How do you measure a successful retirement?

 But how do you measure a successful life? Wealth, career progression, power? Should happiness be the only measure of the success of one’s life? What about the number of other people whose lives you improve?

What happens when we faced problems that often come along without warning and without any time to refer to the manual. We worked through them and in doing so we discovered there are no right answers.

What is a successful retirement? What do I have to do to achieve a successful retirement? How often do you wish someone who is retiring “a long, healthy, and happy retirement”? Are these three measures of a successful retirement? If so, why do we not have control over any of them?

How long a person lives is not normally in our control, our lifestyle, and our genetics play an important role in our longevity. A person can exercise regularly, eat healthily, and watch their weight but that does not guarantee a longer retirement. Doing all of these might contribute to a healthy retirement but again there is no guarantee. Does exercising, eating healthily, and controlling weight guarantee happiness? Only if you can achieve the goals you set yourself, if not you may end up unhappy.

What does happiness mean? Happiness depends upon the individual. Some people need constant social interaction. Others need their own space and isolation. Travelling and the excitement of new experiences may be essential for some but for others they need to have a routine within which they feel comfortable.

Money cannot buy happiness. It is a much too complicated commodity to be that simple. However, struggling through life with insufficient income is depressing. Many in debt suffer from poor mental health but others are happy.

The significant news is those who have retired with adequate retirement savings will be able to manage. However, one barrier to their happiness will be the difference between their income and the amount required to meet their retirement aspirations. These retirement aspirations could be what they want to do for themselves. Others will want to pass onto their children and grandchildren as much of their wealth as possible.

So, if you want to at least have a chance at having a happy retirement, then having enough money set side is an important part of the planning. If you are like me, you may not have taken retirement savings seriously until you reached age 50. Saving the money required starting at that age is awfully hard, but it can be done, but if you are younger than 50 and can save please start. Someone asked what’s the best time is to start saving for retirement and the answer is now.