Ten years ago, I found myself sitting in my car talking to a financial advisor. I wasn’t trying to move any money to a Roth IRA, although that would’ve been a productive conversation. No, I was listening as he explained in detail how he believed people could retire sooner and happier than they ever thought possible. That man’s name was Wes Moss, and those pearls of wisdom became the best-selling book You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think: The 5 Money Secrets of the Happiest Retirees.
I know what you’re thinking, “Who are you, and why were you sitting in your car?” I’m a writer and comedian in Los Angeles, and my cell phone didn’t get reception inside the building. Folks, writing isn’t always glamorous, but it’s often full of irony. In this case, I had to go outside to get inside Wes’ brain.
More than a decade later, I’ve helped Wes research and produce countless articles, another book, the long-running Money Matters radio show, and his successful Retire Sooner Podcast. I’ve even become a full-time writer and producer for Capital Investment Advisors, where Wes serves as Chief Investment Strategist, Managing Partner, and Senior Investment Advisor.
In my role as a podcast producer, I’ve listened to Wes trade retirement philosophies with a slew of sagacious sages. It’s always enlightening and often leads me to reflect on my life. What changes could I make to increase the probability of my own happy retirement? I’m not a financial advisor. But then again, most of us aren’t. We’re just people trying to make decisions that will lead us and our families toward a happy future.
It was from this perspective that the kindling of a new idea began to spark: perhaps listeners might want to hear from the happy retirees themselves. Going straight to the source, I thought, might lead to some profound, inspiring conversations for others on the retire sooner path. I could find out where these folks stumbled, where they triumphed, and ultimately, how they figured out the lifestyles that worked for them.
With these questions in mind, I did what every modern American does at some point in their life: I started a podcast.
One of the shiniest nuggets of gold mined from the research for You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think was that the happiest retirees on the block (HROBs) average 3.6 core pursuits, while the unhappy ones drop to 1.9. Think of a core pursuit as a hobby on steroids — a passion that can get you out of bed in the morning. This podcast will discuss them at length because we believe they are critical to living a happy life in retirement.
We’ve already heard from a woman who, after teaching high school literature for thirty years, decided to become a published author herself. We’ve discussed the concept of “unretirement” with the former managing editor of public media’s first and only national service for America’s booming 50+ population. We’ve even dug into the love life challenges of a former banking executive who loved traveling so much she retired and started her own agency.
And we’re just getting warmed up!
As children, we’re all asked what we want to be when we grow up. We tend to see the decision as finite when it isn’t. Life is fluid, and our situations can change as we grow. The Happiest Retirees Podcast refocuses the lens from this perspective. Now that you’re grown up, what do you want to do? How do you want to reinvent yourself? Who do you want to be?
I’m so excited to find the answers together. Let’s get started.
