With a one in five chance of living beyond our 90th birthday, planning for a successful retirement and healthy aging should be something we all do. Retirement is now considered a time to be active where people stay socially connected, continue working in some capacity, and are choosing to be involved in their communities. Retirement today has changed from what ‘retirement’ meant even fifty years ago. Retirement use to be the non-active part of one’s life, where you disengaged from your previous lifestyle.
Today, more and more studies are finding that people in good health have a positive view of retiring and plan for it, while those in poor health don’t think they’ll make it to retirement and don’t save for retirement.
The Transamerica Retirement Study 2017 partnered with AEGON to study the correlation between good health and retirement success. This study identified that financial planning along with staying healthy led to a greater chance of achieving what’s considered a ‘successful retirement’. Successful retirement and healthy aging has the following components:
Being Ready to Retire. The individual has the ability to decide when they want to retire from their ‘profession’ and welcomes it once they determine they’re ready. They feel they have achieved all they want to in their career, and look forward to the next chapter of their life.
Leisure Time and Working. The retiree balances their schedule of work and leisure and views working as something they choose to do because they enjoy it, not because they have to. Their work may be a part-time paid position, or volunteering that benefits their community in some way. Work becomes a leisure time activity for them.
Financial Security. Because the individual has been saving and planning for retirement, they feel financially secure and don’t stress about running out of money in retirement. They work with a financial advisor and revise their plan as they age while liquidating their retirement assets. They have a ‘spending down’ plan and a strategy to offset inflation as they age.
Health. The plan to have a healthy aging needs to start long before retirement. Retirees that are enjoying good health in retirement have taken steps along the way; good nutrition, exercise, no smoking or excessive alcohol use, and monitor their health with yearly checkups while maintaining a healthy weight. Healthy aging includes insuring your assets will not prematurely liquidated through purchasing insurance solutions prior to retirement and during retirement.
Having a successful retirement and healthy aging starts long before you’re considering retirement. Please contact our Las Vegas Financial Advisory to visit regarding your plans for a successful retirement and healthy aging.
