Retirement Beyond Money: Health, Purpose, Friendships, and Your Second Act
You’re not ready to retire
Friends, welcome to my musings about retirement. I share this advice as a lifestyle medicine doctor who’s worked with countless executives, dentists, physicians, and family offices on both sides of the great retirement divide. Here’s what I’ve learned.
Thinking you’re ready to retire because you have enough money stashed away? Think again. Your savings, 401(k)s, and investment portfolios will not guarantee you a satisfying retirement. I’m here to tell you that it ain’t just about the money. I work with professionals across Georgia, Texas, and California. Believe me, they have tons of money. But they’re not yet ready to retire. At least, not ready for a successful and happy retirement.
Consider this: what are you going to do on a random Wednesday three years from now?
You’re going to travel? Sure. I hear that. Let’s make sure your health holds up for all your trips.
You’re going to sip cocktails on the beach? Okay, that sounds nice, for a day or two. After that, you’ll be bored. Trust me.
You’re going to hang out with friends? Great! But don’t count on your work “friends” wanting to hang out after you’re no longer financially useful. Do you have enough non-transactional friends to fill up your dance card?
Unfortunately, many of the folks I’ve worked with have not thought through the non-financial side of retirement. They planned portfolios like pros but failed to consider the rest of their retirement journey.
Let me save you from making that mistake.
Health Is Job Number One
Let me level with you. Everything you want to do in retirement depends on your health. Take travel. It’s physically demanding to lug luggage around, toss it into the overhead bins, crisscross city centers, and swap time zones.
Don’t forget all the planning, including hotels, flights, activities, schedules, etc. There’s a massive amount of physical and cognitive energy required to pull off a great trip. You may take all that for granted now, but traveling is pretty demanding stuff.
If left alone, our strength declines with age. In other words, we gradually grow weaker after age 30, and we start to fall off a cliff after age 60. Why is this relevant in an article about retirement? First, you want to factor in age-related physical decline (loss of strength, balance, etc) in your planning. Without enough strength, you’re not going to go on those mountain biking trips you’ve planned. Second, and most importantly, you can prevent and reverse physical decline with exercise and a proper diet. Consider muscle-building now as an investment in a rockin’ 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond.
What about your heart and mind? Heart disease and Alzheimer’s don’t care about the size of your financial nest egg. Chronic disease doesn’t wait for a convenient decade, and standard medical care still doesn’t look hard enough for the early warning signs.
Blood tests exist now that can flag elevated Alzheimer’s risk years before symptoms show up. We can now reasonably predict your risk of Alzheimer’s up to a decade or more out. We can measure cardiovascular risk more precisely than the basic cholesterol panel a busy primary care doctor might order. We’re in a brave new world of diagnostic testing, which makes it much easier to predict and prevent disease. I call these modern, common-sense health interventions Longevity 2.0.
I want you to rethink what it means to retire. First, your physical and cognitive health are the primary factors that determine the length and quality of your retirement. Second, modern medical technology gives us the tools to predict and improve your health, maximizing your odds of enjoying decades of adventure.
A New Career
I’m pretty sure you’ve thought about this one. I see it all the time with the professionals I work with. Pure leisure sounds great until the rubber meets the road. Within weeks, boredom and a lack of purpose feel suffocating. Why am I lying around all day? The solution could be to start a new career.
Retirement is a great opportunity to try your hand at a new job, like teaching, coaching, or that organic winery you’ve always wanted to launch. Alternatively, this could be your chance to start a non-profit, new business, or foundation. It’s awesome because you get to do what you want without the pressure of having to make a living off your work. Talk about freedom!
If a second career appeals to you, I recommend you consider it early while you still have energy and a network. You don’t have to wait until after retirement to invent a new sense of purpose; think it through today. Not sure it’s a good idea? I give you permission to dream big and try something new.
Will you remain friends with your colleagues after leaving work?
Say Goodbye to Your Work “Friends”
If you’re like most of my high-performing clients, you work a lot. Probably too much. Our jobs give us social structure. We have colleagues, clients, partners, and work (transactional) friends. We enjoy the illusion of connectedness.
That social structure ends the day you quit. Those colleagues you went to lunch with at the downstairs coffee shop every Tuesday? They’ll be gone before you can blink an eye. Trust me. Previously convenient friendships suddenly require real effort. Transactional relationships wither away. And family relationships that coasted on shared busyness are tested. Does your spouse really want to have lunch with you every day?
Ever hear that saying, I married you for life, not for lunch? Well, there’s something to it.
The research is conclusive on this one. Meaningful social relationships are among the best predictors of both longevity and life satisfaction. Isolation carries real physical and mental health risks. The people who thrive in retirement are usually the ones who treated their friendships and family ties as something worth protecting before they left full-time work.
Are you nurturing non-transactional relationships now?
Modern Lifestyle Design
Folks picture retirement as travel, golf, and sleeping in, reading the Wall Street Journal. Those things are fine. And believe me, I love the WSJ. But they’re not enough to keep a driven person like you happy for twenty or thirty years.
The activities that actually deliver lasting satisfaction involve growth, challenge, and a sense of progress. Life is richer when we’re learning something new or building a product, business, or philanthropy from scratch. I’m sure I don’t have to convince you of this point, as this is likely how you’ve lived your life.
If your plan is mostly consumption and downtime, boredom is an ever-present companion. The happier retirees I see designed a lifestyle that still includes adventure, mastery, and exploration. They didn’t wait until after the farewell party to figure it out. If you haven’t given careful thought to how you’d like to spend your time after you retire, you really should. I call it Modern Lifestyle Design, after the Tim Ferriss concept in the spectacular 4-Hour Work Week.
Longevity Planning for Professionals
Your financial advisors handle your portfolio. Typical concierge doctors manage disease (frequently after the fact). Very few people sit at the intersection of longevity medicine, Modern Lifestyle Design, and the demanding psychology of high achievers who use achievement as their main source of structure. As a family office Chief Wellness Officer (CWO), welcome to my world. I help executives, dentists, family offices, and leaders like you with longevity planning, the combination of healthspan and lifestyle design.
Let’s chat about your Retirement Readiness Review. We’ll work to make sure your heart and brain, strength and vitality are up to snuff. Then, we’ll collaborate to ensure your next chapter is full of adventure, friendship, purpose, and fun.
Retirement will be your next great adventure. With a little preparation, you’ll be ready.
Dr. Gregory Charlop here, the leading longevity, retirement, and lifestyle concierge medicine physician in Buckhead. We use lifestyle medicine (which combines exercise, sleep, nutrition, deep social relationships, and select medications) to help our executive patients look and feel better.
Do you live in the Atlanta, Buckhead, or Alpharetta area and have questions about wellness and concierge medicine? Let’s chat. We also serve patients in California and Texas via telemedicine.
