The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is Habits that lead to happiness in retirement. 

The last key to happiness in retirement according to the long-term Harvard research study I’ve been referencing this week, is cultivating stable, long-term relationships. If you’re married and have been for years, you know that it takes work - a lot of conscious and consistent effort to maintain a solid and happy marriage. But it’s not just marriage that’s important here. We all need solid friendships, and stable, healthy relationships with our family to thrive. 

According to the Harvard study, the single most important trait of being happy-well in retirement is healthy relationships. That’s it. The number one most important thing. You can still have a shot at happiness in retirement if you smoke, are overweight, and haven’t read a single book since you graduated high school, but you don’t have good, strong, relationships with people you can count on in good times and bad, then you’re much more likely to get unhappier as you age. 

Like the other habits I’ve discussed this week, this one doesn’t happen overnight. If you don’t have the relationships in your life that you crave, it can be challenging to form new bonds, but it’s possible. I’ve really had to prioritize this in my own life, because I work full-time, I have a husband, and 3 young children, so I don’t have a lot of additional time to go hang out with friends. 

But I have made a conscious effort to be a part of the mom’s group at my church, and I’m making a conscious effort to make time for the friends in my life that I want to stay close to. I refuse to substitute real-life friendships with likes and comments on Facebook, and as a result, I’m spending time deepening friendships with those friends I care about the most. 

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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