Dr. Michael Finke has spent his career studying how people fund retirement. His research at The American College of Financial Services is nationally recognized. If anyone was going to sit down with Morningstar’s Christine Benz and geek out about withdrawal rates, it was Finke.
So when Benz asked him which lesson he wanted to share for her new book, she braced for something technical and nuanced. Finke wanted to talk about lifestyle.
The Researcher Who Changed the Subject
Specifically, he wanted to discuss how people can visualize their in-retirement lifestyle and then put in place habits to make it happen. According to Finke’s research, the number-one activity of retirees other than sleep is watching television.
This isn’t a financial failure—people don’t run out of money and default to television. The real problem is the absence of a plan for the hours, days and years that retirement is supposed to fill.
Three Pillars, Only One About Money
Christine Benz captures this in How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement. Finke’s interview produced what he calls the three pillars of retirement happiness. Only one involves your portfolio.
Financial security matters, but Finke is blunt about its limits. Money removes a source of worry. It doesn’t replace a source of meaning.
Social connection is where Finke’s emphasis surprised me most. The research consistently points to shared experiences, time invested in relationships, meals with people who know you well.
Health rounds out the framework. Unlike a portfolio, you can’t play catch-up with your body. The investment has to start early.
The Most Powerful Predictor
Stanford psychologist Laura Carstensen has spent 30 years studying what determines how long and how well people live. Social relationships are the most powerful predictors of longevity. More predictive than genetics. More predictive than wealth.
Her prescription is straightforward. Invest in relationships the way you’d invest in a retirement account: start early, contribute consistently, don’t wait for a crisis.
A Different Kind of Plan
What I find compelling about Benz’s book is the honesty of her interviews. The retirees she spoke with disagreed on plenty. Some loved structure; others thrived on spontaneity. But three themes showed up in nearly every conversation that described a satisfying retirement: they had purpose, they had people, and they had taken care of their health before they needed it.
The question I keep sitting with is whether we’re doing enough to help people prepare for the non-financial side of this transition. The spreadsheet matters. But the life the spreadsheet supports matters more.
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