The 5 best retirement investments (It’s not money)

Most people think retirement planning is about numbers: how much you have saved, whether your investments will last and whether your income will support your lifestyle. But a successful retirement requires more than financial security. It requires a life worth living.

When people think about retirement planning, the conversation usually starts with money. How much have you saved? Will your investments last? Can your retirement income support your lifestyle?

These are important questions. But after years of working with retirees and families, I have become convinced that there is another portfolio that matters just as much – one that does not appear on any investment statement.

Your life portfolio.

Because you can retire with millions in the bank and still feel empty. You can have enough money to travel the world but not the health to enjoy it. You can leave your children a significant inheritance but realise you missed the opportunity to create meaningful memories with them.

A full bank account in retirement is wonderful. But it cannot replace a full table.

Read: The Retirement Myth – Part 1: Why purpose is the new pension in retirement

Here are five investments that may determine whether you simply retire, or whether you truly enjoy retirement.

1. Invest in friendships

One of the biggest risks retirees face is not running out of money. It is losing connection.

During our working years, relationships often happen naturally. We have colleagues, clients and daily interactions. But when retirement arrives, many of those connections disappear.

Friendships rarely end because of one major event. They often disappear slowly. The coffee gets postponed. The phone calls become less frequent. Eventually, someone who was once an important part of your life becomes someone you only hear from occasionally.

Research, including the Harvard Study of Adult Development, has highlighted the importance of strong relationships in living healthier and happier lives.

Friendships require intentional investment. Make the call. Arrange the lunch. Organise the trip. Be the person who brings people together.

Relationships compound over time, just like investments do.

2. Invest in your family

As financial planners, we spend a lot of time helping families create financial legacies.

We discuss wills, trusts, investments and estate planning. But leaving wealth behind and leaving a legacy are not always the same thing.

There is an analogy I often use: life is like juggling a collection of balls. Some are made of rubber and others are made of glass.

Work is often a rubber ball. You can drop it occasionally and recover. But your marriage is glass. Your relationship with your children is glass. Your health is glass.

Some things, when neglected for long enough, do not simply bounce back.

Your family is unlikely to remember your investment returns. They will remember whether you were there. Whether you listened. Whether you created memories together.

Money can be inherited. Time cannot.

Read: Why retirement planning should prepare you for more than money

3. Invest in purpose

One of the biggest challenges in retirement is losing the identity that work provides.

For decades, work gives us structure. It tells us where to be, what to do and often who we are.

Then retirement arrives, and those answers become less clear.

This is why retirement planning should not only ask: “When can I stop working?”

It should also ask: “What am I retiring to?”

Purpose does not necessarily mean starting another business. It could mean mentoring younger people, coaching sport, volunteering, spending time with grandchildren or sharing your knowledge.

A successful retirement needs more than freedom from work. It needs something worth getting up for.

4. Invest in hobbies

Hobbies are often underestimated, but they play an important role in retirement.

They provide structure, enjoyment, learning and social connection.

Whether it is golf, gardening, fishing, hiking, photography, cooking or learning something new, hobbies create reasons to look forward to the week ahead.

The mistake many people make is waiting until retirement to discover what they enjoy.

Start before you retire.

Do not arrive at your first Monday morning after decades of work and suddenly ask yourself how you are going to spend the next 30 years.

Build that life while you still have the opportunity.

Read: Holistic retirement – Part 11: Finding purpose beyond finances

5. Invest in your health

Your health is the asset that allows you to enjoy all your other assets.

You can afford the overseas holiday, but can you walk through the city and experience it? You can own the dream retirement home, but can you enjoy the lifestyle it offers?

Health should be treated as an investment.

Move your body. Maintain your strength. Prioritise sleep. Eat well. Attend medical check-ups. Manage the risks you can control.

Retirement often creates a unique window where three valuable assets overlap:

• Money

• Time

• Health.

The challenge is that nobody knows exactly how long that window will remain open.

Build two retirement portfolios

A successful retirement requires two portfolios.

The first is your financial portfolio: investments, retirement funds, property and income planning.

The second is your life portfolio.

That portfolio contains friendships, family, purpose, hobbies and health.  The returns from this portfolio will never appear on an investment statement.

You will see them around a dinner table. In conversations with people you love. In adventures you are still healthy enough to enjoy.  Because the ultimate goal of retirement is not simply having enough money to retire.

It is building a life worth retiring to.