Residential and Commercial Loans

Retirement: You Can’t Always Buy Happiness

So you’re investing in your 401(k) plan and you’ve even researched some long-term care options. Your financial portfolio is in good shape -- but what about other important factors that also affect your experience of retirement? How will you prepare for changes that come with the transition to retirement? How will you fill unstructured days? What will give you a sense of connection and purpose once you move away from your work?

No matter how many articles you read about maximizing your IRA, you’ll likely find that money is only one piece in the successful retirement puzzle. Nancy K. Schlossberg, EdD, author of Retire Smart, Retire Happy: Finding Your True Path in Life, talks about the importance of developing your psychological portfolio, as well as your financial one, to prepare for retirement. She cites the research of George E. Vaillant, psychiatrist and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. Vaillant studied rich and poor alike and found that there was a simple recipe for successful retirement. Money had very little to do with it. His recipe has four ingredients:

1. Replace work colleagues with another network.
2. Rediscover play.
3. Uncover your passion.
4. Continue lifelong learning.

Schlossberg gives one caveat for Vaillant’s simple recipe:  it only works if you understand the role your own expectations play. “If I were to select the most important thing that will determine your retirement satisfaction, it would be the degree to which your expectations meet reality,” she says.  Take the time to reflect on what you want. This may include continuing the same work in a different way. Perhaps your skills can be applied to a cause you have always believed in. Maybe you want to learn something new – another language, a musical instrument or

The AARP Bulletin highlights new retirees that follow Vaillant’s recipe. Bob Rosier of Charleston , West Virginia , worked for 32 years producing publications for state agencies. Unsure what to do next, he uncovered a passion for stained glass. Arlene Lyons and Barbara Barasch are sisters who wanted to work together. They replaced their work colleagues with customers at their own café near Bighorn National Forest in Ten Sleep , Wyoming .

Joseph Quinn, dean and economics professor at Boston College , has noticed this trend for older Americans to treat retirement as a period of revitalization. He suggests this movement is due, in part, to longer lives. “People are saying, ‘I’ve got a couple of decades of potentially productive life ahead of me.’”

Given this longer view of retirement, yes, your savings account matters. But so does your need to be excited about something when you get up in the morning. The recipe for a happy retirement must include a balance among your financial, psychological and social needs. Give yourself time to transition, and to make mistakes, and you’ll probably find satisfaction in your retirement, no matter what your 401(k) statement says.