HABITS FOR A HAPPY RETIREMENT
Introduction
Retirement is undeniably an important phase of our lives, and probably the most important. It is the culmination of preceding phases such as training and income creation, and if we are not ready for this phase, life can be traumatic.
Retirement requires planning, which is the result of good habits. Our advice to retirees and people who are planning to retire is to develop good habits that will put them on the road to a happy retirement. From our interaction with people on the point of retirement and others who have already retired, we were able to conclude that this approach is practical and logical, with positive, tangible results.
Many factors play a role in a happy retirement. In the USA, a study listed good health, financial security, loving friends and family and a purposeful or planned retirement.
A happy retirement is not a given. You need to have personal goals and pursue them with the desire to adopt the right habits. It often demands that you are willing to change some of your established habits. In your quest for personal happiness, your specific habits will be unique
.
How are Habits Formed?
There are different theories on how new habits are successfully formed. At Bovest, we resonate with James Clear’s theory outlined in his book Atomic Habits (Penguin Random House, London, 2018, pp47-48), which gives four steps to success:
Step 1: Your cue would be your goal or desire.
Step 2: You have the craving to put it into action.
Step 3: What is your response to your action?
Step 4: What is your reward?
Let’s look at an example of habit forming:
- Step 1: A person who is retiring aims to seek value for money – they are continually analysing their environment and adjusting their budgets and monthly expenditure on personal needs.
- Step 2: Research is done into which expenditure offers the best value for the money available.
- Step 3: The purchase is adjusted, and the retiree is satisfied that value for money has been obtained.
- Step 4: As this has been done within budget, the reward is that funds are available for other planned purchases. If the purchase was a bargain, the retiree can boast about it and be praised by friends for being a bargain hunter!
By repeating these four steps, we will become more at ease with this behaviour until we have formed the habits of healthy financial management fairly easily.

