Successful Retirement is Not All About Money
I think we have all heard of someone who held off retiring claiming they needed more money. Then when they finally retired –generally because they were forced to — they had a heart attack and dropped dead. Did they really need more money? Or was it because they had no clue what they were going to do once they retired, and they were filled with dread?
Then you have people like my parents, who exhaust me with all their retirement activities. They are living their passions each and every day, and having a blast doing it.
Silver & Grace guest post author, R. Kevin Price, explains how successful retirement is not all about money. There are many other important factors to consider.
For I don’t care too much for money,
For money can’t buy me love
- Lennon/McCartney (1964)
Or happiness.
Many people think that if they accumulate enough physical and financial assets during their careers, they will assure themselves a successful retirement. Assets may indeed assure a degree of physical comfort, a certain lifestyle and a sense of security. But physical and financial assets cannot buy
• A healthy mind and body
• Great friends and a supportive social network
• A happy and positive attitude
• The joy that comes from living life to its fullest every day
Having money is good and having more than “just enough” is even better for most of us. But tech or housing bubbles may burst, corporate business models may crash, illness may demand large sums, government may redesign or restrict retirement income and other support programs and so on (truly) ad nauseam.
It is best to think in terms of living within your financial comfort zone – within the financial resources available to you. Not living within your financial comfort zone invariably leads to stress which is one of the great destroyers of successful retirements. If your retirement lifestyle aspirations exceed your resources, then you will need to add to those resources by coming partly out of retirement or only partially retiring in the first place. If your resources exceed your lifestyle aspirations, then you are blessed, but remember, as we have seen in 2008-2009, financial circumstances can shift quickly.
With living in our financial comfort zone as a base we can focus on more important aspects of life:
• Exercising regularly: stretching, aerobics, muscle building.
• Maintaining our existing social relationships and building new ones. Very few people can be truly happy by themselves. We are by nature social creatures. Socialization is not something that will just happen to us; we need to nurture it.
• Building our attitude: Studies have shown that one of the most important factors in being happy is attitude. There are many things about ourselves and our circumstances that we may not be able to change but attitude isn’t one of them; we can decide to be happy. We need to focus on: what we can do rather than what we can’t do; what we have rather than what we don’t have.
• Learn, study, grow, create, build, give back, eat, drink and be merry. Retirement is the time to enjoy all the things you love and learn about those you didn’t have time for during your years of work. Learn a language. Make cheese. Be a model. Learn to draw. There are endless possibilities.
Where to get started? You need a plan.
While a “bucket list” (what do I want to do before I “kick the bucket”?) is an interesting thing about which to fantasize, the plan really needs to be about: what do I want to do with my life? What do I want to build, create, see, experience, learn? Now is the time to pursue your inner talents and creativity and to find fulfillment.
More information!
R. Kevin Price is the author of The Successful Retirement Guide. He can be found at:
www.successfulretirementguide.com (website)
http://www.successfulretirementguide.wordpress.com (blog)
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I have a plan
As long as the relationship between Canada’s financial market and the markets of a few countries in Central and Latin America remain the same, we’ll be going there – to leverage the power of our currency, and enjoy the nice weather.
(I am literally learning Spanish as we speak.)
We have *no* interest in the retirement that our parents have “enjoyed”. They live in grand houses that they cannot maintain (one set in suburbia, one set in a rural setting, each with a unique set of challenges), and they spend the summers planning for winter and pining for the ocean.
We plan to live in a modest house a short walk from the ocean, enjoy every sunset with a glass of wine in hand, and hold on for dear life during hurricane season!!!
@Brett – you just described how our parents live. Mind you, our parents don’t pine for anything, as they are too busy doing. But they do live in massive homes that require tons of maintenance. I’m totally with you on simplying life even further when we retire.
Maybe “pine” isn’t the right word but what I see is a bunch of folks hanging on to something that they don’t really need, spending a lot of time maintaining it and then prepping it for when they are away for the winter (but also spending from about August until they leave talking about where they’d rather be!)
My folks seem to be finally “getting it” and are thinking of selling the house and getting into a condo somewhere else (they’re thinking the Kawarthas right now). That way they can truly enjoy everything that this part of the world has to offer when the weather appeals to them, and then just walk out and lock the door when they see the first snowflake.
Me? I could just wash my hands completely of the country and live somewhere else. Not that I don’t like Canada, don’t get me wrong… but you know, unless you live in the middle of nowhere, it’s just become “busy”.
And if I’m going to live in the middle of nowhere, I’d rather live near the ocean… where it is warm all the time – so I don’t have to fly south when it starts to snow!
I’d be happy with all of my belongings in a small suitcase, I figure.