The Retirement Lifestyle
Written By: Kevin Reardon, CFP®
Over the last three decades (wow, that’s a long time!), I’ve had the opportunity to help dozens of people plan for and live a successful retirement. It has been both a joy and a privilege! In February my colleague, Brian Ellenbecker, and I had the opportunity to visit a few clients living and/or wintering in Florida. Although our retirement planning has always gone beyond the numbers and looked at what life will be like once you are done working, we learned a few things about what a retirement lifestyle actually looks like. Here are a few key takeaways about the retirement lifestyle:
Time
Talk to someone who is newly retired and they will tell you “I’m so busy, I do not know how I was able to get everything done when I was working”. For our clients who have been retired for more than 10 years, they will typically tell you their days have a similar rhythm from week to week and they are operating at a more leisurely pace than when they first retired. The key is to be intentional with your time, writing down tasks you want to accomplish in a given week, and identifying goals you want to accomplish for the upcoming year.
Lifestyle
Although most people have extra time in retirement, the reality is your day-to-day habits and lifestyle usually does not change much. It’s the rare exception to find a person who runs a marathon, sails across the ocean or hikes the Appalachian Trail once they reach retirement age. Sure, you may spend a few months in a warm weather location for the first time once you retire, but your day-to-day lifestyle isn’t much different than if you were at home. For those clients who have a dramatically different lifestyle in retirement, it is usually a very intentional decision to pursue a given hobby or interest that has been years in the making.
Community
Many of our clients have lived and worked in the same location for most of their adult life. This provides a sense of community and wellbeing that is hard to quantify. Whether you downsize or rent in a retirement destination, it is important to make sure you are settling in a community with likeminded people who share common interests and values and to get involved in your community.
Old Friends and New Friends
Retirement is a time to rekindle old relationships that may have withered over the years and make new friends, especially if you relocate or winter somewhere else. Be intentional with both scenarios and do not wait for someone else to make the first move. We are all adults now and it’s far less awkward making new friends than it was in high school.
Hobbies
Retirement is an opportunity to spend time on old hobbies and develop new ones. People will spend more time golfing, biking, traveling, quilting, reading, fishing and countless other hobbies once they retire. In most instances, people simply spend more time on a hobby they already had, which is why we recommend you not wait until retirement to pursue your interests.
Travel
Many clients ramp up their travel once the kids are out of the house, but travel plans frequently get scaled back once you purchase a retirement home or begin spending several months wintering out of state. That’s not to say you still won’t travel, just that you have less desire, less time and possibly less budget to take as many trips per year as you used to. As a note of caution, at a certain age we are finding clients are less willing to take long flights to destinations like Hawaii, Europe or New Zealand. Take these bigger trips now when you are young and able-bodied.
Traffic
For anyone looking to retire to a popular destination area, be warned that traffic has increased significantly in the last decade. Add in the new virtual workers living and working in these areas and the traffic is a factor that can determine what time of day you choose to brave the roads. Before you buy or rent, navigate around town between the busy hours of 8am – 10am and 3pm – 6pm and find out if you really want to spend several months a year fighting ‘retiree rush hour’.
It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere
We learned in a retirement community you can tell time by the clanking of glasses, with people not waiting until 5:01pm to pour their favorite drink. In one instance, someone stopped me mid-sentence to tell me the meeting was over and it was ‘Cocktail Hour’. For the record, I did not object to the end of the meeting or the offer of a cocktail.
Coming Home
Although some people move permanently to their retirement destination, many people venture home when the weather warms up. Leaving on a trip or going to a winter destination is exciting, but so too is coming home.
Whether you are planning to retire in a few years or are decades into retirement, our time is what we make of it. Be intentional with your time and live your best life every day.