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Episode #616 - The 10 R's for a Joyful Retirement with Cesar Aguirre

“You can't take it with you. You can't take it with you. You can't take it with you.”

Roger: Welcome to the show dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement, but to have the confidence to lean in and rock it. My name is Roger Whitney. Thanks for hanging out with me today on Deck. Today we're going to talk about not taking it with you when it comes to setting your retirement goals. We have a question from a listener about that. In addition to that, we are going to do an interview on Rocking Retirement in the Wild with Cesar. Cesar went from a C level executive at a public corporation to live in a great retirement. He really is. And then at the end of the show, we're going to go to the feedback booth and get some feedback about what this show should address and related to the discussion we had about organic food. Excited to get all that started.

THE COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENT FOR SOCIAL SECURITY WAS ANNOUNCED.

Roger: But before we do, just a quick bit of news that was delayed because of the government shutdown. Recently, the Social Security administration announced that the cost of living adjustment for Social Security in 2026 is going to be 2.8%. It was delayed because they didn't have the data from the Bureau of Labor statistics. In 2025, it went up by two and a half percent. It's going to go up by 2.0.8% next year. Over the last decade, it's averaged an increase of about 3.1%. If we go back to the mid-70s when they started this cost of living adjustment, I think it's averaged right around 2.6%. This is a really significant benefit. The fact that our Social Security benefit goes up by some factor of inflation every year. So now we know what it is for 2026. With that said, let's get to our rocking retirement in the wild story.

ROGER TALKS WITH CESAR ABOUT HIS BOOK AND HOW HE IS ROCKIN’ RETIREMENT.

Roger: All right, we're going to talk with Cesar, who I've had the honor of knowing for a number of years. I knew him before he retired and then as he's navigated shedding his high pressure C-level job at a corporation and seeing how he's found his new rhythm. And he wrote a book related to a lot of his own reflections. It's the hours of retirement. We'll have a link to that in our noodle email. And that book came from his personal reflections as he was navigating what's my purpose now? How do I approach life and relationships? And now we're going to get to hear it from, well, the Cesar's mouth as he shares his journey.

ROGER INTRODUCES CESAR AGUIRRE, AUTHOR OF RETIREMENT WITH PURPOSE: THE 10 R'S FOR A JOYFUL RETIREMENT.

Roger: So we're here with Cesar Aguirre. Did I say that correctly Cesar?

Cesar: Yes, sir.

Roger: Aguirre, author of, Retirement With Purpose, The 10 R’s For A JoyFul Retirement, for a joyful retirement. I got it right here in my hands. How you doing today, Cesar?

Cesar: Very good, thank you. How about you?

Roger: I'm great. I'm great. I never thought I would be asked to do a forward to a book and I was honored that you asked me and I wrote the forward to this book. So disclaimer there. I'm a big Cesar fan. Before we get into the book itself, when did you retire?

Cesar: I formally retired or left my corporate world because as I said in the book, I'm not retired. I'm changing purpose. I left the corporate world back in June, of 2023. I started thinking about it, planning about it a couple of years before that, and that's when I started taking notes. But I left the corporate world a little over two years ago.

Roger: Yeah, okay, so you change seasons. I definitely like that better than retirement. It's just the word that we use. And so my understanding is that this book is really the product of your self reflection and journaling. So tell me about that. How did that come about?

Cesar: Yeah, well, you know, through my education and my job for many, many years. I grew up accustomed to framing things, to creating structures and creating models. I'm an engineer by training, but I work in HR for the last 30 some years of my career and doing some training with it. So a couple of years before, when I started thinking about it's probably the right time or the time is approaching, I started taking notes of my conversations with people and my own reading, my engagement with you and your firm and how you guide us, me and my wife Sylvia, to planning our retirement to Rocket.

Roger: And that's good to point out that is a connection that we have that's not related to why we're talking about this. But you and I've been blessed to walk this journey with you a bit.

Cesar: Less is me, not you. But yeah. So, two or three years before 2023, started taking my, my notes and my thinking and what I need to do and how I need to do it and what am I going to do after work. And that became again the, the essence of what eventually turned out to be, a white paper and then something.

Roger: More formal that that's actually what I'm interested in. So this started off as self reflection. What spurred you to. I remember, I remember the white paper because you sent it to me. What spurred you to formalize a little bit more? What Was the reason behind that when.

Cesar: When I started to talk to people, retirees soon to retire or not even thinking about retirement people my generation a little older, even a little younger.

Roger: And how old are you?

AT 65, CESAR REALIZED MANY PEOPLE APPROACHED RETIREMENT WITHOUT A PLAN, INSPIRING HIM TO DOCUMENT HIS PROCESS SO OTHERS COULD FIND STRUCTURE AND CLARITY IN THEIR OWN JOURNEY.

Cesar: I am now 69. I was 65 when I started with this idea. Yeah, about 65. And I came to realize earlier that a lot of people were looking forward to return them without a plan. And friends that I have met, there are others who had planned very nicely, those who have followed some process to it. But in my circle, my environment, family members of friends, former colleagues and so on and so forth, I found a lot of people without structure and that's what I say. I don't want to be one of them. And also it might be useful for those who I have talked to to start sharing this in a more formalized way. That was the genesis of all this notes being taking shape.

And then I'm always very akin to acronym or ways to record things, to remember things and the hours of retirement sounding like makes sense. Retire, rethink, reimagine, so on and so forth.

Roger: And you have a history. So this is something you actually did in your career is you did training in a number of areas. You created programs before, right?

Cesar: I did, I did, ah, sometimes I just did somebody else's material and stand up training. Eventually started to again collecting ideas from different people and building my own material. There was a point in my career when I was in between jobs that I did some consulting and most of the consulting was delivered in training and leadership development, talent, succession, all that. So yeah, I have that in my DNA or in my way of thinking is how can I convey this in a way that is useful training or sharing experiences.

Roger: That's actually one thing I really like about you. Writing this book and talking with you is not just the content for the reader, but I love the example of taking skills and passion that you already had in your career and repurposing them during your retirement. That by itself is a good example of how to help others to see. I just need. I'm not losing who I was. I just changing how I use all of those skills and interests and focusing.

Cesar: A little different audience.

Roger: Yeah, yeah. So you're still who you're just a different version of yourself. So it's not like you're leaving all these, you know, these drivers that you.

Cesar: Had beforehand, is it the hour to reinvent yourself.

THE PANDEMIC SLOWED Cesar’S BUSY CAREER, PROMPTING HIM TO SHIFT FROM FOCUSING ON LEAVING WORK TO DISCOVERING WHAT HE WAS RETIRING TO.

Roger: So a question for you. On your journey in retirement, did you feel that you had to know what you were retiring to. Or was it more. You were just, you just knew that the season of work was ending. What was the, driver for you?

Cesar: I think that the beginning was more, I'm retiring. I don't need to know what I'm retiring to. I just know that it's coming to an end. The pandemic in 2020 was a good, safe training season for us, for me and my wife, rather, because, you know, I was accustomed to a very intense job schedule with travel 60, 70% of the time, for many years. The pandemic forced me to settle down a little bit and be effective and being productive without having to be on airplane or in a conference room. And also for my wife, who putting up with me more often here, I said, well, I can probably do this m more of this when we go back to work, if we ever go back to work. And I started thinking about, it's probably time to leave this behind. So that was the initial thing. Now when I started talking to people and people like yourself is, well, what are you retiring to? Not just where you're living or where you are retiring from. That's when I started to get a little, a little anxious as to me getting a better idea what that was going to be.

Roger: Did you feel anxiety about retiring?

Cesar: Not really, to be honest, no. I think that the process took me, and I talk about it in the book. The company gave me the opportunity, and I'm very grateful for that, to move from my frontline, intense work job to a corporate support, backroom job. And that was for about a year, a year and a half. It gave me the confidence that, I could have done stuff without needing to be, you know, 100% involved.

Roger: It's so wonderful when a company has that culture that you can have, they, they can help with transitions rather than feeling like you have to be secret and then just leave it.

Cesar: Yeah, no, that was again, in my career, Roger, I've always been very open with my bosses, and I think they're also having opened to me. As I said, reciprocal was reciprocal relationship. So I feel very comfortable talking to both my functional and my solid line bosses that, you guys, this is going to be time. And when you are in that world, in that company for 13, 14 years, you also learn to learn between the lines or read the, writing on the wall. And it was also probably gonna be at some point when they were ready to, to get fresh blood. So it was mutually beneficial to work on this transition.

Cesar SHARES HOW A FIVE-YEAR ASSIGNMENT ABROAD LED TO A PERMANENT MOVE TO THE U.S. IN THE EARLY ’90S, MARKING A PIVOTAL SHIFT IN HIS LIFE AND CAREER.

Roger: Okay, I have one last question about you, and then we'll focus on some of the Rs.

Cesar: Yes, sir.

Roger: So you were born in Mexico?

Cesar: I was born in Mexico.

Roger: When did you move to the United States?

Cesar: We came forward, was going to be an initial two, three year assignment in Massachusetts in 88.

Roger: Okay.

Cesar: And that, turned out to be a five year assignment. And then went back to Mexico for a few months. In the process I got contacted by the headhunter. So it took us back here in 91, 92. And ever since we stay here.

Roger: So you were in your 20s? 30s. 30s.

Cesar: When I first left Mexico, I was 29. 30. Yeah.

Roger: Okay.

Cesar: 32. In 88 I was 32.

Cesar REFLECTS ON CULTURAL VIEWS OF RETIREMENT, BLENDING MEXICO’S FAMILY-CENTERED “JUBILACIÓN” WITH THE U.S. IDEAL OF INDEPENDENCE TO CREATE A MORE BALANCED, PROACTIVE APPROACH TO THIS NEW SEASON OF LIFE.

Roger: Okay. And the reason I'm asking, I'm just curious. From a cultural perspective, do you see differences in how you think of these change of seasons and retirement relative to your native or birth citizens of this country in terms of attitudes about retirement and change of seasons? Because you work with a lot of people that were born here and are in the corporate grind?

Cesar: Yeah, I think so. And I also mentioned something like that in the book is, the different cultures in Mexico. My parents generation, they retire the old way. You know, I'm going home and I'm on a rest. And I seen it in the US as well, but I didn't like that way. And I started to see more, I said it in the book in Spanish. They call it jubilacion, which comes from jubilee, which is enjoyment. You are getting the rewards of so many years of working. But there are different, cultural differences in Mexico. You take care of the elderly more, you take care of your parents more than I see it in the US where people are more independent when they retire. So I, wanted a combination of the two. I don't want it to be dependent on my kids or I want it to be abandoned by my kids. So I thought that was important to, to be more proactive that way.

Roger: Do you think, I mean, just from your reflection on maybe some colleagues that were not from another culture, I, I hear a lot of times the anxiety of retiring, not having the income. Do you think culturally that helped you with the transition more or is it just pretty much the same?

Cesar: I don't, I don't know if it was. I didn't feel the anxiety. As I mentioned to you, I was extremely fortunate to work in a company or companies because that came from years behind that allowed me to build a good, nest or you know, reserves for my retirement. So financially I was never worried. And then I always had good guidance. Including yourself and doing that in Terms of what am I going to do activities. I'm, I'm always being curious. I'm also, I'm always being fanatic of learning, learning new things and doing so. Okay, I didn't have that anxiety. But again I don't know if it was because of my culture or my lack of culture. it was just never an issue for me.

THERE ARE 10 R’S IN THE BOOK, STARTING WITH REVIEW.

Roger: So we have 10 Rs in your book?

Cesar: Yes sir.

Roger: Do you think of this as a sequential journey?

Cesar: No. Although there is some logic sequence at least at the beginning when the first one is review and I focus on that review. If it is a time, if you are ready to, to do, to take that step right from is your job still keeping you satisfied, excited or busy, Is your health something you need to do, is your family supportive of that is are you ready? That is the first one and I think it's obvious first step, review your situation. As you come to the conclusion that you are reviewing, you move into. The second is probably also sequential rebalance. Rebalance your time, rebalance your, your workload, etc.

Roger: So that, and I think that one's often overlooked is to create now that you, you think you might be ready rebalancing and creating another word would be creating boundaries around work so you can have space for yourself which a lot of times we don't give ourselves in the corporate grind.

Cesar: And it also applies, it also applies if you already retired. And I think the book, what I find on this book is that is good for those who are planning but also good for those that we are already in retirement but haven't done much thinking about it. So rebalance and reallocate your time is that is make a transition from fully active to semi active to active in a different way. Or if you are already in retirement, take a look, review what are you doing and rebalancing what you're doing is not keeping you happy. If it's keeping you happy, go for it. But if not do it, rebalance the rest then you can go step by step, relax and recharge. Which is the third one is don't feel the need to immediately start doing something. Take your time, figure it out, get your batteries to recharge.

ROGER ASKS CESAR HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTION, “WHAT DO I WANT?”

Roger: So as you're going through this process and I and you have exercises in each one just to as prompts to explore it. Because that's basically what you did right? You were journaling or you were thinking for yourself and using prompts to help you do this question on because we just finished up a series on goal setting - better retirement goal setting. And one of the most difficult things is answering the question, what do I want? How do you answer that? Or can you? Or how did you answer that? Or did you.

Cesar: I'm still trying to figure that out. I know what I wanted at the beginning and I think that is important, as I mentioned in the book, but I also do myself is have flexible goals. You know, you can only control so much in the short term and even then be flexible because life happens and things change. you might discover something more interesting or you discover something is not as interesting as you thought. So I always try to set goals for me, short, mid and aspirational longer term goals and then be reviewing that. But don't let me fool you. I'm, still trying to figure out.

Roger: Many days and a lot of it is I love that idea of hold them with a light grass, a hand. Right. Let them. Don't feel obligated to them. Sometimes I think if you set a goal now, you feel obligated to achieve the goal.

Cesar: Well, be careful who you commit to because at the same time you don't want to disappoint others or be not taken serious. So be goals that you sell for yourself. I think you can allow that, flexibility. But if you're a commit, you know, if I commit to losing 20 pounds and I don't tell anybody, I got a little more freedom there. But if I publish it, then everybody is going to see me having that extra donut is going to come back to me. What happened with your goal now you're not meeting your. Yeah, the commitments, you know.

Roger: Is that why you started with a white paper rather than just start saying, I'm going to write a book?

Cesar: No, I think that was an evolution, honestly. And the white paper, again due to our relationship, also came up from conversation with you and other, people that have been my mentor or my guidance. You both asked me to, if I wanted to get serious, put it in some sort of paper. So that was a commitment, but it was an evolution from my initial notes. And the book happened later on when, when I started to see that, if I wanted to reach beyond my immediate circle, of friends, maybe put it in writing. And it's not for, for business, but for access to it. But I ended up writing a book.

CESAR EXPLAINS THAT CREATING HIS BOOK WITH A SERVICE, NOT BUSINESS, PURPOSE REMOVED PRESSURE, LETTING HIM FOCUS ON MAKING IT USEFUL, REACH A BROADER AUDIENCE, AND NOW DEVELOP A SPANISH EDITION.

Roger: Yeah, let's talk about that. Did it feel you wrote the book as a personal journey for yourself because you did the work of all of these Rs and are doing the work?

Cesar: Still doing it.

Roger: Yeah. Yeah. Never stop and you were communicating it with friends and family and they wanted you. You saw the need. Did it feel different because you're not doing it with a business purpose, more of a service purpose?

Cesar: I think. So that takes a lot of pressure off because, see, I invested some money from the, from, from publishing it to a little bit, a little bit of marketing that I've done. But, and now that the book is out there and it's starting to see some of the sales coming, I'm not worried that I will, when I'm gonna break even or when I want to start making money. So the fact that it's not a business allowed me to take my time. I'm now working on the Spanish edition of it. I'm making some changes that I think are gonna be more appropriate for a different audience. There's no pressure. I want it to be useful and I don't want, if it turns out to be a good bestseller, well, more, more benefit out of it. But, just making sure that, whomever takes the book gets some benefit out of it. That's, that's the driver. So there's no pressure on the business side of it.

Roger: Yeah, it's just the return on investment's different. Right? It's, it's not monetary. I mean, it always could be in this case. But just like the return on investment of buying a bicycle isn't that it is the journey that it allows you to go on, not so much, you know, winning a race.

Cesar: In a way, Roy, it is applying the, 9th R, which is repay back. so it's a way to give back to the many people who have held need along the years, and especially in the last five years or so is repay pay back to the community.

CESAR ENCOURAGES NEWLY RETIRED LISTENERS TO CREATE STRUCTURE, REVISIT PLANS, AND EMBRACE RETIREMENT AS A JOURNEY WITH PURPOSE.

Roger: You are speaking to a number of people right now that are newly retired or say within a year or two of retirement. And the book obviously encapsulates how you navigated this transition. What would be the one thing that you say to them?

Cesar: It's never too late to start getting some structure, some format to it. I was reading another book recently, and basically says the same thing. Retirement is. You got hopefully 30 years ahead of you. Whether you are about to retire, nearly retire, or a few, couple of years into it, you've still got a lot of years ahead of you. So it's not never too late to start figuring things out and giving some format. The book or life is not to check mark boxes, because those boxes, you check them and then next week there's another opportunity to check the same box or never go back to that box because it's already done. So take your time. And if you haven't done much planning, never too late. If you're done some planning, it's probably a good way to go back and revisit your planning and maybe get a new idea. If you get a new idea out of this book, my job, my work is done. And now that'll be my payback.

Roger: Retirement With Purpose, The 10 R’s For A JoyFul Retirement. And perhaps the purpose is just the journey itself.

Cesar: Correct.

Roger: We'll have links to your book Cesar in our noodle email. Thanks so much for sharing your story. It's awesome. Honored to be part of it.

Cesar: Thank you for the opportunity and always great talking to you.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

Roger: Now let's talk about goal setting and how we view our money as it relates to goal setting. We're going to start with a audio question and I try to bring those to the top of the list, by the way. So if you have a question for the show or some feedback, you can go to askroger.me and you can type in your question or leave an audio question and we'll do our best to help you take a baby step along your way to rocking retirement. So let's go to our audio question.

IN AN AUDIO QUESTION, GARY, WHO WILL RETIRE IN 2026, SHARES HOW MANAGING “OLD” RETIREMENT SAVINGS FEELS DIFFERENT FROM SPENDING A PAYCHECK AND ASKS FOR GUIDANCE ON NAVIGATING THIS SHIFT IN MINDSET.

Gary: Hello, Roger. My name is Gary. I will turn 73 in December of 2025, and at the end of December, I will draw my last paycheck and begin full retirement in 2026. Now, going forward, I have retirement savings, I have an ira, I have investments, my wife has investments, as well as an ira. And so there's not a tremendous plus. We're drawing Social Security. I started drawing Social Security when I turned 72. So financially there's not a lot of worries there. We are in the process of working on retirement goals large and small. And I appreciate some of the series you are doing on that or have just included on that. So it's been very helpful in us to think that through and put down some goals. I do find, however, that the way we think about or the way I think about money is different when you have a paycheck coming in. It's new money and it's money that's coming from the company that you work for. In retirement, it's your money and it's not new money. It may be interest and it may be, interest from investments and growth in investments, but still it's old money. And so I find myself thinking differently about that. It's easier to spend new money coming in to say, oh, because there'll be more new money next month. That's a different mindset than I'm finding as I think about 20, 26 and beyond. So it's curious. this is not paralyzing me by any stretch of the imagination, but I have noticed that I think about the retirement income and living off that retirement income differently than I did about living on, off a paycheck. I wondered if you had some thoughts on that, if other people have experienced that and had some, some guidance, some suggestions to throw my way. I appreciate it. Enjoy the podcast. I've just really discovered you in the past couple of weeks. But I'm a regular listener and so keep up with good work.

Roger: Well, first off, Gary, welcome to the show. I'm glad that you're finding value in it and it's a great question and is a question that many of our listeners struggle with. When we received our first dollar, it became one of the first times in our life that we had real agency. I earned a dollar whether it was through allowance or part time work, mowing lawns or whatever. And we could determine what we do with that dollar. I could go buy my baseball cards because it was money I earned. And we started to connect, earning money with the ability to do things. And then as we grew in our careers, the entire structure of a, ah, career path or the professional world is geared towards reward, which comes in the form of obviously accolades, but in raises and bonuses, etc. And then while we're working, when we make financial mistakes, we can earn our way out of them. And if we want something, we can earn and save to get that thing. So it makes sense that this is what your mindset is right now, Gary, because this is how it's been over six decades for you. And it's been positively reinforced in the ways that I described, but also in seeing our net worth, our wealth increase over time, there's a big positive reinforcement. It feels safe. I update my net worth every month. I like to see it go up. So that mindset is very normal. So it's always good to know that you're not alone here. When we are in retirement and you're about to turn 73, what was the point of all of the money that you created is really the, the key question here, Gary.

Now how do you get over this mindset? Well, you don't. You work through it. It's a journey. So you're not just going to have a realization and feel comfortable spending money when you don't have a paycheck. So don't think that there's any elixir that's going to solve that. But you have to keep reminding yourself as you're setting these goals, you and your spouse, what is this money for? Why did we work so hard and sacrifice so much to save this money in the first place? All that sowing that you did, now you're coming into a time of reaping. You had a point of this money now see safety and security and to build your family. But now what's the point, Gary? What's the point? It is to provide for you. It's a tool you get to use. The two of you between now and when you both pass, definitely have to have confidence that you two have enough for the two of you and some extra for the possibility of big spending, shocks, etc. But you want to have a plan of record. In my mind, Gary, that gives you confidence that you have that taken care of so that you can start to have the comfort to use it to do good in your life and in the world.

Now we're going to get into a really important aspect of this is if you don't have confidence that the two of you, okay with an ample buffer, you won't have comfort in using what we'll call your excess wealth if you have some to do good for yourself and in the world. And that doing good for yourself in the world could go to spending more money to decrease the friction of your life. Simple example would be paying somebody to mow the yard. We do that so we don't have to do that so we have more time and energy to be with our spouse or to go do what it is, whatever it is that you like to do. That's an example of decreasing friction. And we talk about that a lot on the show. Gary, Another way of decreasing friction is having the house cleaned. I was just talking with my brother in law and his mother in law. They're in their 80s and they just hired their first house cleaner. And it was a big stretch for them, but that's decreasing the friction in their life. It could be creating memories by using some of your excess wealth to have the family go someplace together. Now this isn't soft foo foo stuff. This is what is the point of the money. Erie, you can't take it with you. And I see time and time again for those that have ample resources, more than enough resources because of the mind, they never do the work to get over the mindset. Of I don't have income, so I have to be careful that they end up dying with too much money. And that is a crying shame, dying with too much money. And that means that you weren't able to make your life a little bit easier. You weren't able to use those resources to create experiences for the two of you and experiences for the people that you love. You weren't able to use that money properly to help improve the world. I mean, if we want to get serious here, it robs the entire world if we don't do the work to spend money on important things while we're alive. Because it's going to go somewhere when you're dead. So I don't have an answer for you, but I think decreasing friction is, number one, spend some money to make your life easier. Have your wife spend some money to make her life easier.

Second, spend some money in a very low stakes way to create memories for the two of you, for your children or people you care about. Third, spend some money to bless others in the world, whether it's supporting an organization or the community. But think of them as low stakes decision like we talked about last week. So it's a journey. I just want to emphasize that it's a really, really important journey. Gary, you're 73 years old. You and your wife can't take it with you. You can't take it with you. And it's better that you are a steward of using this in the proper way than to just leave that to someone else who may not do it with such good stewardship as you two do. So relax, just do some low stakes testing and realize that this m is what the point of the money was for. This is why you worked so hard, the two of you, and saved. This is the reaping stage of life and it's not going to be comfortable at first, but it's really, really important if you want to rock retirement.

A LISTENER, WHO CHOSE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS, ASKS HOW TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE ESSENTIALS OF A “BASE GREAT LIFE” AND THE DISCRETIONARY SPENDING THAT FALLS INTO THE “WANTS” CATEGORY.’

Roger: Our next question came from a listener who wanted to be anonymous and said, well, “what goes into the category of my base great life and what goes into the wants of life, the more discretionary spending?”

Okay, let's start with the base great life. And that is: needs. You have to have this. Housing, transportation, health care, utilities, food and groceries. The very basics of life that we all have to have. And then I would recommend that you have some things that are important to you individually that may seem discretionary to someone else. One example, and I think I used it in the episode for one person, it could be the golf club, the private golf club. And I used an example of an actual client who at a time in her life, membership to the private golf club was really part of her base great life. She had to have it because that was her main activity. It was her main social network. It was where her whole ecosystem of health and energy and relationships and pursuits evolved around. So for her it was an essential. Whereas look at me, I've never been a member of a private golf club. It would be totally a discretionary thing. My judgment of it as a discretionary thing is specific to me, not her. And that could be a number of different things. So in addition to those basics, I want what's included in base great life. Something that is important to you. It could be travel, it could be hobbies at some level and then you can move the more discretionary extras of that into the wants category. So this is going to be something that you get to decide because you'll plan for it and make sure it's secure, but it's important because it's important to you.

A LISTENER PRAISED ROGER’S SHIFT FROM CHASING BIG GOALS TO FOCUSING ON VALUES AND CREATING CONDITIONS TO EXPLORE LIFE PERSONALLY AND MEANINGFULLY.

Roger: Now our next comment came from a listener and I can't find the email. I swear I put it into my production deck and I can't find it. So I'm going to give you an abstract of what was shared with me and essentially the comment was finally Roger, you stopped touting big goals and goal setting and A type personality approach to goals and realized and started touting that look at your values and set up the conditions for discovering your life. And I'm using the word touting because I remember that's the word that they used. But they make a really good point. So thank you for sharing that feedback in that it's easy to think of goal setting and I do this. I'm definitely raising my hand when it comes to goal setting and how I talk about it or how I have talked about it is you got to think big, you got to take on the world. You're not thinking big enough. This A type personality, go find a big mountain and climb it. And my intent in that isn't to be an A type dude. My intent is to help people not miss their life. But that still comes from an A type personality mindset. And I've evolved some. I'm a work in progress myself that we all don't think that way. I think of my brother in law who lives in a, in a very simple way. He loves to work on his cars. He doesn't have huge goals, but he's happy for him and I do think knowing your values and setting up the conditions to discover yourself and discover your life is totally appropriate for everybody. I think there's little bits of both that need to be there in different doses for all of us. So I appreciate that feedback, because we all don't need to be A type and make this a huge project. It is about setting up the conditions so we can surf whatever wave of life we have in our own way. So I appreciate that feedback.

DENNIS ASKS ABOUT THE RETIREMENT PODCAST NETWORK, AND ROGER EXPLAINS THAT WHILE IT’S STILL ACTIVE, HE AND TAYLOR SCHULTE DECIDED TO PRIORITIZE OTHER PROJECTS AND LET THIS ONE REMAIN ON THE BACK BURNER.

Roger: Our final question comes from Dennis, related to the retirement podcast network. “Roger, I really enjoy your podcast question. Unless I'm missing it, I didn't hear you, Benjamin Brandt, Peter Lazaroff, Taylor Schulte, et cetera, mention that you are part of the retirement podcast network anymore. Is there a reason for this? I assume there was a level of screening and standards to be part of this network.”

It's a great question, Dennis. If you go to retirementpodcastnetwork.com, you'll see the players that you mentioned still listed there. It's still an active website, but this was a project that we all started together some years ago. And then Taylor and I, Taylor Schulte, reignited it a year or so ago, wanting to do something more with it other than to have it be this website. So we started to lean into it and do the work on it. And then after some reflection, we realized that although it could be something really special, we see the value in it. We don't have time relative to the other things that are most important to us in our businesses, our families, and our individual podcasts. So rather than pursue it as a side project and not do it to the level we think we should, we decided to keep first things first and second things not at all. And this fell into that second-things-not-at-all category, a la Peter Drucker. So that's what happened to that. With that said, let's move on to our smart sprint.

SMART SPRINT

Roger: All right, in the next seven days, I want you to reflect on the phrase, you can't take it with you. You can't take it with you. You can't take it with you. We have to do the hard work of building a retirement plan of record, paying attention to the money part of it, so we can have confidence in our plan, so that we can be comfortable in going into the danger. Gary. And exploring what is this money for? Knowing that you can't Take it with you. It's important we do the hard work of retirement planning so that we can work on the mindset to where more isn't better. It's not the point. That's not what we were put on this earth to do. Once you know you have enough, what do you do with the rest? I want you to reflect on that. You can't take it with you.

OUTRO

Roger: All right. A few weeks ago, we had a podcast with Dr. Bobby Dubois on organic food and is it worth the cost? And received some feedback from a listener or two that wasn't super favorable. One criticism was that, well, you know, when you're in retirement, you don't have two kids, so the savings is maybe 500 to $1,000 per person. And then they didn't really appreciate. Bobby seems to equate freshness, safety with freshness. The key reasons people buy organic is that less use of chemicals that affect people, people and the environment, as well as animals treated. Fair point. Dr. Bobby seems to value health care, health of farm workers like lab rats. I don't think he does. He did mention that that is an issue. And this is part of the discussion that was a little bit upsetting to this individual. And there was no discussion about the environmental impact or animal treatment. And this was omitted in the roi. So this particular listener said, I found it very un-Roger, who says, I usually have more humane, broader, emotional take on things. And I can. I can appreciate that. There's a lot of layers to this, and Dr. Bobby's a scientist, so he looks at it from a scientific standpoint. But I wanted to share my response to this listener because I think it's appropriate in thinking about the show.

So this is basically what I said. There is definitely a bigger discussion about broader issues like farm workers, animal treatment, environmental impacts. These are important. And I think when we're at our best, you and I should come to our own judgment about them in our, choices rather than just remain oblivious to them, which is probably most of us when it comes to addressing topics on the show. And I think this is what's important. I choose to focus on the direct impact to you, the listener, in your journey to rock retirement. So in this case with organic, that was the financial cost to you. That's important when it comes to you rocking retirement, the potential of organic building energy for you, which is really important to rocking retirement. And the opportunity of cost, the opportunity cost of choosing organic over supplements or concierge or doctor, or hiring a trainer, etc. Those were the areas that I saw that were direct to you.

And I try to apply the same approach to all areas. So, like, for example, and this is what I shared, for example, tax policy, that has a tremendous impact on the world in all the areas that we discussed and many more when it comes to fairness and all these other things. And there are very strong views on what scheme is best. We see that played out in the news all day long. But when I talk about taxes, I talk about the policy as it is right now and how to navigate it within your own individual plan. If I didn't, almost every discussion would stray from the core mission for the show. And my mission for the show is to stay out of those broader discussions so that I can focus on empowering you to make better decisions so you can build a plan of record so you have confidence in your retirement plan. That's what's important to me. That's what the show is focused on. And in my mind, with that confidence, you and everybody else will have more comfort in their plan so that they can advocate for building a better world in whatever way you see fit. And without that confidence, we're like the person drowning in the water. We can't swim to what we think we should be. We're just trying to keep our head above water. And I have opinions on tax policy, on organic food, on the environment, etc. But they're not relevant to my mission of the show, which is empowering you. And so that's how we're going to approach all topics. Not that we shouldn't care about those things, but we can figure those things out for ourself and we can lean into them if we have confidence in our plan. This is what I shared privately. I want to share it with you because I thought it was a good understanding of how I try to focus on things. I want to make this helpful for you, so hopefully I do.

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