This episode features retirement transition expert and former lawyer Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons, author of Encore: A High Achiever’s Guide to Thriving in Retirement, in conversation with host Dori Mintzer about how high achievers can rethink retirement as a creative “encore” rather than an ending. Elizabeth shares her own story of leaving Big Law, the contrasting retirement examples of her father and grandfather, and what she’s learned from 16 years of helping professionals design more intentional, energizing next chapters.​

Together they explore how to bridge identity beyond job titles, move from a life dominated by work to a richer “mosaic” of relationships, wellbeing, contribution, and play, and shift from reacting to others’ demands to actively creating your own structure, time use, and definition of fulfillment. Through stories of clients who rediscovered passions like jazz, community leadership, and even Broadway, Elizabeth illustrates practical tools—such as “shaking the snow globe” with reflective questions, experimenting instead of seeking instant mastery, and using annual and daily planning to align time with what matters most.​

Key ideas:

• Retirement as another “graduation,” where you carry forward your enduring self rather than your business card.​
• Shifting from a monolithic work‑centered life to a flexible mosaic that includes health, relationships, learning, service, and joy.​
• Moving from a reactor mindset (responding to others’ agendas) to a creator mindset (designing your own days, experiments, and projects).​
• Using small, low‑risk experiments to explore new interests and locations instead of needing a fully formed plan from day one.​

Connect with Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons

• Website & programs: encoraco.com​
• LinkedIn: Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons​
• Book: Encore: A High Achiever’s Guide to Thriving in Retirement (available via major booksellers)

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

In this conversation, Kerry Hannon, senior columnist and on‑air expert at Yahoo Finance and award‑winning author of 14 books, including Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future. Kerry explains why Gen X has become the “test market” for do‑it‑yourself retirement, how credit cards, student loans, and career instability have left many feeling unprepared, and why she still believes Gen X can absolutely get back on track.​

You’ll hear about the shift from pensions to 401(k)s, the squeeze of caring for aging parents while raising kids, and the very real impact of rising healthcare costs and economic uncertainty. Kerry also shares hopeful, highly practical strategies—paying down debt, using retirement calculators, working with fiduciary financial planners, and even creating a vision board—to turn anxiety into action. Along the way, Dori and Kerry explore working longer by choice or necessity, navigating ageism, redeploying your skills, and the power of multigenerational connection at work and in life.

Connect with Kerry Hannon:

• LinkedIn: Kerry Hannon
• Website: KerryHannon.com
• Book: Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future by Kerry Hannon and Jana Heron

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.

In this episode of the Revolutionize Your Retirement Interview with Experts series, host Dori Mintzer speaks with Dr. Linda P. Fried, a global leader in healthy aging, about why rising longevity is a hard-won success rather than a crisis, how the shift to older populations is transforming societies worldwide, what older adults most want from later life (independence, purpose, learning, contribution, and mattering), and the many often-unseen ways older people already bolster economies and communities through work, caregiving, and volunteering, challenging fear-based narratives like the “old-age dependency ratio” and the impact of ageism and age segregation.

Key topics discussed

• The value of longer lives and demographic change: Public health advances have added decades to average life expectancy, bringing the U.S. to the brink of having 20% of its population over 65 and creating a new demographic reality shared by many countries.
• What older adults want: Global and U.S. studies show older people consistently prioritize aging in place, avoiding being a burden, maintaining relationships, having purpose, lifelong learning opportunities, respected voices in community life, and roles where they truly matter.
• Mattering, retirement, and mental health: Research highlighted in the Wall Street Journal finds many retirees feel less valued, needed, and connected, with loss of mattering predicting post‑retirement depression and illustrating how identity and health are tied to meaningful roles.
• Economic and civic contributions of older adults: Older people’s paid work and volunteering together are estimated to equal roughly 7% of U.S. GDP, while economic evidence shows older workers strengthen rather than crowd out opportunities for younger workers.
• Ageism, age segregation, and distorted narratives: Dominant policy tools such as the old‑age dependency ratio frame older adults as dependents, reinforcing ageist beliefs and obscuring real contributions, especially in a highly age‑segregated society where generations rarely mix.
• Capabilities and assets of later life: Science increasingly documents that aging can bring new cognitive strengths (complex problem analysis, values‑based judgment, breaking problems into steps), greater prosocial motivation, generosity, emotional balance, capacity for conflict mediation, and a generative drive to leave the world better.
  
  

Connect with Dr. Linda P. Fried

LinkedIn: Linda P. Fried

Learn more: Columbia University

What to do next:

• Click to grab our free guide, 10 Key Issues to Consider as You Explore Your Retirement Transition
• Please leave a review at Apple Podcasts.
• Join our Revolutionize Your Retirement group on Facebook.