The Best Retirement Plan – a Healthy, Wealthy and Happy Life
Although money plays an important role in creating for ourselves the best retirement plan we can afford, a fulfilling retirement is more than just about money. Many key components have to be put together to make a happy and worthwhile retirement come true. We take a quick look at two essential qualitative factors of a great retirement plan:
Factor 1: Health
According to a survey done, 81% of retirees surveyed ranked ‘health’ as the most important factor to happiness. Trips to seek treatment at hospitals are nowhere as entertaining as playing with the grandkids, seeing the world or relaxing at the beach or café.
Moreover, many are also concerned about troubling their loved ones to look after them, and being physically fit means one will be in the best position to enjoy life.
Good health does not happen by chance – it is deliberately built. Our current lifestyle and past acts accumulate to fuel our future fortunes. While we cannot undo the past, we can plan for the future and make it a point to indulge in healthier diets and physical activities to prime our bodies to last longer and keep lethargy at bay.
Factor 2: Sense of Purpose
As Deana Arnett, senior planning consultant at Rosenthal Wealth Management Group, puts it, “Men in particular get their identities wrapped up in what they do for a living, and once that’s gone, if there’s not something else there to fill the space, that’ s when the depression and dissatisfaction kicks in.”
Professor Deborah Schofield, of the University of Sydney, also pointed out, “Moving into a planned retirement from choice is very different from having to leave because of illness.” In addition to the sudden cessation of income and the continuation, if not increase, of expenses, actually living through retirement can prove to be a difficult task for some retirees because it may strip them of their sense of purpose, which would otherwise give them the impetus to move forward.
Before retirement comes, it might be hard to visualise what every day in retirement feels like since pre-retirement waking hours are consumed by employment. However, there are actually a number of activities – such as volunteering, taking up new hobbies, signing up for courses and working part-time – that can help retirees find their sense of purpose during retirement. These activities offer retirees additional social interaction and physical participation opportunities to remain purposefully engaged and therefore mentally healthy.
One of the best ways to ease into retired life is to prepare – mentally and financially – for it. Financial Alliance’s Healthy, Wealthy and Happy Life Seminar on the 21st of October 2017 offers some great tips to guide participants to stay physically, mentally and financially fit. See you there!