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Retirees' Mistakes and Wake-Up Calls: Expectations vs. Reality - E106

May 07, 2025 / 28:14

This episode discusses the 2023 survey on retirement perspectives and attitudes, featuring insights from Jesse Kramer, Fritz Gilbert, and Eric Wigel. Key topics include the differences in concerns between pre-retirees and post-retirees, the importance of social connections, and strategies for a fulfilling retirement.

Jesse Kramer introduces the survey, which involved 1,700 participants, half of whom are retired. He highlights how retirees' concerns shift from financial issues to social and identity aspects of retirement.

Fritz Gilbert, founder of the Retirement Manifesto, and Eric Wigel, founder of Retire with Possibilities, co-authored the study. They emphasize the need for pre-retirees to understand the realities of retirement, including the importance of social interactions and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

The episode also covers practical exercises for planning retirement, such as the perfect day exercise and the icky guy map, aimed at helping listeners create a clear vision for their retirement.

Finally, Jesse concludes with the reminder that a smooth transition into retirement requires intentional planning, social engagement, and a focus on health.

TLDR

The episode analyzes a survey on retirement attitudes, highlighting differences between pre-retirees and post-retirees, and offers planning strategies for a fulfilling retirement.

Episode

28:14
00:00:00
Welcome to personal finance for long-term investors, where we believe Benjamin Franklin's advice that an
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investment in knowledge pays the best interest both in finances and in your life. Every episode teaches you personal
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finance and long-term investing in simple terms. Now, here's your host, Jesse Kramer. Hello and welcome to
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episode 106 of Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors. My name is Jesse Kramer. Today, we're going to take a
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deep dive on a cool 2023 survey called retirement perspectives and attitudes. It shines an an awesome light in the
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minds of about 1,700 people who participated in the study, about half of whom are retired and the other half are
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planning on retiring soon. And we're going to learn some lessons and compare
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and contrast. and I think come away what you know no matter what stage of your financial life you're in whether
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retirement is still decades in the future or you've been retired already for a number of years I still think
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there's some really interesting things we can learn from this study before we
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dive into it we'll do our customary review of the week thank you so much everyone for leaving ratings and reviews
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on Apple Podcast or Spotify this one's from Apple podcast a five-star review
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from CD Stewart who wrote in and said fantastic podcast I've been listening to
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Jesse for the last year or so and I absolutely love this podcast Jesse is fantastic at breaking down complex
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topics into easily digestible pieces along with the use of great metaphors. I like that he discusses the mindset and
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emotional side of finance while also providing practical nuts andbolts information that I can act on. I
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recommend this podcast to beginners and money nerds alike. Well, CD Stewart, thank you very much for the kind words.
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Drop me an email to [email protected] and I will get you set up with a super soft bestinest
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t-shirt. As I was alluding to you before, today we're going to dive deep on this retirements and perspectives
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study. About half of the people who responded to the study have already been retired and the other half are planning
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on retiring soon. Of the retirees, about half have been retired for two or fewer
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years. So, we're talking about retirees who are just dipping their toe into retirement for the first few months or
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for the first year. And then of the pre-retirees, about half of them are planning on retiring in the next two
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years. So in other words, there are a lot of people in the study who can speak to that final glide path into retirement
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and then what the initial touchdown and again up for the study 90% of the respondents were between ages 50 and 75.
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So again a lot of pre-retirees and a lot of post-retirees. The survey uncovers their perspectives, their preparedness,
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their expectations and their major concerns when it comes to retirement planning. Another fantastic takeaway is
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to see how these two major cohorts of pre and postretirees how they tend to either change their minds over time or
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how they thought one thing and then they realized retirement actually had a different a different way about it. You
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know, in other words, that the major concerns of some of the pre-retirees end up being different than the major
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concerns for that of the post-retirees. The people who are retired, the retirees
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have a benefit of been there, done that, while the pre-retirees can only imagine
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what the future holds in store for them. And that difference is vital. We're all
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naturally uncomfortable with the prospect of an unknown future, but it's so helpful to hear from such a large
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cohort of people actually living that future already. So, first a little bit about the authors themselves because
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they deserve all the credit for putting this study together. Fritz Gilbert, who some of you might recognize from episode
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62 of Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors. Fritz is the founder of the Retirement Manifesto, a personal finance
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blog dedicated to helping individuals achieve a fulfilling retirement. His writing emphasizes both the financial
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and the personal aspects of retirement planning. Fritz spent 30 years in corporate America, primarily in the
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aluminum industry before retiring at age 55. And now postretirement, he and his wife moved to a cabin in the Georgia
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mountains where they enjoy community involvement and charity work. The other co-author of the study, Eric Wigel, is
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the founder of Retire with Possibilities, a retirement coaching firm aimed at helping individuals design
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their journey into retirement. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and has extensive experience in
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investment management. And the way I want to go through this particular podcast episode is to present a certain
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finding from the study, discuss the differences, if they exist, between the pre and the post retirees, and then add
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some of my own color based on my opinions or based on the clients I work with. the stories I've heard from them.
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So, I'm not going to cover every single question from the study, but instead I'm
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kind of handpicking or cherrypicking the ones that I found to be the most interesting to dive into. The first
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topic to dive into, I think, is uh the question that the survey asked, which is, how would you rate yourself in terms
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of finding the perfect home and environment to spend your retirement years? 75% of the results of the study
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were positive, 20% were neutral, and 5% were negative. So, in general, people are happy with their home choices or the
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places they choose to live, their environments. But that said, there was a big difference in how the two major
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cohorts of pre and post-retirees, how they responded. The pre-retirees make up fewer of the happy respondents and make
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up more of the negative respondents. And I think this makes sense. If you're
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still a few years out from retirement, you might be a little anxious about where you'll end up and if you'll like
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it there. You know, will you downsize your home? How stressful is that process going to be? The the process of moving
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and finding a new place. Are you going to move to where your grandkids are, to where your kids are, where they're
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living? Is that going to be what you want? And is it also going to be what what they want, what your kids and
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grandkids want? Are you going to snowbird to somewhere warmer? Can you afford to do that? There are all these
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questions and it's really hard to figure out what the ideal answers are. And it's
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hard to know for sure if you're going to enjoy those choices once you're actually
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in retirement. But that's the thing. Once you're in retirement, you have at
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least some of your answers. And if you don't like your answers, you have the
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time and the flexibility to move or to plan or to think about it and to ultimately do something about the fact
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that you aren't enjoying where you're living. So my takeaway from this is if
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you're concerned about your perfect home or your perfect environment where you're
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going to spend your retirement years, I think you can relax a little bit because
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even if your situation isn't perfect on day one of retirement, you will still
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have time to figure out your plan from there. Again, I'm going to skip around
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the survey a little bit here. And the next question I want to tackle is the question of how would you rate yourself
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in terms of continuing to work on new meaningful goals. Now, interestingly, people who were more than 2 years before
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retirement, they rated themselves the highest in this dimension. Conversely, people who have been retired for more
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than 2 years, they had the lowest self-ratings. And another finding from this study is simply that many retirees
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struggle to find a purpose and meaning, especially in the first couple years after retirement. So what can we do to
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ensure that we have purpose and meaning throughout our life especially in retirement? The big thing is to stay
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connected. Loneliness really is the silent killer of retirement and it's not
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just uh loneliness isn't just a psychological or a mental thing. It really has physical ramifications too on
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our physical health. So that's brings us actually I mean I don't want to cut this
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question off too soon this part of the study but it does bring me to the next question worth pondering in the study
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and the question was how would you rate yourself in terms of the closeness and the quality of your relationships? 25%
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of the study's respondents self-reported that they longed for deeper social connections. So, what do we do about
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this? Especially, what do we do about this in retirement? Well, I think of routine social habits. I think we need
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to make socializing part of our bakedin routine. I think of I have a friend here
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in Rochester who's uh despite being I think he's 80 or 81 right now. He's
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still sharp as attack. He's still very active. He plays squash four or five mornings a week. And you know, I'm
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usually joining in one or two mornings a week on the double squash court. And he's just extremely active, whether it's
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volunteering, networking, going out to breakfast for lunch with friends who he's trying to keep in touch with,
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physically, playing squash, going for walks. He's just he's always doing
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something. And it's routine, right? He his social interactions really are baked
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into his lifestyle routine. I think of a relative of mine who is very active in knitting and quilting groups in her
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retirement. It's one or two days a week and it's the same groups of people, but
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everybody gets together and they're sitting there knitting or quilting or whatever it may be and they're sharing
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stories and they're asking each other how they are. It's a weekly thing,
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right? It's built into the routine. I also think of a cafe here in Pittsver, a
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local cafe that I've, you know, will go to sometimes for my morning coffee meetings. And there's this rotating
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group of like 10 older men and you know, sometimes it's these seven guys are here
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one day and those eight guys are here the next day, but kind of get used to the same characters. But they're in
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there every morning or at least every morning that I'm there. There's always a
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group of these older men, retired men, getting coffee together, hanging out, chatting. Another a client of mine, she
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talks to me about going on these regular walks. You know, she tries to go on a walk every single day. And as much as
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she can, she tries to invite different people to join her on a walk. So, you know, sometimes it's routine where it'll
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be every Friday she walks with Nancy. And then, you know, Wednesdays it's every other Wednesday it's Lucy or Betty
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and blah blah blah. You you guys get what I'm saying? The whole idea is it's
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there's a routine. So maybe it's a book club, a church group, gardening,
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whatever. And a bonus thought here because it can be hard, especially if we're not particularly outgoing or you
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know the idea of of reaching out and what if they say no. And and one thought and this is a cool piece of advice I I
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recently heard is to don't try to find a best friend, right? You don't have to go
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out and try to find a best friend, but just try to be a friend. I think relationships really do blossom from
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that simple place. And I was listening to Vanessa Van Edwards recently who's a
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a very cool public speaker when it comes to kind of social interactions and relationship building and and a few
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different things that I personally find interesting. And she cited a study and the study was about basically why are
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likable people likable? Like what is that trait that makes people likable? Is it that they're funny? Is it that
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they're good-looking? Is it some form of like physical subconscious athleticism
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that we notice in them? And the number one thing that all likable people have in common is that their list of people
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who they like is long. In other words, right, the most likable people in our lives, they tend to be the people who
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they see the world and they just find lots of people who they like. They just, you know, I almost say it as they see
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humanity through rosy colored glasses. They see people who maybe are a little boring or a little quiet or a little
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plain and they're like, you know what, I I I like that person. There's something
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I like them. The more you like other people, the more those other people will like you back. So, my takeaway there is
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to, you know, we have to be pretty intentional about baking socialization into our routine. If we're seeking out
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new relationships or if we're trying to forge new friendships because maybe we
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left a lot of friendships behind when we retired, when you go out and meet someone, it's find something to
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genuinely like about them because if you can convince yourself that you like people, a lot of those people are going
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to like you back. Now, the next question from the study that I want to dive into
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is, "How would you rate yourself in terms of adhering to a healthy lifestyle?" 22% of the study's
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respondents had a negative answer to this question, but the study does point out that where we fall along the work to
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retirement spectrum is probably immaterial to the healthy lifestyle choices we have in our life. Lifestyle
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habits, they really are habits. They're sticky and they're ingrained somewhere
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into our subconscious. And there's probably not a huge difference between people who are working and people who
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are retired in terms of adhering to a healthy lifestyle. But it does kind of beget a a bigger question we need to ask
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ourselves, which is what's the point of retirement at all if you're not healthy
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enough to enjoy it? I've had this conversation through the blog, through the podcast, here through work with
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clients before. People who spent decades saving diligently, they've built their
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wealth, they've planned wisely, and now great, they've crossed the retirement
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finish line. Like good for them, but something's missing. And what's missing
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is certainly not money. They have plenty of money. They have plenty of time freedom. The thing that's missing really
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is vitality. And it's not because they didn't care about their health per se. I
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mean, in some cases, maybe it is. But it's mainly because maintaining your health just gets harder and harder as
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you age. It's just biology. Dr. Peter Aia, who some of you might have heard of, the author of the book Outlive, he's
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like the go-to voice on longevity and aging. And he has a couple interesting concepts. One's called Healthspan. One's
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called the centinarian decathlon. And and the idea there is it's not just about living longer. It's not just
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about, you know, instead of dying at 75, I want to die at 90. It's about living
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better for longer, right? It's about being strong enough and mobile enough and sharp enough to do the things that
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bring you joy into your 70s, into your 80s, even into your 90s. In other words, retirement shouldn't be about not
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working. It should really be about living. Living to the fullest. playing on the floor with your grandkids, hiking
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the trails that you always wanted to hike, dancing at your grandchildren's weddings, those kind of things. But what
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Dr. Aia points out is that those things don't happen by accident. They take work, hard physical work a lot of the
00:12:26
times, just like saving for retirement took work. Dr. Aia points out that by the time you're 60, you're 65, you're
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already in a race against the clock. Your muscle mass is declining pretty quickly. Your balance gets worse.
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Chronic disease risk increases. So the time to prepare isn't really when you
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retire. It is the kind of thing where this you got to start preparing today. I'm not a doctor, right? This is not
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medical advice. I'm certainly not here to hand out your workout plan or go to
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tell you to uh drink some kale smoothies or whatever that is. But I will say this, I've never heard a retiree or an
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older person say that they regret taking care of their body. Retirement is a a season of life that's supposed to be
00:13:02
full of joy and purpose and connection, but without your health, it's almost
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like you've been given this front row seat to the concert of your dreams and
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you forget your hearing aids. And actually, I don't know. I don't know how
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hearing fits into this, but that that's a separate conversation. The whole point
00:13:15
is to take care of yourself now so that your future self can live life to the fullest. Here's a quick ad and then
00:13:21
we'll get back to the show. Did you know my written blog, The Best Interest, was
00:13:25
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00:13:30
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00:13:36
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00:13:43
bestinterest.blog. Again, the web address is bestinterest.blog. Check it out. The
00:13:49
next question I want to dive into from the study is, how would you rate yourself in terms of having a clear
00:13:54
vision and a plan for your life in retirement? a clear vision and a plan for your life and retirement. This
00:14:00
question, it got the lowest proportion of self-reported strong or good responses of all the questions in the
00:14:06
study. And that was specifically true for people who are yet to retire. So on the one hand, I hear that and I think
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well maybe the future is just too foggy for all of us to say we have a clear vision for retirement or perhaps many
00:14:18
people do they don't want a rigid vision and a plan for retirement. But we don't
00:14:22
want to wing it. We don't want to go into retirement with no vision at all. And it's a good reminder that retirement
00:14:27
again, it's not a financial event. Yes, finances are part of it, but retirement
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really is a life transition. And so, if you are struggling with a vision or struggling with a plan or simply if you
00:14:38
want to start putting your vision and plan together, I think that's probably
00:14:41
the best place to start. If you're already retired, hopefully that's something you've been doing or you've
00:14:45
been working on it. I still think these exercises I'm about to go through will
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be helpful for you, but especially if you're a pre-retiree and you feel like
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you don't really have good vibes when it comes to having a clear vision or having
00:14:57
a clear plan for your life in retirement. Here are three really interesting exercises that I think will
00:15:02
help you. The first one is called the perfect day exercise. The goal of this exercise, as the name probably implies,
00:15:08
right, is to create some sort of vivid picture of what your ideal retirement day will look like. And then you can
00:15:14
work backward to build a life that supports that idea. Prompt would be imagine you wake up in your ideal
00:15:19
retirement life. What time are you waking up? Where are you? Who are you with? And then what do you do next? And
00:15:25
then what do you do next? And then what do you do next? And who are you with for
00:15:27
that? And who are you meeting up? And what's the weather like? What kind of activities are you doing? What are you
00:15:31
eating? What are you drinking? How are you spending your time? So, it's answering all those important, you know,
00:15:36
who, what, when, where, why, and how questions to build yourself an ideal day, soup to nuts of the entire schedule
00:15:44
from your morning coffee to your bedtime, including as much detail as you can possibly muster, sights and smells
00:15:50
and people and activity, your dog, this walk, whatever it may be, playing this instrument, going to see this concert,
00:15:57
going to play pickup basketball, whatever it may be. Every single thing, as much detail as possible. And the
00:16:01
whole idea is that we want to move the idea of retirement from vague to vivid. We want as much vivid detail as we
00:16:08
possibly can. And the idea is once you can see that vivid image of your ideal day, you will be more motivated to build
00:16:14
it. You will start to go through piece by piece. And I I recommend writing this down because it is the kind of thing
00:16:19
where for at least maybe it's way my brain works is I want to write it down and I want to break it up into chunks
00:16:23
and I want to say well for this part of my day, how do I build a life that gets me that? For that part of my day, how do
00:16:28
I build a life that gets me there? You know, going back to a couple other previous questions, where do I need to
00:16:32
live to be able to execute this perfect day? How healthy do I need to be to execute this perfect day? What's the
00:16:38
financial component involved of executing this perfect day? But again, if we can go from vague images of
00:16:44
retirement to this vivid image of an ideal day, you will be motivated to go out and build it. The second cool
00:16:51
exercise is called the icky guy map. And now icky guy, it's one of those things
00:16:55
where if you've heard of it, I feel like you probably think it's way overused. If
00:16:58
you haven't heard of it, okay, I'll define it for you. It's a Japanese word
00:17:01
loosely translates to reason for being. And it's often shown and drawn using
00:17:07
these four overlapping circles in a ven diagram. And the four overlapping circles are labeled what I love, what
00:17:14
I'm good at, what the world needs, and what I can be useful for. Again, this
00:17:18
what I love, what I'm good at, what the world needs, and what I can be useful
00:17:23
for. And the goal of this exercise is to try to align your retirement activities
00:17:28
with some sort of deeper sense of purpose and fulfillment. Again, what I would do is I would take a 8 by11 sheet
00:17:34
of paper. I would make these four circles, make this ven diagram. Or you can just Google it. You can Google the
00:17:38
word icky guy and find this ven diagram in about 2 seconds. And then start filling in each circle. And especially
00:17:44
think about the intersections, right? Think about that intersection in the middle. Are there activities that you
00:17:49
love and you're good at, but also that the world needs and that you can be useful for? Now, that last one, what I
00:17:54
can be useful for, I will say I think there are versions of this icky guy map where they say what you can be paid for.
00:17:59
I mean, now that you're retired, you probably don't need to be paid for it,
00:18:02
but it is the kind of thing where it's hopefully someone else in the world appreciates the fact that you're doing
00:18:06
it. And depending on which circles are overlapping with water, I really I guess the way I should say it is depending on
00:18:12
where your activities fall in this ven diagram, you'll see, you know, the combination of what you're good at and
00:18:17
what you love is a passion. The combination of what you love and what the world needs, well, that might be a
00:18:22
mission. The combination of say what you're good at and what you can be paid
00:18:25
for or what what you can be useful for, that might just be a profession or something like that. But if all four of
00:18:31
these things get fulfilled at once, that would be your icky guy as they say. And
00:18:35
that's something to really focus on because we want to think beyond just keeping busy and we definitely want to
00:18:39
move toward feeling useful and feeling alive. And then the last exercise of these three exercises is the rocking
00:18:46
chair test. And the goal here is to clarify what really matters in the long run. And I always find these things
00:18:51
challenging. I'm I'm curious if you guys find them easier where someone says, you
00:18:54
know, picture yourself in 20 years. Picture yourself in 30 years. But that is the nature of this exercise is to
00:18:59
picture yourself 20 or 30 years from now sitting down on your porch in your favorite chair looking back on your
00:19:04
retirement or again if you're not retired yet again it's picture yourself
00:19:08
at age 80 or age 85 looking backward on what your retirement has been and what do you want to be proud of if you're
00:19:15
sitting in that chair 30 years from now what do you want to be proud of what do you want to have experienced what do you
00:19:21
want to have contributed or learned how do you want to spend your time again so this exercise works because it flips the
00:19:27
script from the short-term wants of right now, of this week, of this month, and it zooms out to longer term meaning.
00:19:33
It encourages intentionality, not just activity. It reminds me of some of the exercises we talked before with Doc G on
00:19:39
this podcast when it comes to some of the lessons that he learned when people are at end of life. Some of the lessons
00:19:44
when when people are right, they're in hospice, they're on their deathbed, and
00:19:48
what are their biggest regrets or what are the things that they cared most about in life. And what you often find
00:19:53
is like it's basically a version of don't sweat the small stuff and that
00:19:57
there are certain big factors in life that matter a lot more. And so I think if we use this rocking chair test and we
00:20:03
think about ourselves in 20 or 30 years or we think about ourselves as this old person sitting contentedly in their
00:20:08
rocking chair, what do you want to be proud of in that moment or what do you want to have experienced in that moment?
00:20:14
And that exercise, this rocking chair test exercise, I think can help us shape exactly what we want our vision and plan
00:20:20
for retirement to be. Here's a quick ad and then we'll get back to the show.
00:20:25
Serious question. Why do podcasters constantly ask for ratings and reviews? Yes, they do help highlight our shows to
00:20:32
new listeners. They help strangers find us on Apple Podcast and Spotify. It's
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totally true and a good reason to ask for ratings and reviews. But I have something more important, at least more
00:20:42
important to me. I want to know if you like this stuff. I want to know if you like my podcast episodes, my monologues,
00:20:48
my guests, the information I share with you and the stories I tell. I want to improve and make your listening more
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enjoyable in the process. So yeah, I would love to read your reviews. And sure, if you throw a rating in there,
00:21:00
too, that's great. If you like what I'm doing, please share it with me. It's
00:21:04
such a great feeling to read your feedback. I'd love to read your review or see a rating on Apple Podcast or
00:21:10
Spotify. Thank you. Next, I want to pivot a bit to the the last section of the study where the authors Fritz and
00:21:16
Eric, they specifically call out the biggest differences between the pre and the postretirees. I think a huge part of
00:21:22
this section, a huge takeaway is essentially is that people think retirement is this particular way, but
00:21:28
it turns out that it's actually that particular way. And having those preconceived notions kind of turned on
00:21:34
their head is a really big takeaway that we can all take from the study. Now, for
00:21:38
starters, the study found that pre-retirees are less worried than post-retirees about their health, about
00:21:44
family crises, about economic and political turmoil. Instead, pre-retirees are much more worried about outliving
00:21:51
their savings and rising health care costs. The post-retirees aren't nearly as worried about those things. So, in
00:21:57
other words, pre-retirees are worried most about the financial aspect of retirement. Post-retirees, those who
00:22:03
have actually walked the walk, those who have actually been there and done that,
00:22:06
post-retirees are much more likely to worry about the non-financial aspects of retirement. I think that's a huge
00:22:12
takeaway. If you're a pre-retiree and you're really worried about your finances, I mean, listen, get those
00:22:17
finances in order. That's kind of why we're here in the first place. That's a
00:22:19
big thing that we talk about here. But you also have to realize that most of the people who have walked this path
00:22:24
before you, maybe they were worried about finances too when they were your age. But now that they're actually in
00:22:29
retirement, they are much more likely to worry about non-financial aspects of retirement. Okay. Hey, I want to hone in
00:22:35
on the work and career section of this part of the study because when it comes to your workplace, most pre-retirees
00:22:42
still working, when they think about retirement, they don't feel like they're
00:22:46
going to be very concerned about their social interactions from work and the fact that they really won't have those
00:22:51
anymore in retirement. They're not really concerned about the mental stimulation they get from work and the
00:22:56
fact that that might disappear in retirement. And they're not really concerned about the sense of identity
00:23:00
that they get from their career and their from their work. they figure out, you know, they think something's going
00:23:04
to replace that once they get to retirement. But most postretirees reported all three of those
00:23:11
concerns much more severely. In other words, it's not until your career ends
00:23:16
and you actually retire that you realize how much you will miss your social interactions at work. That's when you'll
00:23:22
realize how much you'll miss the mental stimulation of work. And retirement is
00:23:26
also when you'll realize that you've lost your sense of identity or some
00:23:30
sense of identity that you had tied to being a professional. In other words, there's a decent chance that many of you
00:23:36
listening right now might think to yourself, eh, I'll be good without work. I'll replace the social interactions. I
00:23:42
don't need work to define my identity. And some of you might be right. But many
00:23:45
of you will end up being wrong. So my takeaway is to not underestimate those things. The social interactions you get
00:23:51
from work are huge and most likely you'll need to replace them in some way in retirement. The mental stimulation
00:23:57
you get from work, right? It's 40 hours plus every single week. You'll need to
00:24:01
replace that somehow in retirement. And then the sense of identity that we get from work. A lot of people out there are
00:24:06
proud to have been an engineer, a teacher, a firefighter. I get great sense of identity from sitting here
00:24:12
thinking to myself, I'm a financial planner. I write a blog. I produce a podcast. I like that as part of my sense
00:24:17
of identity. And for that just to disappear overnight, I'm probably gonna need to replace it somehow. I mean, I
00:24:23
can't even really picture that myself. So anyway, that's something huge and and
00:24:27
it's again a big lesson that we can take away where the pre-retireye assumptions
00:24:31
do not line up well with the reality of retirement. But perhaps there's no better overall takeaway than this final
00:24:38
question that I'll review today. The question posed in the study is the transition to retirement was or will be
00:24:45
smooth. So again the question is the transition to retirement either was or will be smooth. 75% of the pre-retirees
00:24:53
still working they responded in a positive manner to this question and 20% responded in a neutral manner. Only 5%
00:25:00
of the people still working believed that their transition to retirement would not be smooth and responded in a
00:25:06
negative manner. But for the postretirees about half respond positively 25% respond negatively and
00:25:13
25% respond in a neutral manner. So, my simple takeaway is that many people assume their transition to retirement
00:25:19
will be smooth and they end up being wrong. I suppose this entire podcast episode can be boiled down into that.
00:25:26
Many people assume their transition to retirement will be smooth and they end up being wrong. So, my my advice to you
00:25:32
is to do your best and to do what you can to make sure that that is not you. We want a smooth transition into
00:25:38
retirement. I think one of the most powerful things we can do, especially as planners, as DIYers, as people who care
00:25:44
about our own future financial plan, our own retirement, is to listen. If we really try to hear from folks who have
00:25:50
already crossed that retirement threshold, what will they tell us? It's very often different, as we've seen
00:25:55
today, it's different from what we would expect as pre-retirees. It's different
00:25:58
from what we might assume as pre-retirees. Before retirement, we imagine freedom and flexibility. No more
00:26:04
meetings, no more alarm clocks. That's a nice one. And hey, some of that is true.
00:26:08
But the retirees that I talk to at work, the retirees in this study, they share something deeper, something more honest.
00:26:14
They say, "You know what? I underestimated how much of my identity came from work. I didn't realize how
00:26:19
quickly I'd have a reason to get up in the morning. No one warned me how lonely
00:26:23
this could feel over and over again. I wish I had taken my health more seriously and earlier in my life because
00:26:29
it's not just about the time when you retire. It's not just about the money.
00:26:32
It's about having the energy, the vitality to enjoy the life that you built. Social connections too, right?
00:26:37
They fade faster than we expect. The casual relationships of the office, maybe it's the banter, the camaraderie,
00:26:43
they matter more than we give them credit for. Without a plan to replace those relationships, retirement can feel
00:26:48
and often does feel surprisingly isolating. So, the takeaway is not just to prepare your portfolio or your tax
00:26:55
planning, but to prepare your life, to craft a vision, to build good habits, to nurture friendships, to prioritize your
00:27:01
body and your brain. Because the people who tend to thrive in retirement, they aren't just lucky. It didn't just
00:27:06
happen. They're intentional about it. They didn't just retire from something,
00:27:11
their career. They retired to something. And that makes all the difference. So, thank you again to Fritz Gilbert and
00:27:17
Eric Wigel and the couple thousand people in their audiences who participated in the study. Listeners, if
00:27:23
you want to go check out that study for yourself, we are going to throw a link for you in the show notes. Thank you
00:27:27
again for listening and we will talk to you next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Personal Finance for
00:27:33
Long-Term Investors. If you have a question for Jesse to answer on a future episode, send him an email over at his
00:27:39
blog, The Best Interest. His email address is [email protected]. Again, that's
00:27:47
[email protected]. Did you enjoy the show? Subscribe, rate, and review the podcast wherever you listen. This
00:27:53
helps others find the show and invest in knowledge themselves, and we really appreciate it. We'll catch you on the
00:27:59
next episode of Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors. Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors is a personal
00:28:06
podcast meant for education and entertainment. It should not be taken as financial advice and it's not
00:28:11
prescriptive of your financial situation.

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Episode Highlights

  • Investment in Knowledge
    Benjamin Franklin's advice on investing in knowledge resonates deeply in personal finance.
    “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
    @ 00m 04s
    May 07, 2025
  • Understanding Retirement Perspectives
    A survey reveals insights from 1,700 individuals on retirement expectations and concerns.
    @ 00m 28s
    May 07, 2025
  • Creating a Vision for Retirement
    Many struggle with a clear vision for retirement, highlighting the need for planning.
    @ 01m 24s
    May 07, 2025
  • The Importance of Social Connections
    Loneliness can severely impact retirees, making social habits essential for well-being.
    “Loneliness really is the silent killer of retirement.”
    @ 06m 30s
    May 07, 2025
  • Healthspan vs Lifespan
    Dr. Peter Aia emphasizes the importance of maintaining health for a fulfilling retirement.
    “Retirement shouldn't be about not working. It should really be about living.”
    @ 12m 10s
    May 07, 2025
  • Crafting Your Ideal Day
    Visualize your perfect retirement day with vivid detail to motivate action.
    “We want as much vivid detail as we possibly can.”
    @ 16m 08s
    May 07, 2025
  • The Icky Guy Map
    Align your retirement activities with a deeper sense of purpose using the Icky Guy map.
    “It’s a Japanese word loosely translates to reason for being.”
    @ 16m 59s
    May 07, 2025
  • The Rocking Chair Test
    Picture yourself in the future to clarify what truly matters in retirement.
    “What do you want to be proud of if you’re sitting in that chair?”
    @ 19m 17s
    May 07, 2025
  • Pre-Retiree vs. Post-Retiree Concerns
    Understand the shift in worries from financial to non-financial aspects of retirement.
    “Pre-retirees are worried most about the financial aspect of retirement.”
    @ 22m 12s
    May 07, 2025
  • The Importance of Social Connections
    Recognize the need to replace social interactions lost in retirement for fulfillment.
    “Retirement can feel and often does feel surprisingly isolating.”
    @ 26m 50s
    May 07, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
    Retirees' Mistakes and Wake-Up Calls: Expectations vs. Reality - E106
  • Loneliness really is the silent killer of retirement.
    Retirees' Mistakes and Wake-Up Calls: Expectations vs. Reality - E106
  • Retirement shouldn't be about not working. It should really be about living.
    Retirees' Mistakes and Wake-Up Calls: Expectations vs. Reality - E106
  • You will be more motivated to build it.
    Retirees' Mistakes and Wake-Up Calls: Expectations vs. Reality - E106
  • What do you want to be proud of?
    Retirees' Mistakes and Wake-Up Calls: Expectations vs. Reality - E106
  • Retirement can feel surprisingly isolating.
    Retirees' Mistakes and Wake-Up Calls: Expectations vs. Reality - E106

Key Moments

  • Investment in Knowledge00:04
  • Retirement Perspectives00:28
  • Vision for Retirement01:24
  • Social Connections06:30
  • Visualizing Retirement16:01
  • Future Reflection19:19
  • Concerns Shift22:12
  • Social Connections Matter26:50

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown