Is Retirement the Best Thing that Can Happen to You?

Name: Is Retirement the Best Thing that Can Happen to You? | Open Video
Uploaded: 2025-07-25T23:35:37+00:00
Duration: 19 min 14 s

0:01
hello everyone Karen Glasser here and
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welcome to this episode of the little
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white lies this is the movement where we
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encourage you to love the age that
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you're in each week I invite my guests
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to share their stories and their
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expertise and their tools and their tips
0:19
and their strategies and how we can
0:21
embrace our very best authentic self and
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to say yes to embracing our little white
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lie so if you're here on replay I'm
0:30
delighted you're here and replay make
0:32
sure that you comment below because we
0:33
want to hear from you and we'll make
0:35
sure that we go in and you know answer
0:38
and answer the questions and comments my
0:41
guest as well John turn up and we'll be
0:43
inviting them in and just a second and
0:45
if you're watching the show go ahead and
0:48
share it with little share button send
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it off to whomever you want to share it
0:53
with and invite them to join us on the
0:56
show and as I do every single week I do
0:59
my reveal so today here is my reveal yes
1:04
it's growing out and I'm loving it I
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truly am still loving it for those of
1:08
you I get emails and messages so how's
1:10
the transition going it's going great
1:12
I love it let's make sure that we
1:15
connect on the site little white light
1:18
calm the little white light come it's up
1:20
there on the screen and when to comment
1:23
in the posts down there make sure to use
1:26
the hashtag hashtag little white lies
1:28
and that I can follow you on social
1:31
media and we can just put that into
1:33
search and all of your comments will
1:35
come up in one place so without further
1:39
ado it's time for me to talk about the
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topic and invite our guests in today
1:43
we're talking about retirement
1:45
retirement and we ask the question is
1:49
retirement the very best thing that can
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happen to you I don't know is it let's
1:54
find out I invite my guest John karna
1:57
Vint he is the author of the
1:58
best-selling book boomer reinvention how
2:01
to create your dream career over 50 he
2:04
is a repeat visitor because we love them
2:06
so much the first time we're bringing on
2:08
back John I just love what you have to
2:11
say
2:12
we're just going to go ahead and invite
2:13
you in but I have a question for you can
2:15
you tell us what your little white lie
2:17
is you have a little white light why Oh
2:19
God
2:21
I'm happy I want to get back to you on
2:23
that but I'm sure I can come up with a
2:24
doozy ah Texas I hope it doesn't rise
2:28
Minh because I think that transparency
2:30
is the is the watchword of our H I agree
2:36
with that I totally agree with that so
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let's just jump right in let's talk
2:40
about retirement okay his retirement the
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best thing in the world or not much I
2:46
think you kind of know my answer because
2:49
I am a I am I suppose you could call me
2:52
an anti retirement advocate and I just
2:56
think that retirement is is an outdated
2:59
concept and you know even just when you
3:04
think about the meaning of the word
3:06
retirement
3:07
I mean why in this day and age cooking
3:12
for our generation would anyone want to
3:13
to retire to to go to sleep to separate
3:18
ourselves to kind of sequester ourselves
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off in some strange you know prison is
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the word that comes to mind where we're
3:32
no longer engaged in our lives there is
3:35
so much amazing stuff happening
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I feel quote-unquote younger and this
3:41
gets into the whole Aegeus conversation
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frankly I certainly feel more engaged
3:45
more vital more curious more
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appreciative of life at this point I'm
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65 so I should be thinking about
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retirement
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I mean God is gonna be a bit of a stream
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of conversation fume of consciousness
4:00
conversation there's so many messages
4:02
about what we should be thinking about
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at this age we were we were raised at a
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time when retirement was this kind of
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natural outgrowth of getting good
4:13
education having good career and then
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you've got have got to sail often and I
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don't know
4:20
do nothing have fun go on cruises play
4:22
golf I don't play golf personally
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I'm not a big fan of cruises I don't
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really trust how they prepare their food
4:29
so um I've got a lot of other things
4:34
that I want to do I want to continue to
4:36
earn a living and most of us if you meet
4:41
the statistics need to continue to earn
4:43
a living because we've under saved for
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retirement
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we have aging parents who are living
4:48
longer and need more health care we have
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grown millennial children who are in 30
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percent of the cases still living at
4:56
home and our slow to launch so why are
5:00
people drawing us that we're done well
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it's it's so interesting
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so I've totally resonate with what
5:06
you're saying my husband is a little bit
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older than I'm 60 so on I'm not not that
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much behind you my husband is 72 he's
5:14
going to be retiring but he was to say
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he's semi-retired because he doesn't
5:18
want to retire he wants to move on to
5:21
the next best part of his life and so
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he's already got plans this you know
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cruises are nice I do we put it on the
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cruise by the way just want to let you
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know but you know what I have said I've
5:32
actually said that I wanted to retire
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but I didn't really mean in the sense of
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the word that I wanted to just stop
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everything that I was doing it's more
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moving on to the neck of my mother I
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reinvent exactly and I want to put your
5:45
book up right now
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because you you know you you made that
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you wrote this amazing book called
5:51
boomer reinvention and it really is
5:52
about reinventing ourselves we're not
5:55
just not retirement ourselves we're
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reinventing ourselves right and I also
6:00
think that and I I've had a lot of
6:02
session about this soon as term
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reinvention and one of my dear friends
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is a guy named Mark Freedman who founded
6:09
and runs on Korg which is a phenomenal
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nonprofit that seeks to put older
6:15
professionals in to nonprofits and to
6:19
social social good and has a really
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phenomenal program right now about
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bringing generations together in this
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intergenerational teacher that we're all
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trying to create and heal I initially
6:30
connected over this word reinvention and
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he had written an article which I took
6:34
issue with about the idea that the word
6:37
reinvention is too
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it's just wrong but it's like it's just
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too it's too tough to do that there is
6:45
so much cuts flippant conversation in
6:48
the culture today and the press about oh
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look who's reinventing themselves and
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it's obscure I read enough to I'm n you
6:55
have a whole life this motor everybody
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wanted like that when in reality it's
6:59
tops it's time to make that switch and I
7:01
agree
7:02
so reinvention is not for the faint of
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heart but at the same time I think that
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that reimagining your life doesn't
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actually get anything done because
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you're stuck in your imagination oh I
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could do that I could do this but you
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actually make the change how do you how
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do you actually make the pivot what are
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the techniques what are the tools or the
7:23
practices that you need to to adopt in
7:26
order to change your life around in
7:28
order to continue to earn an income in
7:30
order to either save the job that you
7:34
have or figure out a better job that you
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could actually exhibit to in your 50s or
7:40
60s that requires some work it requires
7:43
some thought some planning some research
7:46
some interaction with people so I put
7:49
the book together really to promote the
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idea that there is a future for us that
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is an active engaged future and here's
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how to do it so you know you mentioned
8:00
something you said one of the things
8:02
about retirement is that a lot of people
8:03
can't afford to retire right I mean they
8:06
even if they wanted to whatever that
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look like in the future they can't
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afford to cuz have boomers actually like
8:13
saved enough and well what are the
8:15
challenges around that basically we
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haven't saved up and you know there's a
8:19
lot of conversation out there about you
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know why we did this and how how spec
8:25
--let's we are and how selfish we are
8:27
generation and and I don't know I mean
8:29
I'm not going to kind of wade into that
8:31
conversation try to defend us up and
8:34
down you know we may have made some
8:36
mistakes and I think there are so some
8:38
reasons for for why we did this and I
8:42
think there were some messages that we
8:44
were sold by the financial services
8:47
establishment about how everything would
8:49
be okay and we could just leave order
8:52
there
8:52
houses continuously and and use our
8:55
credit cards like a piggy bank and etc
8:58
etc now we find ourselves in this
9:00
situation where the chain has kind of
9:03
been jerked back so we land ourselves in
9:07
the situation but I think the good news
9:10
is that rather than go okay I made a
9:14
mistake take care of me
9:16
society Social Security a pension plan
9:19
like whatever so facing that we need to
9:25
take responsibility and create a
9:28
sustainable ongoing career for ourselves
9:30
that we can then work with as long as we
9:34
want to work as long as what I'm healthy
9:36
enough to work etc so we have a comment
9:39
from Nancy Ferrari who says she's not
9:41
going out to pasture the second phase of
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amazing possibilities await here hair I
9:46
think that's awesome I would totally
9:48
agree with you and she also has the
9:50
hashtag retirement rocks so huh so
9:53
interesting I you know Nancy I'm going
9:56
to actually call you on that because in
9:57
one you just told us that retirement
9:59
rough but you're not going out to
10:00
pasture the second phase of your life is
10:02
going to be even better carry over here
10:04
yes yeah I would I would invite you to
10:06
rephrase that my hashtag has reinvention
10:09
rocks please there you go I love that
10:12
totally limited for the Herman as I said
10:14
retirement does not rock you know the
10:16
idea of disconnecting yourself from life
10:21
from career from other people from
10:24
people in younger generations who fell a
10:26
lot to contribute to your life I mean
10:28
why would you do that
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right why would you separate yourself so
10:31
I guess the question begs to be asked
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then how do we reframe that whole
10:35
retirement slash reinvention in our
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minds as we age and this is what it's
10:41
all about this is what the little white
10:42
lie is all about as we age how do we
10:45
frame these things in our head instead
10:46
of saying we're retiring or reinventing
10:49
ourselves how do we take that next step
10:52
to live our best life as boomers or
10:57
whatever age worth well I think first of
11:00
all you know we're having kind of a
11:02
condensed conversation here but but I
11:04
think we all have to get
11:05
of the labels and and it's really not
11:08
about retirement or reinvention or
11:11
reimagine ation or reconfiguration or
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whatever the word is that we want I
11:17
think we have to be clear and specific
11:19
about what it is that we want to do in
11:21
the lifestyle that we want to live so
11:23
really is now back to Michael and the
11:27
way I see it is the future that you want
11:31
is inside you the job the you know the
11:36
semi-retired job what if you want to
11:38
call it the activity that you want to
11:40
pursue whether you're doing this because
11:42
you want to earn money or needs earn
11:43
money or because you want us to engaged
11:45
or because you have a cause or a purpose
11:48
that you want to fulfill all of that is
11:50
inside you and the important thing to do
11:52
at this stage in life is to figure out
11:53
what that is and really what your
11:56
priorities are around that and put a
11:58
plan together for how you're going to
12:00
build from where you are now which may
12:02
include a full time job it may be that
12:04
you've just been downsized from a job
12:06
and you're trying to get yourself back
12:07
on your feet whatever your situation is
12:09
there's a plan there there's a plan
12:11
there to create the life that you want
12:14
because you're going to be around for a
12:15
while now the the stat is that about a
12:19
third of people who are 65 years old
12:22
they're going to make it past 90 so odds
12:26
and the odds getting better the older
12:28
you get the older you're going to get
12:30
right and I actually I believe that my
12:34
folks are still alive and 81 and 83
12:38
they're both still working full time how
12:41
amazing is that
12:42
and I mean I so I come from good stock
12:43
and I plan on what I'm going into my
12:46
next you know my next life at this point
12:48
at sixty like only intend on living at
12:51
least 290 you know whoever's up there
12:54
listening to that we're broke that is
12:56
definitely my intent
12:58
let me show up throw up some comments
13:00
what is retirement so Roy says retire
13:04
mince is a noun the action or fact of
13:07
leaving one job and ceasing to work that
13:09
is the actual definition of retirement
13:12
interesting and we've got and so Nancy
13:15
to take your advice and she has
13:17
reinvention rocks
13:18
ah that's great I'm putting also one up
13:21
from Betty Ann yes no labels because
13:24
those things change during our lives I
13:26
want to do certain things now and I
13:28
suspect I want something different two
13:30
years ten years from now that takes
13:32
planning I agree as well so this is
13:34
great
13:35
the other thing I think that the Betty
13:36
Ann brings up which i think is really
13:37
important is this idea that that our
13:40
ideas change over time and we are not
13:43
the same people that we were at 20 or 40
13:45
and all the cumulative experiences that
13:49
we've had whether they are in work or in
13:52
life have a have a result and so I
13:57
caution people who are looking to pivot
14:01
to their second act career who have a
14:05
long-held hobby or a frustration or
14:09
maybe they quit school to raise the
14:12
family and now they want to go back and
14:13
complete their degree that may be a good
14:16
plan but I also caution people to take a
14:20
inventory of where they are now and what
14:24
is really important to them now as
14:26
opposed to what was important when you
14:28
and your 20s and and make the plan based
14:32
on today not on on the past good advice
14:36
good advice and throwing one more
14:37
comment from Michael Arlen Corporate
14:39
America does not want people over 45 and
14:42
the gig economy takes advantage of human
14:45
resources demographically the workforce
14:47
will eventually need baby boomers who
14:49
have experiences or skills right right
14:52
I agree the math the math actually is in
14:54
our favor and you know corporate America
14:57
is really behind the curve there are so
15:00
many studies out there and increasing
15:02
research to support the idea that older
15:04
workers provide incredible value in the
15:06
workplace not that we are better
15:08
necessarily the younger generations I
15:10
think we have to watch our attitude
15:12
about that and the the reverse ageism
15:16
that we will weaken tend to inflict on
15:19
younger generations we all have to work
15:21
together there's great things that we
15:22
can learn from Millennials and Gen Xers
15:24
and there's great things that they can
15:26
learn we don't all need to be working
15:28
together and I think that increasingly
15:30
for Sal
15:32
economic reasons uh corporate America's
15:35
going to realize that it makes more
15:37
sense to keep us around keep us employed
15:39
and if we're employed then we're making
15:43
money we're spending money then we're
15:45
not a drag on the economy so it's a
15:48
win-win absolutely so you know for our
15:50
viewers that are wondering how do they
15:52
get in touch with you they can go over
15:54
to John
15:54
Tarnoff dot-com I'm going to put a link
15:57
to your book actually in the status for
15:59
those of you who want to go ahead and
16:00
just get this book you should it's
16:02
really awesome I've read it
16:04
cover-to-cover
16:04
you really should pick up a copy I'm
16:06
going to show just a few more comments
16:09
because you know why not ephra Roga says
16:12
I think no matter what we call it we
16:14
should always pursue our passion no
16:16
matter our age amen and Michael in
16:18
response to your comments John on his
16:21
first comment we need to make our own
16:23
opportunity absolutely right we need to
16:26
take a 100% responsibility for it and
16:28
you know what some great stats on this
16:31
of course counseling foundation that
16:33
focuses on entrepreneurship a different
16:36
sentence four years older entrepreneurs
16:38
over 40 over 50 are twice as likely to
16:41
succeed in starting new businesses and
16:43
younger entrepreneurs mainly uh yeah and
16:46
it's obvious right we have more
16:48
experience we like experience with work
16:50
experience we can see the problems
16:52
coming another thing which I mean is
16:54
interesting I read this statistic
16:55
recently is that in a survey of
17:00
individuals from 55 to 65 and I think it
17:04
actually may have gone up higher eighty
17:06
percent of them any percent of people
17:09
who were forced to reinvent their
17:13
careers eighty percent of them being
17:14
those reinventions successful so if you
17:19
are concerned that at this advanced age
17:23
you don't have the chops to do it or
17:25
you're too tired or you don't know what
17:27
you would do or you know it's an aegis
17:30
Society so why bother truth is that you
17:34
are 80% likely to be successful and
17:38
happy about the decision that you made I
17:40
love that that's that's good news I
17:42
think that really really good news it's
17:44
News so again I'm going to put your
17:47
website up just again who are those
17:49
people who are write it down keep on you
17:52
know write it down go click on it and
17:54
then go go check it out and I'll put the
17:56
link to the book up in the top as well
17:58
and for those of you who have not yet
18:00
visited the little white live.com why
18:03
not go visit it there's a bunch of
18:05
amazing shows over there and we're
18:08
following this journey of people who are
18:10
literally loving the age that they're in
18:13
no matter what the ages and you know
18:15
we've gotten a lot of comments from from
18:17
people that are writing in both you know
18:20
that there are a hundred percent behind
18:22
what we're doing and then questioning
18:24
are we telling people what they're
18:25
supposed to do no we're not we are
18:27
telling we are actually requesting and
18:30
suggesting strongly that you do what
18:33
makes you happy not with somebody else
18:35
tells you to do no matter what age
18:37
you're in go tackle that little white
18:39
lie whatever it might be John I am just
18:42
delighted that you came and visited us
18:44
again you will be Babylonian Bibles
18:46
you're always so much fun go ahead and
18:49
make sure that you has tagged little
18:51
white lie when you're commenting and and
18:53
send it out to the universe make sure
18:54
you comment down below John and I will
18:56
both go back in there and make sure we
18:58
respond to you and we want to thank you
19:01
because we know that you have a choice
19:02
as to where you spend your time we want
19:04
to thank you for spending it with us
19:05
today we'll see you next week next time
19:07
on the next episode of the little white
19:10
lie so bye everyone

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Is Retirement the Best Thing that Can Happen to You?

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