The Secret to Retiring Happy, Part 2
Take care of mind and body now so you can enjoy retirement later
Dear Money Lady, I enjoyed your article on Secret to Retiring Happy. It confirmed that I have been doing something right all these past years. I am now 86 and enjoying all the fruits of proper preparation. However, your article did not mention the part that good health has in ensuring a happy life.
All the activities that are part of a good life are difficult without reasonable pain-free health. Health problems can be mitigated with an aggressive health planning strategy which is all part of the careful planning that you mentioned. — Sincerely, Ed
Thank you, Ed. You are so right, there should be more than just the monetary aspects to planning your future retirement. So, here is part two the Secrets of Retiring Happy.
Today we’re going to talk about how to create your own health planning strategy so that you can really enjoy retirement.
Remember, money is emotional. It can bring out the best in you if you have no financial worries, or it can cause prolonged depression, shame, guilt, and generally make you miserable everyday if you are struggling to meet your monetary commitments.
That being said, happiness is a state of mind and, thankfully, it is one that you get to choose to be in every day when you get up in the morning. Your perception of your life is the key. I guess I am asking, are you a pessimist or an optimist? The latter being the No. 1 trait of the happiest people worldwide.
Your mind is a powerful tool, so I want you to use it to make things better. The mental baggage of the past – things you should have done but didn’t, let it go. Yes, it is part of you and always will be, but now we are on a new year, let’s leave it in the past and do things different this year. Your body wants to heal itself.
It wants to be in better health, be thin, be flexible,
be fit; however, a lot of times it is our mind’s favourite habits that force us to make our bodies unhealthy. I am not talking about those that have real disabilities and lifethreatening diseases, but this is for the rest of us who continue to take advantage of our health by refusing, as Ed says, to “create an aggressive health planning strategy.”
Smoking, drinking, being sedentary — these are the killers to your future happiness and longevity. Now, before you get your phones or laptops ready to shoot me your emails, I’m going to tell you a
little about me.
My dad died of a massive heart attack when he was 47 due to poor diet and smoking. I, like many of my readers, have had life’s pressures where the only thing that I thought would make me feel better was a bag of chips and a glass of wine (plus the chip dip).
But, as you age, your body can’t take it anymore; it fights back by making it difficult to climb the stairs, it screams out to you with pains, indigestion, insomnia, high blood pressure and many others, just to get your attention.
Do we listen?
Did I listen? No. But, I did after I had my heart attack at 50. We all tend to put off good eating plans and daily exercise because we are so busy with work, family, and basically anything else we can think of, to not get healthy. Ask yourself, are you going to be fit enough in old age to enjoy what you worked for?
Now I am not saying it will be easy. But when you think about it, it isn’t easy to live below your means and save for retirement either. You know it must be done, so I want to leave you with the five main items that will help build your longevity strategy. 1) Sleep: ensure your body gets a good night of restorative sleep to heal properly. 2) Exercise: regular exercise helps every part of your body including your mind. 3) Human Connection: get out of the social media bacterial cloud and connect with real people (but be COVID friendly). 4) Manage Your Stress: be at peace with your life and your situation. And last but most important, 5) Drop the Crutches: just like you need a financial planner for your money, get professional help for your body.
Try to reduce or stop smoking, overeating, alcohol and refined sugar consumption, excessive prescription and recreational drugs, you get the idea.
As Spock says, we should all want to “live long and prosper.”
Good Luck & Best Wishes, ATML - Christine Ibbotson