The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

Retirement triggers one of the most profound re-evaluations many people will ever face. A career ends. Structure disappears. Identity shifts. And suddenly a question that could be put off — What do I really want out of life? — becomes more urgent and unavoidable. Valerie Tiberius has spent her career building a useful framework for exactly that question. Her insights offer you something much more valuable than advice on life from your Financial Advisor – a way of thinking about your values, goals, and well-being in one of the most important transitions of your lifetime. Valerie Tiberius joins us from Minnesota. __________________________ Bio Valerie Tiberius is the author of What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters (Princeton University Press, 2023). She is the Paul W. Frenzel Chair in Liberal Arts and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, where she has taught since 1998. Her work sits at the crossroads of philosophy and psychology — specifically, how both disciplines illuminate what it means to live well. She is the author of four additional  books, including The Reflective Life: Living Wisely with Our Limits, Well-Being as Value Fulfillment, and her widely acclaimed ). Her newest book, Artificially Yours: Real Friendship in a World of Chatbots, is forthcoming from Princeton University Press in May 2026. Valerie has received grants from the Templeton Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and her ideas have reached audiences through MPR News, numerous podcasts, and speaking engagements worldwide. __________________________ For More on Valerie Tiberius What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters Artificially Yours: Real Friendship in a World of Chatbots (availabkle for pre-order – coming in May) Website __________________________ Mentioned in This Episode Why you should swap your bucket list with a chuck-it list __________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You May Like The Art of the Interesting – Lorraine Besser, PhD The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD Living for Pleasure – Emily Austin, PhD Life in Three Dimensions – Dr. Shige Oishi ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who 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 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider 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. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Values and Alignnment “I think living in accordance with your values, living up to your values, doing the things you value, that just is what it is to live a good life. So the good life is the life in which you fulfill the best values for you… Life goes well to the extent that we pursue and fulfill our appropriate values over time — not the values society assigns us, but the ones that are emotionally authentic, reflectively endorsed, and capable of being sustained together.” On Hidden Goals “If you don’t acknowledge [a hidden goal] and it’s there, it will come up and haunt you at some point. It will come and hit you in the face.” On Adding a Chuck It List to Your Bucket List “Sometimes you have to give yourself permission to say, I’m never going to do that. I’m just not going to do it. And for my dad, it was learning Spanish. He really thought an educated person – my father has a PhD, he’s very educated – an educated person knows a foreign language. And then at some point in his 70s, he was like, it’s not happening now. I got better things to do.  And he does have other things to do. So I think the Chuck-it list is important for the specific goals we have. And sometimes there’s a whole big value that needs to be chucked. If your capacities change, there are things you just can’t do anymore.” On Listening to Your Emotions “I really think it’s worth spending some time reflecting on what matters to you and thinking about whether you’re tracking it – because I think people have a tendency to get caught up in trivial crap that doesn’t really matter. And then the second part is I think that, although I’m recommending being reflective and thinking about these things, that process has to be informed by our emotions. So you can’t just sit and think about what you believe. You also have to listen to your body, they would say if you were in a yoga class. But there’s something to that. Listen to what your emotions and motivations are yelling at you from the bullpen.”  

Choices shaped your career. But when retirement approaches, a new design challenge appears. Not a financial one. A life design challenge. What will your days look like? What will energize you?  What might the next five years become? In the Designing Your New Life in Retirement program, you’ll step back from the fray and apply design thinking to those questions, with a bias for action. Learn more here. We begin in April. Join us and get started – on your most important project. _____________________________ Friendship is one of the most powerful forces shaping our lives—and our health. Friendships become harder to maintain as life evolves, especially during major transitions like retirement. Losing work friends is normal, yet few realize how new connections can be cultivated. Our guest today highlights why identity shifts can, perhaps counterintuitively, create oppotunities to build new friendships. My guest today is Janice McCabe, is a sociologist at Dartmouth and author of Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends. Her research, mainly on college campuses, illuminates key principles of forming friendships like the hidden structures that shape our friendships. In this conversation, we explore how anyone—at any stage of life—can become more intentional about building meaningful connections. Why friendships are essential for long-term health and well-being The two biggest drivers of friendship formation Why proximity matters more than we realize Three types of friendship networks The difference between fading friendships and breakups If you’re approaching retirement or navigating a major life transition, understanding these patterns can help you design a richer and more connected life. Janice McCabe joins us from New Hampshire. __________________________ Bio Janice M. McCabe is associate professor of sociology at Dartmouth College and the Allen House Professor. She is the current president of the Sociology of Education Association and the author of Making, Keeping, and Losing Friends and Connecting in College: How Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success. __________________________ For More on Janice McCabe Website Books __________________________ Mentioned in This Retirement Podcast Conversation I Study Friendship. Here’s How You Make Lasting Friends. ___________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Make New Friends in Retirement – Dr. Marisa G. Franco Our New Social Life – Natalie Kerr & Jaime Kurtz The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who 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 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider 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. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Life Changes & Friendships ” We’re changing and we’re growing throughout our lives, and there may be times that we change with our friends, and so our identities, our interests change in similar ways, or we’re able to keep some sort of connection through those transitions. But it can be harder for people who are now retired. They likely have friendships that, started earlier in life, and you may have similar transitions with having kids at the same time, or living in the same area or in different areas throughout your lives. So all of those things, some of which are structural. When you’re having those life transitions, sometimes we feel like a friendship is really important to us, but then someone changes jobs, or someone moves, and we may realize that that connection was either more or less important than we thought, just because we took it for granted when it was easy.” On Prioritizing Friendships “I interviewed a lot of people in the course of my research and the people that were able to both make and keep particularly meaningful friends, one thing was that they were intentional about is making time for friends. Also being reflective about which friends are most meaningful to you,who are you really excited to see, excited to talk to, excited to do things about and making sure that you’re reaching out to them. That not always, just up to your paths crossing or them reaching out to you, but thinking through, what people do I especially want to prioritize is part of it.  Another thing that I saw people do is that is just making time for friendship in general. We typically have goals for our work lives, we may have goals for our family lives, but I’d say most of us don’t have goals for our friendship lives. But having that would help us see that as another really valuable part of life. And so not just letting friendship fill the cracks of like our extra time, but really going out of the way to make sure that we are prioritizing friendship in our lives, making time for friends.” On Friends & Health – and Being a Good Friend “A lot of research has shown that our friendships help us live longer. It’s actually more important to have connections than to not smoke, not be obese, the things that we look at as healthy behaviors. Having friends are equally, if not more, important from other people’s research, epidemiologically, that have looked at those factors. So making sure that you invest in friendships is really important.  And I think we can get so busy going through life that we don’t slow down to take stock of our friendships and just see who’s there. And, not just do I have good friends, but am I being a good friend also? Because friendship is a reciprocal relationship. Friendship isn’t just a one time event. It’s not just that you make friends and Oh, I’m done. Instead, you constantly are making new friends and thinking through those factors that I was mentioning; who’s important, what am I getting from my friends? What am I missing? And not assuming that either our partner, our romantic partner, or one friend will meet all of our needs.”

________________________ Get started in April on your most important project. Learn more here _________________________ Retirement planning focuses heavily on finances — investments, Social Security, and risks. But there’s another question that often sneaks up on people once the career chapter closes: Do I still matter? Our guest today has spent years researching one of the most powerful psychological needs we have as human beings — the need to feel valued and to add value. Jennifer Breheny Wallace is an award-winning journalist and author of the new book Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose. Her work explores how feeling significant, appreciated, invested in, and depended on shapes our well-being throughout life. And her insights have important implications for retirement. Because when work ends, many people lose one of the primary places where they knew they mattered — where their contributions were visible, valued, and relied upon. In this conversation, we explore:        • Why the need to matter doesn’t diminish with age       • How retirees can build what Jennifer calls a “mattering portfolio”       • The surprising research on relationships and resilience       • Practical daily actions that restore a sense of meaning and contribution If you’re thinking about retirement — or already there — this conversation may change how you think about purpose, connection, and belonging in the next chapter. _________________________ Bio Jennifer Breheny Wallace is the author of Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose.  She is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose work explores the power of mattering in our everyday lives. Through research and storytelling, Wallace examines the hidden forces shaping modern life, from the crisis of meaning in achievement culture to the essential role of mattering in personal, workplace, and societal health.  Her first book, Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — And What We Can Do About It, was a New York Times Bestseller, an Amazon Best Book of the Year, and a Next Big Idea selection. Wallace is the founder of The Mattering Institute, whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in workplaces and communities, and co-founder of The Mattering Movement, a nonprofit whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in K-12 schools. Wallace has partnered with The LEGO Group on its global Play Unstoppable campaign to address perfectionism and grow confidence through play. She has also consulted with Calm wellness app, Netflix, and is a BCG  BrightHouse Luminary. She serves on the University of Michigan’s Well-being Collective Advisory Council, and the Advisory Board for Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Wallace is a Journalism Fellow at The Center for Parent and Teen Communication at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. After graduating from Harvard College, Wallace was a journalist for CBS “60 Minutes” and was part of the team that won The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism. She is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post and frequently appears on national television programs to discuss her work. Wallace serves on the board of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, where she lives with her husband and their three children. ___________________________ For More on Jennifer Breheny Wallace Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose by Jennifer Breheny Wallace Website ___________________________ Mentioned in This Retirement Podcast  The Retirement Crisis No One Warns You About: Mattering – The Wall Street Journal Video: Taylor Mali (What Do You Make?) ____________________________ Your choices shaped your career. But when retirement approaches, a new design challenge appears. Not a financial one. A life design challenge. What will your days look like? What will energize you?  What might the next five years become? In the Designing Your New Life in Retirement program, you’ll step back from the fray and apply design thinking to those questions, with a bias for action. Learn more here. Our next two groups begin in April. Join us and get started on your most important project. _____________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like What Matters Most – Diane Button How to Live a Meaningful Life – Dave Evans Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You – Teresa Amabile ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who 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 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider 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. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Adding Value “I found this very common thread among the hundreds of people that I interviewed who, when they were going through a life transition—if it was retirement or grief, getting divorced, all these things—what they did over and over again was that they found new ways to add value. And so they would look for what I call in the book a genuine need in the world. And then they would use either their time or their talents or their treasure to meet those needs. It’s kind of a handy formula for finding purpose.” On Your Mattering Portfolio “Plan your retirement social portfolio—your mattering portfolio—as carefully as you plan your financial portfolio…You are only one decision, one action away from getting back on that path to mattering.”  

Discern what you’ll retire to. Join our group program starting in April. Learn more here _________________________ What if the secret to happiness isn’t success or achievement — but simply feeling loved? In this episode, one of the world’s top researchers on happiness and well-being Sonja Lyubomirsky explains why connection, curiosity, and listening may be the most powerful ingredients for a fulfilling life — and a meaningful retirement. Her new book, co-authored with relationship scientist Dr. Harry Reis, is How to Feel Loved: The Five Mindsets That Get You More of What Matters Most —and it offers a surprising and practical roadmap for getting there. Key insights? When you want to feel more loved, don’t try to make yourself more lovable. Don’t try to change the other person. Instead, change the conversation. Go first. Make them feel loved—and watch what happens next. This conversation is full of wisdom for anyone planning for or navigating retirement—a life stage where relationships become the center of your world. Dr. Lyubomirsky talks about the vulnerability paradox, the three magic words everyone wants to hear, why older people are actually happier than younger ones, and what really matters when you’re designing a life worth living. Sonja Lyubomirsky joins us from Santa Monica, California. ___________________________ Bio Sonja Lyubomirsky (AB Harvard, summa cum laude; PhD Stanford) is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside and author of the best-selling The How of Happiness and The Myths of Happiness (published in 39 countries). Lyubomirsky’s research—on the possibility of lastingly increasing happiness via gratitude, kindness, and connection interventions—have been the recipients of many grants and honors, including Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Basel, the Diener Award for Outstanding Midcareer Contributions in Personality Psychology, the Christopher Peterson Gold Medal, a Positive Psychology Prize, and the Faculty of the Year Award (twice). She has four kids, ages 12 to 26, and lives in Santa Monica, California. ___________________________ For More on Sonja Lyubomirsky How to Feel Loved: The Five Mindsets That Get You More of What Matters Most Website  __________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Live a Meaningful Life – Dave Evans Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD ___________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who 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 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider 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. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Love & Happiness “The key to happiness is feeling connected and loved. The secret to feeling loved is really feeling known.” On Going First “When we want to feel more loved, we often try to make ourselves more lovable. But the research suggests something different — we need to start by making the other person feel loved. A relationship is really a series of conversations. Changing the conversation can change the relationship. When you think about a relationship is a series of conversations. And so during your next conversation, the first step is actually to try to make the other person feel more loved. And so we talk about, you know, showing curiosity in the other person and really listening to them and helping them open up, you know, because the secret to feeling loved is really feeling known. You know, you can’t really feel loved by someone else if they don’t know you, right?  If you don’t really know me, I can’t feel loved by you because I’ll always wonder would he still love me if he knew me? If you could see what was sort of behind those walls. It’s a little bit counterintuitive, right? If you want to feel more loved, you want to go first and make the other person feel more loved.” On Vulnerability “I’m not going to feel loved by you just if you’re admiring me. And so that’s where sort of we go wrong where like, it turns out that actually being a little vulnerable and showing more of our kind of real selves, not really real selves, it’s all real, you know, but you know, kind of showing more of our full selves, what’s beneath those walls. That’s actually what forges a connection. So that kind of, in fact, I think it’s called the vulnerability paradox. Like we think people won’t like us if we show a little bit vulnerability or weakness even, but actually people will like us more. Now, if it has to be done at the right pace and at the right time for the right person, right, you have to really read the room so you don’t just like dump your traumas or your weaknesses right away on another person. That’s not, that’s not going to work either.”

What’s next? Don’t drift. Design. Our next small group coaching program starts in April. Learn more here. ________________________ Most retirement planning conversations start and end with money. Rod Yancy, founder of Oath Planning, challenges that assumption head-on — arguing that mindset, emotional health, and identity matter more than any portfolio balance when it comes to actually thriving in retirement. In this conversation, Rod shares data from Oath’s latest client survey, their Q1 2026 Money and Meaning Institute survey of over 500 retirees and near-retirees, and some the findings may surprise you. For example, the biggest regrets aren’t about money. The financial advisory industry is structurally incentivized to keep money at the center of retirement planning — even when that leaves clients less than fully prepared for what they’ll face in planning for life in retirement. He offers a candid, practitioner-level view of what he actually sees working (and failing) in retirement transitions. Rod Yancy joins us from Tulsa, Oklahoma. _________________________ Bio Rod Yancy is a multifaceted entrepreneur, writer, attorney, and leader. His personal mission to empower others to live their lives to the fullest is woven into both his business ventures and creative projects. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 2002 with a double major in philosophy and political science, Rod made adventure his top priority, traveling in search of new experiences, inspiration, and deeper meaning. He began writing about his journeys while immersing himself in diverse fields, from mindfulness to literature to software development. Recognizing the importance of legal expertise for his entrepreneurial goals, Rod pursued a J.D. at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, graduating in 2006. He quickly put his education to use by founding two app-based software companies in fantasy sports and photo sharing, before shifting his focus to creating what became one of his life’s major undertakings – Oath. Since its inception in 2010, Oath Law has been guided by Rod’s belief that life is short and everyone should embrace their unique journey to achieve their full potential. With this perspective, Rod utilized estate planning as a means to help people recognize life is short and organize their affairs, allowing them to focus on what truly matters: enjoying life. _____________________________ For More on Rod Yancy Oath Planning _____________________________ Retirement Podcast Conversations You May Like Retire with Purpose – Cesar Aguirre Design a Phased Retirement – Anna Rappaport Coming of Age in Retirement – Tom Marks _____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who 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 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider 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. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On Mindfulness  “I remember hearing when I was young, about a farmer whose crops had failed. And when they asked him what he would have done different, he said I would have cared for the soil sooner. And that that really is the thing. Oftentimes, we really don’t care for what matters until after it’s too late to fix it. And I think that when it comes to emotional well being and mindfulness, people sometimes don’t even know what they were missing. But when we sit down with our clients who are retirees, we see clearly that their mindset does shape their experience in retirement even more than money.” On Resilience “Oftentimes, resilience determines whether the change going into retirement feels like freedom, or feels like a loss of identity. And their purpose or what they what they mean to do with their life can make their calendar either feel very empty or open for for better things for them to do.  I don’t know if it’s counterintuitive, but I just keep seeing it time and time again, that people really need to pay attention to who they are before retirement.” On Taking Aim in Retirement “A man without an aim or a woman without an aim…is just that drifting. Taking aim at something is really important even in retirement. I think that is where you find the peace and that’s where you find that purpose.” _____________________________

What’s next? Don’t drift. Design. Our next small group coaching program starts in April. Learn more here. _________________________ Who are you when you’re no longer your title? For many high-performing professionals, that question can feel destabilizing — even frightening. Michael Kay is a CFP, a financial life planner, the author of the new book How To Craft Your Chapter X: A Guide For High-Performing Men to Discover Meaning (and Joy) In Retirement. He’s been through it himself—the excitement of the new chapter, and then, six months in, the wall he didn’t see coming. Today he shares what he’s learned about reopening the aperture, grieving what you’ve left behind, and finding out who you were before you were your job. This is a conversation every high-achieving man—and the people who love them—needs to hear. _________________________ Bio Michael F. Kay is a coach, teacher, author and retired CFP(R). Through his books, workshops, speeches, and the Chapter X community, he’s helped thousands of women, men, and families master their financial lives—and navigate the transition from full-time work to what comes next. He’s written three books: How to Craft Your Chapter X, The Feel Rich Project, and The Business of Life. His insights have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, Forbes, and Psychology Today. Today, he publishes weekly essays for the Chapter X newsletter, hosts the Chapter X podcast, and shares his thoughts on LinkedIn. He is the former president of Financial Life Focus, a fee-only multi-advisor financial life planning firm. ___________________________ For More on Michael Kay How To Craft Your Chapter X: A Guide For High-Performing Men to Discover Meaning (and Joy) In Retirement _________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like The Inspired Retirement – Nathalie Martin How to Prepare Mentally for Life After Work – Joseph Maugeri Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives – Daisy Fancourt ____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who 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 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider 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. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On Saying No in Retirement “If it’s not joyful, I’m not going to do it.” On Perspective “As we get older and we start focusing towards career, that aperture narrows. And so when we get ready to step into this next chapter, whether it’s our choice or not, we are at our narrowest. So we need to, mindfully and intentionally—I think that’s the right word—look to reopen that aperture.” On Returning to Music – For Fun “I got the trumpet out and had it cleaned, and I found a teacher, and I started playing again, and I put up on my music stand, ‘fun’—the word fun—to remind me. Because if you miss a note, I was like, ‘You suck.’ All these things that come back. And so I had to keep reminding myself: this is for fun. I am never going to be a touring professional musician. I’m never going to play with Blood, Sweat and Tears or Chicago. This is for fun. And it just takes the discipline to keep reminding yourself—have joy in the music, have joy in the doing. The joy is in the journey, not in the destination. Because the destination is the journey.”

Don’t plan for just one side of retirement. Design Your Life in Retirement. Join our small group coaching program beginning in April. Learn more here. Very Early Registration Discount ends on March 1st. Sign up here. ___________________________ What if the biggest risk in retirement isn’t the market — but misunderstanding your own goals? As you approach retirement, the questions shift. It’s no longer just “How much have I saved?” It becomes, “When do I want the freedom to retire?” “How much risk do I really need to take?” And perhaps most importantly — “What is my money for?” Today, I’m joined by financial planner Zach Morris for a candid conversation about risk tolerance versus risk capacity, sequence of return risk, working one more year, helping family, and why having a 100% probability of financial success might actually mean you’re leaving life on the table. If you’re within five years of retirement — or wondering whether you’re truly ready — this episode will help you think differently about risk, purpose, and pulling the trigger. Zach Morris, CFP joins us from Atlanta. __________________________ Bio Having traveled to over 35 countries, Zach is a believer in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s statement that Life is about the journey, not the destination. Being a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® provides Zach the opportunity to help clients define and realize their journey, and co-founding Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors, an independent firm, allows the freedom to define the client experience along the way. Previously, Zach was a partner in The Diamond Morris Group and a Financial Advisor with J.P. Morgan Securities, a wealth management division of J.P. Morgan. Before becoming a Financial Advisor, Zach started as an Associate with the firm in 2011, where he developed skills for building lasting relationships with clients. Later, Zach developed and oversaw a training and mentorship program for J.P. Morgan Associates. Zach supports a number of organizations including Alzheimer’s Association, Georgia Chapter, The Shepherd Center, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, and NewStory. Zach received a B.S. in finance, with a minor in economics, from Elon University in North Carolina. He was a member of The Kappa Alpha Order and has served on the board of the Elon Alumni Association’s Atlanta chapter. Zach speaks Spanish and is an Atlanta native. He and his wife live in West Midtown’s Underwood Hills neighborhood and his parents and two of his three sisters and their families live nearby. In his spare time, Zach golfs, plays tennis, rides his mountain bike and travels. _____________________________ For More on Zach Morris, CFP Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors Zach Morris, CFP® You Tube channel ______________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Live a Meaningful Life – Dave Evans Re-Visioning Retirement – Susan Reid, PhD Retire with Purpose – Cesar Aguirre ______________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who 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 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider 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. ______________________________ Wise Quotes On The One More Year Trap “Sometimes it’s just one more year because they don’t know what the next step is…If somebody is working one more year and they have 100% probability of success — they’re not just leaving money on the table, they’re leaving life on the table.” On Risk “Risk is invisible… you can have a risk tolerance today, but once you hit that maximum threshold, it can very quickly become uncomfortable.” On Retirement Planning “You don’t want to go into retirement with unfulfilled expectations. You want to go into retirement knowing what to expect.” _____________________________

Don’t drift into retirement. Design yours. Learn more about our next small group coaching program starting in April here. Sign up here. Very Early Registration Discount ends on March 1st. _______________________ What happens when you finally get everything you worked for…and realize something is missing? In this powerful and deeply honest conversation, Darrow Kirkpatrick shares what early retirement can really feel like — beyond the spreadsheets and freedom headlines. After leaving his software engineering career, he found himself confronting something he didn’t expect: the loss of identity and clout that work had quietly provided. He discovered that early retirement wasn’t just about having time—it was about creating meaning. Instead of retreating, Darrow leaned into challenges. From launching a successful retirement blog Can I Retire Yet? to spending nights alone above 12,000 feet, to confronting his lifelong struggles with fear and panic, Darrow’s journey, chronicled in his new book Two Sticks, One Path, reveals the surprising truth about what can make retirement fulfilling. If you’re within a few years of retirement — or already there — this conversation will make you think differently about what comes next –  and why the challenges we choose to take on may matter more than the comfort we think we want. _________________________ Bio Darrow Kirkpatrick is the author of the new book Two Sticks, One Path: A Journey Beyond Fear on the Colorado Trail. Darrow is an early-retired civil and software engineer with five decades of hiking, biking, and technical rock-climbing experience, including first ascents in the Shawangunks of New York and the sandstone belt of Tennessee. He climbed three big walls in Yosemite Valley, California: The Shield and The Nose on El Capitan, and The Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. In 2011 he founded “Can I Retire Yet?” — winner of the 2019 Plutus award for Best Retirement Blog. His personal finance books include “Retiring Sooner” and “Can I Retire Yet?” ___________________________ For More on Darrow Kirkpatrick Two Sticks, One Path: A Journey Beyond Fear on the Colorado Trail Can I Retire Yet? ___________________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Prepare Mentally for Life After Work – Joseph Maugeri The Inspired Retirement – Nathalie Martin Lessons Learned in Early Retirement – Chris Mamula _____________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who 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 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider 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. ___________________________ Wise Quotes On the Value of Challenge in Retirement “I find 100% of the meaning that I found in early retirement has come from the challenges I’ve tackled.” On Meaningful Pursuits “The things I did pay attention to starting Can I Retire Yet, a successful personal finance blog, a bucket list item hiking the Colorado Trail, even though I had to do most of it on crutches, those things are incredibly meaningful to me, writing a memoir about it. I think I would have really regretted if I had stayed at my corporate desk through all those years instead of reaching for those bucket list items.” On Adaptation “I did have a series of chronic injuries in my lower body, which got worse. I had a bad hamstring injury, was in bed for a few months, one summer. And as part of the recovery from that, a doctor friend suggested I start using forearm crutches… I wound up realizing I needed to just keep using the crutches on the trail, because they would keep me safe. They reduce the impact on my body, they prevent falls. And if I had any hope of doing a trail as difficult as the Colorado Trail, I needed all the help I could get.”

Will you retire with purpose? Don’t leave it to chance. Design Your New Life after you leave full-time work. Learn more about our next small group coaching program starting in April here – and sign up here. __________________________ What if the word retirement is setting us up for the wrong life? After years in senior leadership roles, Cesar Aguirre discovered something most of us miss about retirement: the word itself matters more than we think. In English, we “retire” – we withdraw. In Portuguese, you become “aposentado” – left aside or left behind. But in Spanish-speaking cultures, retirement is called “jubilación” – which comes from the word for joy. That distinction changed everything for Cesar. Because when he stepped away from his career, it wasn’t the loss of work that shocked him – it was the jarring shock of losing an identity. He realized retirement isn’t just a life transition, it’s an identity transition, offering an opportunity to redefine who you want to become, and retire with purpose. Cesar joins us to share the framework he developed through his own transition – a ten-chapter roadmap for moving from “what I’m leaving” to “what I’m moving toward.” He’ll reveal why planning goes far beyond your finances, how to measure success when you’re no longer producing output, and the key warning signs that show up early when retirement first starts going wrong. This is a conversation about why approaching retirement with more intention might just create the most fulfilling chapters of your life. How will you retire with purpose? Cesar Aguirre joins us from Florida. __________________________ Bio César Aguirre is a seasoned HR executive with over 40 years of experience in global talent development. Now in active retirement, he embodies reinvention with passion as mentor, consultant, and author. In his book, Retirement with Purpose: The 10 Rs of Retirement, he shares his vibrant energy and insights to help readers rediscover purpose and embrace joyful living in their post-career lives. He currently resides in a lively 55+ community in Central Florida with his wife, inspiring others to design their authentic journeys for the second act of their lives. _______________________ For More on Cesar Aguirre Retirement with Purpose: The 10 Rs of Retirement _______________________ Podcast Conversations You May Like How to Prepare Mentally for Life After Work – Joseph Maugeri Re-Visioning Retirement – Susan Reid, PhD How to Retire – Christine Benz _________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who 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 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider 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. _________________________ Wise Quotes On The Power of Language “Retirement becomes a celebration, not a retreat. I think the languages shape mindset. And mindsets shape behavior. So when retirement is framed as a joy, planning shifts from survival to flourishing become more natural.” On Measuring Success in Retirement “A good day is no longer about output, it’s no longer about how much you produce. It’s about action that is intended, an action that aligns with a master plan.” On What He’d Do Differently “I wish I had thought about it and prepared for my post-work identity a little sooner and more deliberately. In my job in HR, I helped many others plan careers, but I underestimated how much my own self-worth was tied to that job in that title. I think I did it humbly. I can say that I did a solid job planning financially, but probably not as good in preparing emotionally for the change. For a brief period of time, a few months, I underestimated that the identity shift that was occurring and the loss of a daily structure that I was so accustomed to.” On What He’s Gained in Retirement “Presence, the ability to not just having the time, but having the mindset of real presence, presence with my wife, which I neglected for a few years while I was traveling or working, presence with my kids, now with my grandkids, the rest of my friends, and new friends. I also gained a space and time for mastery, my hobbies. I enjoy cooking, well, time to do more and do a little better, exercising, riding the bike three or four times a week, playing pickleball. Retiring has given me time to go more in depth on my preferences instead of just speed, because in my working years, I was always rushing. Even when I was at home, I needed to accomplish, I needed to do things. I needed not to be idle. And retirement has now given me presence and bandwidth.” On Warning Signs “I think there are three main things that one needs to start paying attention to. Isolation. If you don’t have that network, social network, family network, and you become isolated. A loss of structure. Doing nothing without a structure or living in the past tense. When people stop connecting with others, when they drift through the days without an intentional plan, or when they only talk about what they used to be, that should be a warning, – a huge yellow flag for oneself and for loved ones that are looking after them.”

Sign up for our next Designing Your Life small group coaching program starting in April here __________________________ What happens when you’ve done everything “right” — built a successful career, made a difference, checked the boxes — and yet something still is missing? Today I’m joined by Dave Evans, co-author of How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day and the #1 New York Times Bestseller Designing Your Life, and a longtime Stanford educator, to explore a question many people quietly wrestle with in the second half of life: Why doesn’t impact bring lasting meaning — and what actually does? Dave shares insights from his newest work with Bill Burnett on meaning, presence, and what he calls the shift from role to soul. We talk about why chasing fulfillment often backfires, why the most meaningful moments are often small and fleeting, and how many of us live almost entirely in what he calls the “transactional world” — often missing the richness of the present moment that’s available right now. This conversation is especially relevant if you’re nearing retirement, newly retired, or simply sensing that achievement alone isn’t enough anymore. Dave offers practical reframes, deeply human stories, and a powerful idea he calls the scandal of particularity — a concept that may completely change how you think about what a well-lived life really looks like. Dave Evans joins us from California to discuss How to Live a Meaningful Life. ___________________________ Bio Dave Evans is the co-author of How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day. Dave has worked in alternative energy, telecommunications, and high tech. As an early member of the advanced systems group that built the technology that became the Macintosh, he led the first computer mouse team and laser-printing projects, before leaving to co-found the software giant Electronic Arts. After more than thirty years of executive leadership and management consulting in the high tech world, Evans realized that what he really wanted and needed to do was help people rediscover purpose in their jobs and lives. He joined Stanford’s Design Program, teaching the incredibly popular Designing Your Life course. In their book Designing Your Life, Dave Evans and co-author Bill Burnett, brought these principles to a larger audience, proving it’s never too late to design a life you love through innovation, creative problem-solving, and a growth mindset. Evans teaches audiences of all ages that the same principles used to create amazing technology and products can also be used to design and build a life filled with purpose and joy that is constantly creative and productive. Dave Evans earned a Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford and a graduate diploma in Contemplative Spirituality from San Francisco Theological Seminary. He lives in Santa Cruz. _________________________ For More on Dave Evans How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day  Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans (2020 Podcast) _________________________ Podcast Conversatons You May Like The Good Life – Marc Schulz, PhD Resurface – Cassidy Krug The Purpose Code – Dr. Jordan Grumet __________________________ About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time. About Retirement Wisdom I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms. About Your Podcast Host Joe Casey is an executive coach who 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 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University. In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.9 million downloads. Business Insider 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. ______________________ Wise Quotes On Becoming “The most essential definition of a human person is you’re a becoming. You’re constantly evolving into hopefully your more and more authentic self – never your complete self, by the way… there’s no way you’re ever going to get done.” On Shifting from Role to Soul “I think, particularly in that second half transition, you’re really looking at what we call the shift from role to soul. And by role, I am primarily identifying who I am as a person, my sense of what makes me who I am, is what I do in the roles and I have in the world, mostly in institutions called, you know, companies or employment or families. And I get this feedback loop from being the Dad, from being the General Manager, from being the mailman, or from whatever it is that says I’m doing the right thing, I’m getting paid for it, and the world’s a better place. And that’s the achievement feedback loop, which for most people that’s what we mostly hear from people is the primary thing. And as life moves along, even if you’re still achieving, I still have four part time jobs. But my relationship with that achieving role is very different than it used to be. And you start moving more and more where your life is really simply about expressing as authentically as you can in the world, who it is that you actually are.” On the Scandal of Particularity “The scandal of particularity is the recognition that all wonderful things only come in these small bite-sized pieces that are temporary, incomplete, partial, but reflections of the true thing. So if you radically accept you’re never going to get all of it, then you go, Oh, so what I really want to do is when the opportunity for some beauty or some truth shows up at all is dive all in, fully celebrate and enjoy it.”