The terminology around aging/longevity and living a meaningful, purposeful second half of life can be daunting and confusing, starting with the term retirement. It’s come to take on many variations in recent years, including ‘unretired/unretirement,’ as in Chris Farrell’s 2016 book Unretirement: How Baby Boomers are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community, and the Good Life; and Mark S. Walton’s Unretired: How Highly Effective People Live Happily Ever After, published in 2024.
One of the most significant people living the unretirement concept in real time is Richard Eisenberg, a veteran journalist who has worked as a top editor at Money Magazine and other publications, as well as a writer, author, professor, and podcaster.
Among his many activities, Richard writes a column for MarketWatch; and he recently won the SABEW (Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing) 2025 Best in Business Award in the Personal Finance/Small Division category for his piece “How Much Will Your Next Hospital Stay Cost? No One Seems to Know.”
I first met Richard in 2014, when we were connected by my former USA TODAY colleague Kerry Hannon, the author of many books and articles on how to attain a meaningful second half of life, particularly in the workplace. Both Kerry and Richard focus on practical, often personal finance/money-related aspects of this time of life, and how to make these years as fulfilling as possible.
After Kerry introduced us, Richard edited my two articles for Next Avenue, where he was Managing Editor at the time, and is still a contributor. We have stayed in touch since then, and I am grateful to him for answering my questions about how he is both a practitioner of and teacher/commentator on unretirement. Though the concept is still somewhat under-the-radar, it is likely to grow in importance and awareness in the years ahead.
And for a further look at Richard’s career and wise counsel to his readers, be sure to read his January 4, 2022 piece “Next Avenue’s Managing Editor Says Goodbye — But Not Farewell: Reflections on a 10-year run, plus parting advice from what I learned as the site’s Money and Work & Purpose channels editor.”
You have embraced the ‘unretired/unretirement’ concept in your life and work, and remain quite prolific, in some ways as a continuation of work you have done all your adult life. Can you describe how this plays out for you on a day-to-day basis, and how you have taught the subject at NYU?
In some ways, I do view my retirement – or as I like to call it, my ‘unretirement’ – as an extension, and new chapter, of my career as a professional journalist. The difference is that for most of my career I had a full-time, staff job with benefits. Now, I work part-time when I want, with whom I want and where I want, without benefits. Writing, editing and podcasting part-time frees me up to devote more time for volunteering, family, travel, lifelong learning and teaching. Each day and week is different, but I typically work a few hours most days and not at all on other days. Through the MarketWatch column I write (“The View From Unretirement”), the NYU virtual MasterClass in Unretirement I’ve taught and daily life, I try to help people understand that retirement these days needn’t be what it was like decades ago and can include part-time work, either because you need to, want to, or both.
Based on your continued writing/interviewing/researching and lived experience, what are some smart/strategic ways that people can approach areas like work and creativity in the second half of life; whether they are in their 40s, 50s, or later decades?
It’s become a cliché, but thinking about what you want to retire “to” and not just what you want to retire “from” is vitally important. That thinking can start in your 40s, but likely will be more concrete as you approach your late 50s or enter your 60s. It’s about deciding how you’ll want to spend your time, who you’ll want to spend time with and where. Part of this is getting serious about your finances and plotting out how much income you expect you’ll need to live on and where that money will come from (savings and investments, retirement funds, Social Security, work). Part of it will be determining how much time, if any, you’ll want to spend working and if you will work, how and where you might do it. Part of it will be deciding where you’ll want to live and what you’ll need to do to make that happen. If you have a spouse or partner, you’ll want to discuss all of this with that person – the sooner the better.
There are many writers/commentators/researchers/teachers with books, articles, videos, podcasts, and other online formats dealing with aging in all its forms. Do have a sense of whether many people in the second half of life (or even earlier) are paying attention to this information and applying it in their life and work?
I think people are increasingly paying attention to information about aging and the second half of life and applying it in their life and work, some more than others. I’ve been heartened to see what I believe to be growing numbers of people being thoughtful about the opportunities and limitations of aging. Often, it’s a result of seeing other loved ones and friends experiencing those. Sadly, though, there are still many people wearing figurative blinders and not spending much, if any, time, planning their second half of life. I believe many will wish they did.