The Simply Retirement Podcast

What happens when the career that shaped your schedule, relationships, and identity is suddenly no longer part of your everyday life? Preparing for retirement can mean thinking beyond the financial pieces. In this episode, I continue my conversation with Kelly Ottman, PhD, Professor at Milwaukee School of Engineering and Executive Leadership Coach at Leadership Portals, LLC, about preparing for the personal transition into retirement. We explore how women can rethink identity beyond a job title,

Retirement can look settled financially and still leave you wondering who you’ll be when your career and title change. How do you prepare for the parts of retirement that don’t show up on a financial statement? In this episode, I sit down with Kelly Ottman, PhD, Professor at Milwaukee School of Engineering and Executive Leadership Coach at Leadership Portals, LLC, to explore her research on how executives experience retirement. We look at why women may enter retirement with broader identities an

Social Security rules can look straightforward until survivor benefits, retirement ages, taxes, and your personal history start overlapping. Understanding where these rules came from can help you recognize which details deserve a closer look before you file. In this episode, I look back at how Social Security has changed and why that history still affects women making retirement decisions today. I explain why some people have two different full retirement ages, how survivor and divorced-spouse b

What happens when the life you planned no longer fits the person you’ve become? Retirement planning can create space to reconsider where you live, how you work, and what you want your next chapter to look like. In this episode, I talk with Meg McKeen, Founder and Principal Consultant at Adjunct Advisors LLC, about the personal and financial decisions that reshaped her life. Meg shares how divorce pushed her to understand her finances and become her own advocate, how she eventually left corporate

Life changes, but the beneficiary forms attached to your retirement accounts, insurance policies, and other assets may still reflect decisions you made years ago. In this episode, I explain why beneficiary reviews should be part of ongoing retirement planning and walk through nine questions that can help you determine whether your current designations still reflect your wishes. I cover primary and contingent beneficiaries, coordinating designations with your estate plan, trusts, minor beneficiar

Retirement investing can bring many questions, especially when your savings need to support your lifestyle for decades. How do you balance growth, income, taxes, and market uncertainty when planning for life after work? In this episode, I share my recent webinar from the New York Public Library’s Investing A-Z program, in which I discuss seven essential strategies for investing in retirement. I explain how a financial plan should guide investment decisions, why inflation can affect long-term pur