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4 Ways to Plan a Successful Retirement
It can be difficult to go from working 60 to 80 hours a week in construction to full retirement. Here’s how to fend off mental and physical decline when you stop working.
3 Min Read
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Is retirement necessarily a good thing? For many people the answer is yes, but not without a well-thought-out plan.
The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization detailed a study in which it analyzed millions of people who retired to essentially put their feet up, watch television and have few demands on their time. The authors found that people who retired in this manner had "significant adverse effects on cognitive functioning and delayed recall, which is an important predictor of dementia."
Upon retirement, those in the study dramatically changed their daily behaviors. They volunteered less, had fewer social interactions and challenging tasks and performed less brain work overall.
What about these findings are important to you? Most of us often think about what that next chapter in life will look like. In fact, a speaker at the 2023 Associated General Contractors of America Convention claimed that 90% of construction CEOs will step down in the next five years!
When you and your team select a successor, and that person steps up to fill your role, what will you do with your time? You won’t likely be required to work 60- to 80-hour weeks anymore. How will you fill your week? TV? Golf? Pickleball? Travel? Maybe those activities can fill your time for a while, but for how long?
Keep mentally and physically sharp
Even the most talented leaders should retire at some point—preferably gracefully and at the correct stage. And retirement should come with a plan. What John Mayes at the Family Business Institute says is, “You don't retire from something; you retire to something.” There has to be something to do in the next chapter of life other than putting your feet up and staring at screens all day.
What do experts say you should do to fend off mental and physical decline? Here are four tips for creating a successful retirement plan that can keep you sharp for the long run:
Increase your friends and social interactions. Think about how incredible it could be to go back and contact friends you may have fallen out of touch with as life got busier—the people that you spent quality time with and who brought joy to your life. Retirement is a perfect time to reconnect.
Volunteer. You have a lifetime of accumulated business and practical intelligence. Where can you use those skills and talents to make your community better?
Make reading a habit. The best exercise for keeping your brain functioning well is reading. Reading an hour a day or more is demonstrated to be the best thing you can do to keep your brain young and healthy.
Focus on fitness. Another thing you can do to keep your mind functioning well is to maintain a regular exercise regimen.
Retire to something
Now, what if you love work and your company's mission and you’re not ready to go from 60 hours a week to zero? What can you do? Shift your role in your company!
You may not be the top executive on the org chart anymore, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have contributions to make. You can teach, mentor others or take a necessary role that's not being addressed—business development, for example.
Facing retirement is daunting for many of us, especially as entrepreneurs. Don’t think of it as retiring from something. Think of it as retiring to something!
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