Ray Ciafardini is an American Blogger, Vlogger and the Host of the Podcast “Radical Retirement”.
Ray grew up in New York state and had what he would call a normal childhood attending an all boys private school and wanting for nothing.
After high school, he became a young “snow bird” and migrated down to Miami where he enrolled in Pre-Med studies at the University of Miami wanting to become a Dentist.
It didn’t take Ray long to realize that his heart was not in Dentistry and he switched to Communications which was a true fit for his vocal personality.
After graduating the University of Miami, Ray was drawn to Radio and spent the next 20 years working in Radio Advertising, Sales and Management.
Things took an abrupt turn in 2014 when Ray was laid off, and at the age of 58 was thrust back into the labor force to search for a new job.
After 6 months of rejection, Ray woke up to the fact that the job market had changed dramatically over the past 20 years and that the people who now held the hiring power were Millennials seeking to employ other Millennials, of which Ray was clearly not.
Concerned with the prospect of having no retirement funds to support himself in his Golden Years, Ray made the decision to become an expert on all things related to Retirement, specifically as it related to his generation of Baby Boomers and what he uncovered disturbed him greatly.
With Baby Boomers being the first generation to face the prospect of saving for retirement on their own and with nearly 80% of all Americans living pay check to pay check with zero savings, Ray was alarmed at how little people knew about preparing for retirement, including himself.
Since 2014, Ray “The Retirement Rebel Guy” has established himself as an authority on the subject of “Radical Retirement”, a way of putting retirement back into the hands of Baby Boomers so that they can live their Golden Years infused with passion, not poverty.
Ray currently resides in Coram, NY where he takes care of his Step-Father Vito, and never misses a NY Mets game.