The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Lessons On Retirement From The Golden Girls

Today’s lesson from the golden girls is: There ain’t nothing that cheesecake and conversation can’t fix.

If you watched the Golden girls, you’ll remember that in most episodes, there was a crisis that was usually solved late at night at the kitchen table with some cheesecake and talking it out. 

What does this have to do with your retirement? A lot actually, because it speaks to the importance of friendships and how important friendships are at all stages of life, but especially in retirement. The Golden Girls always had each other, even when their lives were chaotic and when they experienced loss and heartache.

Last October, I covered a podcast theme on the topic of the 3 things you need to get right for a happy, meaningful, and fulfilling retirement. 

What are those 3 things? Money, Health, and Relationships. 

And the kind of relationships that bring the most happiness in retirement, according to research, are friendships and your relationship with your spouse. It’s very easy to become socially isolated in retirement and that’s a big reason why many retirees become bored and depressed in retirement and find that it’s not all they hoped it would be. 

When you lose the natural social interactions and friendships that develop in the workplace, you have to become more intentional about cultivating friendships in retirement. Maybe this is spending more time with friends you already have, or making new friends. Retirement allows you to focus more on the things you enjoy doing, so whether you’re into golf, travel, cars, or gardening, try to find ways to enjoy your hobbies with others, or at least make an effort to regularly get coffee or go out to lunch or dinner with friends. 

According to Michael Finke (Fink-a), professor of wealth management at the American College of Financial Services and one of the researchers involved in this study, “The retiree’s job is to invest in the inputs that are actually going to result in the output of greater life satisfaction,”

Cultivating friendships is work. If you’re willing to put in the investment of time it takes, it will lead to more fulfillment and enjoyment in your retirement years, and more time spent around the table with a cheesecake, and those you hold most dear. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance