5 Non-Financial Things You Need When You Retire

As I approach retirement, I feel mostly excited for the next chapter of my life, for slowing down, for walking away from the stress and bullshit that my every day at work is.  I look forward to long, slow mornings, to choosing to not leave the house for an entire day just because the weather isn’t perfect and to travel year round rather just in the hottest busiest travel months of summer that my husband has off work. 

There’s also a quiet sliver of fear there too.  Sure, the first weeks or even months of endless Saturdays will be a dream come true however, what happens after that?  My whole working life’s retirement focus has been around setting aside the right amount of money to enable retirement when that time comes.  Any discussions around retirement have always been focused on the money part. Everyone talks about investing for retirement.  

Nobody talks about what you’re supposed to do in retirement.  What you’re supposed to fill your days with.  Who you’re supposed to be in the lack of career-focused identity.  How you’re supposed to get literally anything done in the face of endless time to get to it.  So that’s where I’ve shifted my focus lately.  While our finance guy runs the Monte Carlo’s and puts together our retirement date-options and my husband and I continue to get up to that alarm every weekday and trudge off to work, I’ve been quietly researching.  I’ve been looking into ways to make retirement fulfilling and fun.  Ways to keep myself engaged with the world.  What my research has taught me is that I need these 5 things in place for retirement.

1. Exercise.  I mean, it's no surprise that exercise is #1. Especially as we age, we must move our bodies.  Every day.  I need to build into my daily routine, some form of physical fitness.  Be it strength training one day, stretching the next, pilates the next, a long walk the next or some combination therein, exercise needs to be a part of my daily rhythm.

2. Routine.  Speaking of daily rhythm, it is important that I build a pattern to my days and weeks.  Not militantly, mind you.  But a gentle rhythm to keep me from losing days and weeks to nothingness and slipping into depression.  Something that looks perhaps like this: wake up naturally, have coffee while journaling, then go for a morning walk, lift some weights.  After that maybe meditate and then clean myself up and run some errands outside of the house.  Have lunch and maybe do a few things around the house. Then perhaps a little work on my side hustle.  Not much, maybe an hour or two.  Then, as the day moves into early evening, sit down to do a puzzle, read or do a craft.  Make dinner or go out to dinner with my husband or friends and then watch a show on tv before bed.  

3. Creativity.  I need a way to stay engaged and creative.  Baking or painting, sewing or restoring a car.  Learning about how to cook with different spices or wallpaper a powder room. Maybe learn a new craft every month.  The options are endless.

4. Brain Engagement.  Research something I know nothing about.  Learn a new language.  Learn to dance.  Maybe I’ll even create a list of things I want to learn. Do something every day, even if it is something small, to keep my brain active and working.

5. Community. It is imperative to stay connected to friends, family and community.  Especially when I retire.  It could be church or volunteer work.  It could be keeping a part time job forcing me to be out and interacting with the public.  It can look many ways but staying connected is critical to long term health, happiness and helps stave off isolation and depression.

I may add to this list of retirement essentials as my research and learning continues but for now, that feels like a full post-career life.