Planning for your happiness and fulfillment in retirement is just as important as planning for your health and financial security. And if you don’t make plans, you’ll just get the life that shows up rather than the life you want.
The whole point of retirement is to make your life better in ways that are meaningful to you. For example, you can use your retirement freedom to stop spending time doing things you don’t want to do, such as regularly going to work, and to spend more time doing things you do want to do, such as travelling and pursuing your interests. However, there are many details involved with realizing these goals, so it’s a good idea to make a plan.
An effective plan for happiness and fulfillment in retirement should have two parts:
- One that helps protect against events that can make you unhappy, and
- One that helps you plan for events and experiences that can offer happiness and fulfillment.
Let’s look at each of these two parts in more detail.
Plan To Minimize Your Unhappiness
Financial stress and poor health can certainly be a cause for unhappiness in retirement. That’s one very good reason to make solid plans for your financial security, including how you’ll pay your medical bills, and for your health in retirement.
No matter how solid your plans might be, however, there’s still a chance you might experience some setbacks with your health or money. There’s also a very good chance you might lose family and close friends during a long retirement. These are both good reasons to consciously build your support system of family and close friends who can help you when you need it.
Family challenges can also be a source of heartache for parents and grandparents. As a result, you might want to prioritize being part of your extended family’s support system.
If you’re successful at making plans to minimize your unhappiness, congratulations! But there’s more to living a good life in retirement, which leads us to the next part of your plan.
Plan For Your Happiness And Fulfillment
While you were working, you might have been so focused on your job and your family life that you might not have spent much time thinking what might make you feel happy and fulfilled. Well, now’s the time to consider that!
Typical goals for retirees’ happiness and fulfillment include travelling, spending time with family and friends, and pursuing hobbies. Another possibility is finding a mission that’s important to you, whether that’s volunteering, helping your family, working part time, or running a business. A common theme that runs through many fulfilling pursuits is being part of something outside of yourself, helping to make your family, community, or the world better. No matter what you choose, your goals for happiness and fulfillment can be uniquely personal to you.
To help you decide what you’d like to do, ask yourself this question: What will help you live a good life in retirement?
But Wait! There’s More
One decision that can significantly impact your happiness and fulfillment that’s often overlooked by retirees is where you’ll live in retirement. Your house and community can help improve both your finances and your health, provide proximity to family and friends, and make it easier to pursue your activities. So, that’s another important decision to pay attention to.
Of course, most people aren’t always blissfully happy and fulfilled or always very unhappy. Life can bring both happy and unhappy experiences. A realistic goal is to have more happy experiences on balance than unhappy experiences. And this balance is more easily achievable if you plan for it. So, make good plans and enjoy your retirement!