash hit TV series “American Idol”, “Desperate Housewives”, “NYPD Blue”, “The Drew Carey Show”, and many more. Jay Co-Created and Executive Produced “The Cleaner”, an hour-long drama for Paramount Pictures, which aired on A & E. Additionally, he produced and directed 40 episodes of “One on One” for TV One featuring many stars like Beyonce, Denzel Washington, Usher, Jamie Foxx, and Terrence Howard. Jay also produced and directed a one-hour special titled “Inside the Rings with Troy Aikman” airing on Fox before the 2011 Super Bowl to much success. Other notable shows include “Roots 30 Year Anniversary Special” for TV One, “The Secret Things of God” for Fox, and “D’Jango Unchained”, a one hour special for The Weinstein Company. A graduate of Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara with a Master of Science Degree, Jay founded Jay Silverman Productions in 1979 in Hollywood California, and built a 40,000 square foot facility including 3 sound stages. Jay lives in Santa Monica, California, with his three wonderful daughters. __________________________ For More on Jay Silverman Website Watch Camera: Apple Amazon Trailer Beau Bridges Interview: The Film That Lit My Fuse __________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Mastering Your Transition to Retirement The Mutual Benefits of Intergenerational Volunteering – Atalaya Sergi Some Kind of Heaven – Lance Oppenheim Take the Detour – A Second Act Career Story – Melissa Davey __________________________ Mentioned in This Podcast Episode John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success __________________________ Wise Quotes On Camera “And that’s kind of the fun part of the whole movie. Well, you’re tying it into my personal life because I have three daughters and my last child was born through much premature. And the backstory on that is we decided to use her backstory for the protagonist, the young little nine year old boy, because when she was born at less than two pounds, they damaged her trachea and her vocal cords during incubation multiple, multiple times, and subsequently, she could barely talk. And we thought that that backstory would be not only accurate, because I lived it, to portray in this movie, but it became consistent with the model of what we wanted to say. Because in my own life, even when I was 15 years old and I was using a camera, I wasn’t a very good communicator. And what I did was have the luxury of watching my brother, who was kind of was my mentor at the time, take pictures. And I thought, Wow, this is a great way to tell stories. And I became attached to that idea. And at the age of 15, decided I wanted to be a photographer.” On Mentoring “And I thought to myself, this is the beginning, we’re all approachable. And most of the time we’re underutilized as as as seniors, because I really genuinely believe every one of us has the capacity to mentor somebody. I try to mentor other people all the time. I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it wasn’t for mentors. To me, there’s always going to be people who have this desire to want to open their mind to helping others.” _________________________ 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.