Weekend Reading: Why 72% of Retirees Are Happy
This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.
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Weekend Reading
How do you become a happy retiree? Previous podcast guest Fritz Gilbert delves into the differences between happy and depressed retirees, exploring nine traits he discovered amidst his research.
READ THE ARTICLEMoney and emotions: To begin, Fritz curated a list of the financial-based traits of happy retirees, which include: Having at least $500,000 in liquid assets, owning a mortgage-free home and having multiple streams of income. Beyond this, however, Fritz found six other non-financial traits to a fulfilling retirement, which include:
📌 Curiosity: Happy retirees are curious and engaged in multiple interests.
📌 Purpose: Having a strong sense of purpose cultivates a happy life.
📌 Social connections: Having strong relationships, a spouse, close friends and/or participating in social activities contribute to happiness.
📌 Retiring at a planned time: Retiring when planned, rather than being forced to retire early, is linked to higher well-being.
📌 Personal health: Good health is associated with higher levels of happiness in retirement.
📌 Planning: Retirees who invest more time in planning their retirement – beyond financial considerations – tend to have a happier transition.
The odds of retiring at the time you expect are against you, so plan today, not tomorrow.