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The Humans vs Retirement Podcast

The Humans vs Retirement Podcast

By: Dan Haylett
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Humans vs Retirement is the podcast that proves retirement isn't just about money, it's about life. Hosted by me Dan Haylett, I dive into the real, human side of retirement: the emotions, the mindset shifts, and the messy, wonderful journey of reinventing yourself for the next chapter. Through honest conversations with experts and inspiring stories from retirees themselves, you'll get the tools, ideas, and encouragement you need to retire to something, not just from something. If you want to make your second half even better than your first, hit subscribe and join the Humans vs Retirement community.©️Dan Haylett 2026 Economics Personal Development Personal Finance Personal Success
Episodes
  • Ep 111 - The Open Sandwich Generation

    Ep 111 - The Open Sandwich Generation
    Jul 2 2026

    You've heard of the sandwich generation — pressed between ageing parents above and growing children below, doing all the lifting.

    But nobody's named what happens next.

    When your parents have died. When your children have properly left home. When, for the first time since you were eighteen, you are not the support layer for anyone but yourself.

    You're an open sandwich. And it is a stranger, lighter, and more disorienting phase of life than anyone tells you.

    In this episode, Dan explores the freedom of the open sandwich generation — the giddy Wednesday afternoons on the coast, the guilty lightness of nobody needing you — alongside the quieter beats nobody warns you about: the grief that becomes weather, the strange new promotion to senior generation, and the moment you look around and realise you've quietly become the row at the front.

    But the open sandwich is also a test. Freedom without structure isn't liberation — it's a vacuum. And the retirees who thrive at this stage don't feel only the lightness. They learn to hold both, on the same plate, on a Sunday morning, without flinching.

    This is the episode that might make you look at the next decade of your life differently.

    WHAT YOU'LL TAKE FROM THIS EPISODE

    — Why the open sandwich generation is a distinct phase of life that deserves a name of its own
    — The lightness that feels almost rude, and why you're allowed to enjoy it
    — The grief that doesn't end — it just becomes the weather
    — The strange new "promotion" to senior generation, and the moment you notice it
    — Why freedom without structure is a vacuum, not a reward
    — Three thoughts on how to compose the plate of your open sandwich decade
    — Why the retirees who thrive learn to hold lightness and grief on the same plate

    CHAPTERS

    00:00 — The Sunday morning that feels almost rude
    00:50 — Welcome to Humans vs Retirement
    01:30 — The sandwich we all know, and what comes after
    04:00 — The lightness that surprises you
    07:00 — The grief that becomes weather
    10:00 — The new row at the front
    12:00 — The test inside the freedom
    14:00 — Three thoughts, not five moves
    17:00 — The composed plate
    19:00 — Outro

    THE LINE TO REMEMBER

    "The lightness and the grief are not opposites. They share the plate."

    LINKS AND RESOURCES

    Read Dan's essay on the same theme on Substack: https://humansvsretirement.substack.com

    Subscribe to The Retirement Fix newsletter: https://humansvsretirement.com

    Connect with Dan on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/danhaylett

    Dan's book, The Retirement You Didn't See Coming, is available on Amazon.

    IF THIS EPISODE LANDED FOR YOU

    Share it with someone who's living in the open sandwich right now — a friend, a sibling, a colleague who's just watched their last child move out or their last parent go. That's how this work spreads.

    And if you've got thirty seconds, leaving a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify makes a genuine difference to who finds the show next.

    —

    This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute regulated financial advice or a personal recommendation. Dan Haylett is a financial planner regulated by the FCA, but views expressed are his own.
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    16 mins
  • Ep 110 - The Permission Paradox

    Ep 110 - The Permission Paradox
    Jun 2 2026
    You've got the money. You've got the time. You've got the freedom. So why can't you actually enjoy it? In this episode, I unpack the Permission Paradox! The reason financially secure retirees still order the cheap coffee, skip the trip, and quietly guard a fortune they'll never spend. It's not a money problem. It's a permission problem. And it's fixable. FULL SHOW NOTES Open your banking app. Look at the number. Now answer honestly: when did that number last get smaller because you actually enjoyed yourself? Not the boiler. Not the tax bill. Not inflation. You — on purpose — spending money on something that made your life better. If you can't think of a date, you don't have a money problem. You have a permission problem. That's where this episode starts. And it goes somewhere you probably didn't expect. What I cover: The Trap — For forty years, your spending had structural alibis. The bonus paid for the holiday. The salary justified the car. The job title covered the nice restaurant. Retirement vaporises every one of those vouchers, and suddenly there's no external authority signing off on anything. Just you, your money, and a question you've never really had to answer before: Am I allowed? Why You're Like This (Not Your Fault, Still Your Problem) — Three reasons. Four hundred years of Protestant work ethic quietly teaching you that unspent money is virtue performed in public. Four decades of training the saving muscle and ignoring the spending one. And the uncomfortable truth that a lot of high-net-worth retirees don't actually believe they deserve it. Imposter syndrome doesn't retire when you do. It just changes its uniform. What's In The Vault — The fears keeping you from spending are almost always fog. "The future." "Care costs." "Inflation." "Something I haven't thought of." When you press on the fog with real numbers, it usually dissolves. You're not protecting against ruin. You're protecting against a story you inherited from people who genuinely did have to worry about the workhouse. You are not your grandfather. You are a millionaire, pretending to be a peasant. And the cost of that pretence is the entire second half of your life. The Good News — The permission problem is a skill problem. Not a personality problem. Not a values problem. A skill. And skills can be learned. Dan shares what it looks like when people finally flip — and what the three permissions actually are that make it happen. The Three Permissions — Permission to enjoy what you've built. Permission to spend the window (that active, healthy retirement window is twelve to fifteen years — not thirty). And permission to become someone new. CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK Do one thing this week that feels slightly uncomfortable. Order the proper coffee. Book the flight you've been talking about for two years. Pay for something for one of your kids without making a thing of it. Take a Wednesday afternoon off, from nothing. Buy the silly shoes. Whatever it is — do it once. Notice the sky doesn't fall. Then do it again next week. That's how the muscle gets built. One flat white at a time. KEY QUOTE "You are a millionaire, pretending to be a peasant. And the cost of the pretence is the entire second half of your life." CONNECT WITH DAN Subscribe to The Retirement Fix newsletterFollow me over on YouTubeConnect with Dan on LinkedInBuy Dan's first book, The Retirement You Didn't See Coming IF THIS EPISODE LANDED FOR YOU Share it with someone who needs to hear it. That's how this work spreads. And if you've got thirty seconds, leaving a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify makes a genuine difference to who finds the show next. This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute regulated financial advice or a personal recommendation. Dan Haylett is a financial planner regulated by the FCA, but views expressed are his own.
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    17 mins
  • Ep 109 - What You Lose When You Retire

    Ep 109 - What You Lose When You Retire
    May 7 2026

    Retirement is sold to you as a gain event. Freedom. Time. Choice. The world is your oyster.

    It is, in fact, one of the biggest loss events you will ever go through. And almost nobody warned you.

    In this episode, I walk through what actually dies when you retire — the ten things that quietly come off in the first five years and that nobody puts in the brochure. Identity. Status. Mastery. Tribe. Structure. Progress. Stimulation. Purpose. Validation. The future tense itself.

    But this isn't twenty minutes of doom. The second half of the episode is the gift: the five moves the people who genuinely flourish on the other side of retirement actually make. The moves that turn the second half of life into the most fulfilling, richest, most genuinely good chapter you'll ever have.

    If you're heading into this transition, in it now, or watching someone you love go through it — this is the episode you'll wish someone had played you five years before you retired.

    WHAT YOU'LL TAKE FROM THIS EPISODE

    • Why retirement is a loss event, not a gain event, and what nobody in the industry will tell you about it
    • The three reasons nobody warns you what's coming (and why the third is the most damaging)
    • What disenfranchised grief is, and why ignoring it costs you the second half of your life
    • The ten things that actually die when you retire
    • Why the spreadsheets are the easy bit
    • The five moves that separate the retirees who flourish from the ones who just survive
    • Why "spend it, or it will quietly spend you" might be the most important sentence in retirement planning

    CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK

    Sit down — on your own, or with your partner — and write down three things on a piece of paper. Three things you're quietly worried about losing. Or three things you've already lost without giving yourself permission to feel sad about. Don't fix them. Don't problem-solve them. Just name them.

    LINKS AND RESOURCES

    Subscribe to The Retirement Fix newsletter

    Follow me over on YouTube

    Connect with Dan on LinkedIn

    Buy Dan's first book, The Retirement You Didn't See Coming

    IF THIS EPISODE LANDED FOR YOU

    Share it with someone who needs to hear it. A friend, a sibling, a colleague heading for the same cliff edge. That's how this work spreads.

    And if you've got thirty seconds, leaving a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify makes a genuine difference to who finds the show next.

    This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute regulated financial advice or a personal recommendation. Dan Haylett is a financial planner regulated by the FCA, but views expressed are his own.
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    19 mins
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