The Retirement Café Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

I was excited to chat once again with Behavior Gap author and financial storyteller Carl Richards about the ideas behind his brand-new book, Your Money and 101 Other Things That Matter.

Carl's famous hand-drawn sketches have helped millions simplify complex financial concepts — but beneath the simplicity lies profound wisdom about living a meaningful, values-driven life. Together, we explore how our relationship with money shapes our happiness, the tension between working hard and letting go, and why sometimes the bravest thing we can do as investors is nothing at all.

In this episode we discuss:

·      Carl's journey from financial planner to New York Times columnist and author of the beloved "Sketch Guy" series.

·      The power of simple visuals to create clarity and spark real conversations about money.

·      "Actively doing nothing" — why patient investing and staying the course is one of the hardest (and most valuable) disciplines.

·      The spending practice — connecting your money to what you truly care about, and how everyday spending can become a reflection of your values.

·      "Spend the money" — why many retirees need permission to stop deferring joy and start living now.

·      Days or decades — tuning out the noise, avoiding anxiety-driven media, and focusing on what genuinely matters in the long term.

Carl Richards is a Certified Financial Planner™, author, and creator of The Behavior Gap and The Sketch Guy column for The New York Times, where his hand-drawn sketches made complex financial ideas beautifully simple. Through his work at behaviorgap.com, Carl helps people and advisors worldwide have better conversations about money, decisions, and what truly matters most.

🙌 Connect with Carl:

📘 Buy Carl's latest book, Your Money and 101 Other Things That Matter https://amzn.to/4ojvIqO

📘📘 Place a bulk order of Carl's book and save an additional 5% by using the code YourMoney5 at checkout: https://bulkbooks.com/products/your-money-reimagining-wealth-in-simple-sketches 

🎓 The Behavior Gap website: https://behaviorgap.com/ 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingcarl/

X: https://x.com/behaviorgap 

Instagram: https://instagram.com/behaviorgap

Thanks for checking out my YouTube channel - I'm Chartered and Certified Financial Planner Justin King and I help people to retire successfully.

CONNECT WITH ME 

✔️ Subscribe to my Channel here ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/c/JustinKingMFP/?sub_confirmation=1

🎙️ Subscribe to The Retirement Café Podcast here ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-retirement-caf%C3%A9-podcast/id1441976448

📕 Buy my book, The Retirement Café Handbook: https://amzn.to/3ZwjIbj

👉 Get my weekly newsletter: https://bit.ly/MFPNews

👉 MFP Wealth Management: https://www.mfpwealthmanagement.co.uk/

👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinking-online-retirement-planner-ifa/

⚠️ This podcast is for information and entertainment only. Nothing on this channel constitutes financial advice. Please do not make any decisions based on the contents of my podcasts; seek professional independent financial advice first!

I always love catching up with my good friend and fellow financial planner Pete Matthew—especially when we get to record it for The Retirement Café Podcast.

You may have heard Pete on the podcast before (this is his third appearance!) or seen him on his hugely popular Meaningful Money YouTube channel. We've even swapped mics—I've joined his show twice too! We both share a mission: helping people retire with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

This time, Pete's back to talk about his brand-new book The Meaningful Retirement Guide. It's packed with straightforward guidance on how to organise your finances in retirement—so you can get on with living the life you've worked hard for.

In our conversation, we cover:

• The biggest mistake people make when planning their retirement

• Why Pete has no plans to stop working—ever!

• How one man turned volunteering into a paid role that transformed his retirement plan

• The shift from saving to spending (and why it's harder than it sounds)

• What your money is really for

As always, I hope it gives you a helpful nudge toward the kind of retirement you truly want. 

For those who want to go further, Pete offers a self-paced Retirement Planning Course through his Meaningful Money Academy. The course includes video lessons, downloadable tools, access to financial planning software, and a supportive online community. Use the code PODCAST for a discount.

USEFUL LINKS

📘 Buy Pete's latest book, The Meaningful Money Retirement Guide: https://amzn.to/440BpkP 

🎓 Explore the Meaningful Money Academy: https://meaningfulacademy.com/ 

Connect with Pete:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MeaningfulMoney 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petematthew/ 

Thanks for checking out my podcast - I'm Chartered and Certified Financial Planner Justin King and I help people to retire successfully.

CONNECT WITH ME

✔️ Subscribe to my Channel here ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/c/JustinKingMFP/?sub_confirmation=1 

🎙️ Subscribe to The Retirement Café Podcast here ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-retirement-caf%C3%A9-podcast/id1441976448 

📘 Download the first 3 chapters of The Retirement Café Handbook: 

https://keap.page/wb198/rch-download-chs-1-3-lp.html 

👉 Get my weekly newsletter: https://bit.ly/MFPnews

👉 MFP Wealth Management: https://www.mfpwealthmanagement.co.uk/

👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinking-online-retirement-planner-ifa/

⚠️ This podcast is for information and entertainment only. Nothing on this channel constitutes financial advice. Please do not make any decisions based on the contents of my videos; seek professional independent financial advice first! 

Hello and welcome – today I have the pleasure of sharing a fascinating conversation I had with Professor Paul Dolan – who's maybe better known as the Professor of Happiness. 

Paul is a behavioural scientist, advisor to the government and currently Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He's published 41 peer reviewed articles and been cited more than 32,000. Paul has certainly made the science of happiness his business. 

You may well have read one of his two best-selling books. The first is called 'Happiness by Design' and his most recently released book is called 'Happy Ever After', which is the focus of our conversation today.

We chat about all things related to happiness, not least how to make your retirement years as fulfilling as possible.

USEFUL LINKS

Register for Paul's free course 'Get Happier'- coming soon: https://pauldolan.co.uk/courses 
Paul's website: https://pauldolan.co.uk/
Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-dolan-a018691b/
Paul on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/profpauldolan 

CONNECT WITH ME

✔️ Subscribe to my Channel here ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/c/JustinKingMFP/?sub_confirmation=1 

📘 Buy my new book The Retirement Café Handbook – Nine Accelerators for a Successful Retirement: https://amzn.to/3Q686I8

🎙️ Subscribe to The Retirement Café Podcast here ➡️ https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-retirement-caf%C3%A9-podcast/id1441976448 

📘 Download my first book for free, Ready, Steady, Retire: 
https://wb198-89a1ad.pages.infusionsoft.net/ 
https://www.theretirementcafe.co.uk/ 

👉 Get my weekly newsletter: https://bit.ly/MFPnews
👉 MFP Wealth Management: https://www.mfpwealthmanagement.co.uk/
👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinking-online-retirement-planner-ifa/
👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/JustinKingCFP 

⚠️ This podcast is for information and entertainment only. Nothing on this podcast constitutes financial advice. Please do not make any decisions based on the contents of my podcasts; seek professional independent financial advice first! 

It's a common misconception that you make your will and that's the end of the matter. Sadly, for some families, they find out after they have lost a loved one, that that's not the case and the will can be challenged.

Research(1) suggests that almost a quarter of Brits would be prepared to contest a loved one's will if they were unhappy with it. This is where this week's guest comes in to help resolve those disputes.

Victoria Jones is Partner in the Disputed Wills, Charity and Dispute Resolution Teams at Lester Aldridge solicitors.

She joins me to explain the 4 main reasons people contest a will and how to deal with a will being contested at a highly emotional time.

Victoria also shares important tips on choosing an appropriate executor for your estate and steps you and your loved ones can take to avoid becoming part of a contested estate.

1.       Research conducted by Opinium among a nationally representative sample of 2,003 adults between 27th – 30th July 2018

The episodes of regular people telling us about their life in retirement have proven to be very popular. One of our very first episodes – number 4 in fact – of my conversation with clients and friends Nick and Debbie Taylor telling us what makes for a successful retirement for them, continues to be one of our most downloaded episodes.

So today we're going to hear the story - so far - of another client and friend – Lindsey Froud.

Lindsey spent some years living in the Middle East before returning to the UK a few years ago. At this point, she decided to semi-retire at quite an early age. She shares with us today the importance of keeping working – on her terms, and why she tries to do something she's never done before every month.

Sadly, since we recorded this episode Lindsey's mother has passed away, so my sympathies go out to Lindsey and her family.

I am delighted to welcome Professor Keith Brown back to the podcast.

Keith is a government adviser on mental capacity as well as adult care and safeguarding. To that end Professor Brown sits on the Department of Health Adult Safeguarding Advisory Board and appeared in episode 89 just a few weeks ago to explain more about mental capacity.

Keith also leads the national research into financial fraud and scams and joins me to share his very personal story of how his own mother's experience made him so passionate about helping protect older people from the growing prevalence of financial scams.

Professor Brown explains that whilst anyone can become a victim of financial fraud, isolation and loneliness are the biggest indicators and what practical steps we can all take to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

This week's episode is a little different. I'd like to share with you a conversation I had during lockdown with a friend of mine, Jeremy Nicholas.

By profession, Jeremy is a writer and broadcaster with nearly three decades of experience on TV and radio, mainly with the BBC. But Jeremy has funny bones. So he has built a business as the man who puts serious laughs in serious talks.

In essence, he helps people make all sorts of presentations entertaining and engaging. I am sure that you can imagine how life in lockdown for someone whose business is about international public speaking and after-dinner talks has been somewhat different.

Jeremy shares his story of being grounded and his story of being the voice of FIFA for 11 seasons!

I hope you really enjoy my conversation with Jeremy, as much as I did.

From my experience helping people retire successfully, I would say there is still a tendency for the man in a relationship to lead discussions about money.  

 Now, that's not always the case, and I'm sure the situation is changing among the younger generations.

But that was certainly the case for my wife's parents, and in fact my mother-in-law, Anne, talks about the challenge she faced getting to grips with money matters after her husband died in episode 21 of the podcast. Take a listen when you have a moment, as it's a great personal story. 

So, I thought it would be interesting to create a series of episodes about women and wealth, starting with my conversation today with Mary Waring.  

Mary is an award-winning chartered financial planner and chartered accountant who helps women to be financially confident and independent. 

She specialises in supporting women through and after divorce but is recognised as being a leading light in all aspects of female finances. 

The title of today's episode – The Menopausal Mermaids – is possibly quite intriguing. To explain further I'd like to share with you a conversation I had with sea swimmer Nicole Morelli towards the end of April.

Nicole joined me from Portrush, which is a small seaside town built along a mile long peninsula on the north coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

She is the founder of a sea swimming group called the Menopausal Mermaids and shares her story of why she created the group and what you can expect if you decide to take the plunge with Nicole and her fellow cold water swimmers.

Take a listen here on episode 090 of The Retirement Café Podcast.

Professor Keith Brown has spent a lifetime in the medical profession. Starting his career in paediatrics, Keith headed up the paediatrics intensive care unit at St. George's Hospital in London. After a number of years he moved into academia and for the past 20 years he has led the National Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work and Professional Practice (NCPQSW).

Keith specialises in in mental health, mental capacity and the care and safeguarding of older persons. He also sits on a number of government advisory boards and has been called upon to provide guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Department of Health Adult Safeguarding Advisory Board
• Joint Department of Health and Ministry of Justice National Mental Capacity Leadership forum
• Home Office Joint Financial task force.

Professor Brown wrote the national guidance on Next of Kin and Lasting Powers of Attorney, as well as the national guidance on Advanced Decision to Refuse Treatment.

In the first of two interviews, we chat about mental capacity, the role of the next of kin, lasting powers of attorney and how to ensure your wishes are followed in the event of tragedy at any stage of life.

It's a fascinating conversation with one of the most qualified professionals in the UK, so why not listen here on episode 089 of The Retirement Café Podcast.