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The Four Pillars of a Fulfilling Retirement · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  As you look on the horizon and see the magic age of retirement,
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  you're probably thinking with anticipation all of the fun things that you're going to get to do.
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  Hello and welcome to Talking FACS. We share information you can use to strengthen
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  your family, your community, and our state.
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  I'm your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension.
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  My guest today, Caroline Francis, is the director of the University of Kentucky
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  Alumni Career Services Program,
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  is here to share with us about the four pillars of retirement. Caroline, welcome.
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  Thank you so much, Mindy. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you.
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  I'm so glad that you're here. So I'm very curious about what these four pillars are.
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  Well, we have an aging society. That's no secret. Baby boomers and Gen Xers
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  are coming into that phase where
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  they can start really getting closer to retirement or semi-retirement.
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  But we don't want anyone to fail retirement.
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  This is a time to plan and a time to live intentionally.
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  So these are four areas that research shows that if we focus on,
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  it'll help us make that transition smoother.
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  It'll help us in the non-financial areas of retirement or semi-retirement.
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  The first pillar has to be health and wellness.
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  If we're not healthy, it's hard to enjoy retirement.
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  We've seen too many family or friends that just work themselves into the grave
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  trying to get to that finish line,
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  and then they crash and they fall apart once they reach the retirement magical
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  age, whatever that might be.
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  So we're finding people are living longer now.
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  We're getting about 20 extra years of life, but we're living too short and dying too long.
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  And what I mean by that, for an advanced country, we're not doing a very good
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  job of living the latter part of our life.
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  In America, Americans, the last 12 and a half years of our life tend to be very
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  poor quality of life regarding health. So,
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  It's never too late to start, but we need to start health-wise focusing on getting healthier.
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  And really, genes only account for a small percentage. Diet,
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  sleep, alcohol moderation, keep moving, strength training, a mind diet, managing stress.
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  There's a lot of literature out there on longevity, Alzheimer's,
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  health, wellness, that is starting to overlap on how important each of those areas are.
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  I heard what you said about living, dying longer and living shorter.
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  And I think about my dad who retired more than 20 years ago,
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  but he's been living really hard those last 20 years because he has lots of
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  fun things he wanted to do.
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  And so I think he's figured out the retirement conundrum and he's listened to your message.
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  Amen. I wish more people did because we want people to enjoy those years that
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  they've worked so hard to earn in retirement. So we want them to be able to
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  enjoy every second of those years.
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  The Blue Zones documentary is fabulous.
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  I highly recommend people watch that where it looks at five regions of the world
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  where people are living longer and what are some secrets.
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  And I know Extension did a trip to one of those areas in Greece before COVID
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  and got to actually live with families that were being studied.
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  And that would have been an incredible opportunity to go on that trip.
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  But I know that you are also very focused on those blue zone communities and
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  what we can learn from them. Second pillar is social and emotional health and loneliness.
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  We have found during COVID that older people tend to be more isolated,
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  and especially when they stop working, our social connections drastically decline.
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  So it's really important that
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  we focus on renewing friendships spending
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  time intentionally with family and friends
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  scheduling launches finding hobbies
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  where we can do things as a group so be
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  intentional about thinking of how
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  you can reconnect with maybe
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  former classmates that you grew up with children grandchildren
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  who are your best besties have a lunch bunch i love to see retired people having
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  lunch out or coffee at Mcdonald's that's healthy that's good for our well-being
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  and also be intentional about cross-generational friendships.
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  We're finding more that it's important to spend time with people that are not
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  in our age cohort and to diversify our friendships.
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  We can learn so much from other people.
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  But ideally, don't be isolated as much as you might find yourself when you stop working.
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  Caroline, is there research that you really like that focuses on the importance of staying connected?
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  One of my favorite ones, the Harvard Grant Study of Adult Development,
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  a longitudinal study over many decades.
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  And when they analyzed all the data that's been in the media lately,
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  close relationships are the strongest predictor of long-term happiness and health.
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  And they also found that the quality of relationships matters more than the quantity.
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  So if you have support of low-conflict relationships, they help promote resilience.
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  And it's good for, it supports our brain health by having these relationships.
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  So it's pretty clear how important social engagement is for our well-being.
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  And I think that study is really played out when you look at the obituary column.
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  And how often do you see, you know, one week you'll see a husband or a wife
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  and a couple of weeks later,
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  you know, you'll see the spouse or, you know, a couple months later,
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  especially when they're in advanced ages, you know, 90 or 95.
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  You know, if they make it to that long, it seems like once one of them dies, the other one does too.
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  And I really do think it's, you know, they die of a broken heart.
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  Now, that's maybe unscientific research study, but I see that so often in the obituary columns.
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  I think that that's what happens, you know. I agree.
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  And women tend to outlive men. So all the more reason women really need to have
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  devoted time throughout their lives to friendships and relationships.
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  Yes, I agree. Pillar number three is learning. We're never too old to learn.
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  And Kentucky has wonderful programs. We have the Donovan program, the OLLI program.
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  Many communities have senior citizen centers that are thriving with excellent
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  programming and opportunities to learn and develop new friendships.
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  Also, I always encourage clients before they retire to think about what are
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  some hobbies or pursuits that you've had to put on the shelf because you were
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  too busy raising a family or working.
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  Pull out the instrument you haven't played in years. Bring out the watercolors.
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  What is it that you'd like to learn how to do or get better at doing that you've
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  had to shelf for many decades?
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  Good ways to keep our mind sharp.
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  Mark Twain said, anyone who stops learning is old, whether you're 20 or 80.
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  Anyone who keeps learning stays young.
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  The greatest thing you can do is keep your mind young. And that is still true.
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  And, you know, the more that you learn, the more resilient those synopsis in
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  the brain are, right? Absolutely.
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  Keep them active. That's becoming clear.
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  And the fourth pillar to include in retirement is work or finding your passion
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  and purpose or having meaning.
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  Baby boomers and Gen Xers are totally redefining retirement,
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  and it will likely include work.
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  Most baby boomers that I know want to continue working. It might be a fun job,
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  but they know they need to stretch their savings as long as possible with increased
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  costs of care for nursing homes.
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  They're seeing what it costs their parents to live the latter part of their
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  years with quality care.
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  So baby boomers and Gen Xers know the importance of continuing to work a little
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  longer than maybe they originally thought they would.
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  And just because you made the decision to retire once doesn't mean you can't un-retire.
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  Athletes and rock stars do it all the time. That's right.
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  They keep coming back for those farewell tours when they thought they were done.
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  And about 25 percent of people who stop working are going to come back to work
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  usually within a year or two so more and more people will come back to work they might take a gap,
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  because a gap year where they knock off their project list or downsize take
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  a class but then many people do realize my mind is going to mush i need to go
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  back to work in some capacity,
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  or at least volunteer in the community.
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  One of my clients had always wanted to be a podcaster.
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  So he started doing podcasting as a hobby and as a way to learn and keep sharp
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  and stay involved with his community. And he's doing a great job.
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  And he calls it his senior project.
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  I think that's great.
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  And if you love what you do, why stop? Maybe you could figure out a way to have
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  ease into a semi-retirement or consulting or project or contract role or volunteer work.
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  I think these are all such great ideas for making retirement successful for everyone.
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  And we just need to make sure that we follow these pillars and make them a part
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  of who we are before we retire so that that transition from working to retirement will be smooth as silk.
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  Yes. Caroline, I appreciate you taking the time to share with me today.
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  I know that this conversation has been fun for me and I'm sure that it has been
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  fun for our listeners as well. Oh, it's always an opportunity I enjoy having with Extension.
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  You're such an incredible resource for our state.
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  Well, and we appreciate that you will share your resources with us because it
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  gives the opportunity for people out in the state to benefit from the Alumni Career Services.
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  Yes, alumni career services are open to anyone, whether you've attended UK or not.
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  If you join the UK Alumni Association, a benefit of that membership is two individual
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  coaching sessions a year, and those can be focused on semi-retirement or encore careers.
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  I'm one of the only, I am the only person in the state that does have a certified
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  professional career coaching credential that focuses on the non-financial sides of retirement.
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  And that is an excellent benefit that you have lots and lots of people who love
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  the University of Kentucky across the state.
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  And you can always join the Alumni Association whether you have attended or not.
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  Correct. And that website is www.ukalumni.net. And we will link that in the show notes.
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  So if you would like to join and then take advantage of Caroline's services
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  and, of course, the services of her entire program, we hope that you will do so.
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  Once again, Caroline, thank you for your time.
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  Thank you. If you are just tuning in, you're listening to Talking FACS,
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  presented by Family and Consumer Sciences Extension from the Martin-Gatton College
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  Music.