This conversation explores the powerful connection between financial health and mental well-being, emphasizing that true financial security is about far more than income or investment returns. It examines how mindset, daily habits, emotional decision-making, and financial clarity influence stress, relationships, retirement planning, and overall quality of life. The discussion also highlights the psychological barriers that prevent people from making sound financial choices, the importance of developing healthy money habits across generations, and how practical strategies—such as those outlined in Retirement Saving Success: Three Simple Steps—can help individuals achieve greater confidence, peace of mind, and long-term financial wellness. Leonard Wright Biography Leonard has been delivering Retirement Plan Solutions for businesses for 37 years. Over the last 29 years, Leonard has been implementing three layers of the Retirement Plan Cake as a Retirement Plan Specialist at his offices in San Diego with qualified business owners, and other small business retirement plans like SIMPLE IRAs, SEPs, and works with the State of California on the important aspects of State Facilitated IRA Programs for employers who don’t currently offer a company sponsored Retirement Plan. Leonard's first book for Participants in Retirement Plans will be available on Amazon October 01, 2025, Retirement Saving Success, Three Simple Steps. His second book for business owners, Retirement Plan Success, will be available in the second half of 2026. Leonard implemented his first 401 (k) plan as a CFO in one of America’s top jewelry companies, which included America's first jeweler established in 1810 in Manhattan, Black Starr & Frost, in 1988, and again in a 31-point health care company in 1992. Leonard started his firm in 1996, where his practice has been primarily in Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and New York. Leonard has served the accounting profession through the Association of International of Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA), and California Society of CPAs. For the AICPA, Leonard is the current chair of the Personal Financial Planning Executive Committee, the past chair of the Member Retirement Plan committee, and has served on the PFS Credentialling Committee, the PFP Executive Committee, and the Financial Literacy Commission, where he worked on a three-person task force with the American Red Cross and National Endowment for Financial Education to highlight the importance of disaster planning in your community in the creation of the Disasters and Financial Planning - A Guide for Preparedness and Recovery which Leonard co-authored through the AICPA. For the California Society of CPAs, Leonard co-chaired the business committee and worked with the California Treasurer's office during the development of the State IRA program for business owners who do not currently offer retirement plans. As part of the communications to the accounting profession, Leonard developed a symposium working with the treasurer's office in Oregon, Illinois, and California, as well as the past head of the PBGC, The Honorable Jonathan Gotbaum, and Angela Antonelli, the CEO of the Center for Retirement Initiatives. Leonard's favorite time in Las Vegas is a 7-year period where he and two other CPAs were co-hosts of Financial Fridays, first at KMZQ, broadcasting live on the SWIM show from the Las Vegas Strip for about 2 1/2 years, and then from the second oldest radio station in Las Vegas, for nearly five years at KLAV. The featured guests every Friday were America's top CPAs from California, Nevada, and across the country, as well as North America's top business leaders. Leonard has been quoted in financial media across America and at the BBC, interviewed on radio and television, and is a current freelance journalist at Rethinking65, and has been quoted widely in a variety of financial press in America and for the BBC. Support the show: http://www.cooleyfoundation.org/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
