The Retirement Risk That’s Hard To Quantify

You can prepare for retirement in a lot of ways.

You can save. Pay off the house. Build an income plan. Think through taxes, investments, Social Security, Medicare, and the risks that could throw things off course.

Those things matter a lot. We spend a lot of our time helping people with them. But financial health is only one piece of a much bigger picture. And there is one retirement risk that probably doesn’t get enough attention:

The connection between our relationships and our physical health.

The research is hard to ignore:

In 2015, researchers pooled data from more than 3.4 million people to study this dynamic. Social Isolation and Loneliness were associated with a 29% & 26% increased likelihood of mortality, respectively.  

Other research has connected poor social relationships with a 29% greater risk of heart disease and a 32% greater risk of stroke. 

There is also evidence connecting social isolation with cognitive decline and dementia.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development has followed people across adulthood for generations. Most people would think that things like cholesterol and blood pressure in middle age would be among the strongest predictors of who would be healthy later in life. It turns out though that satisfaction with relationships at age 50 turned out to be a better predictor of health age 80.

That doesn’t mean relationships magically override genetics, exercise or medical care, but it certainly seems to belong on the list.

Valuable Takeaways

In past chapters, a lot of our social lives were built without us really trying.

You go to work. Someone stops by your office. You talk to a client. You grab lunch with a coworker. You see the same people every Tuesday morning.

They aren’t all deep friendships, but those little interactions add up.

Then retirement comes along and, almost overnight, much of that disappears.

That doesn’t mean retirement has to lead to loneliness. Far from it. Retirement can create more time for family, friendships, travel, hobbies and community.

But it helps tremendously if we approach this part of life intentionally.

For perhaps the first time in decades, you become responsible for creating much more of your own social structure.

The same is true within our closest relationships.

For married couples especially, it’s easy for the world to gradually get smaller over the years. Your spouse becomes your best friend. You do most things together. Other friendships become less frequent.

There is something wonderful about that kind of closeness.

But we probably shouldn’t ask one relationship to carry the entire weight of our social lives.

Widows & Widowers feel this impact stronger than anyone.

A Harvard-led study followed more than 12,000 married Americans and found that after losing a spouse, the surviving spouse’s risk of death rose sharply. The increase was greatest during the first three months after the loss.

Grief itself takes an enormous physical and emotional toll. Having a healthy support system could be the biggest variable in helping us through that chapter and beyond.

Here are some simple action steps

• Name three people you’d call who aren’t your spouse or your kids. Then take the initiative to be a better friend to them going forward.
• Find something with a schedule. A weekly visit somewhere. A church group. A club. Something that forces you out of the house.
• Build together with your spouse AND separately. A shared social life is good. Two independent ones that co-mingle is even better.
• Get in the same room. A text is a starting point, but it doesn’t hold the same weight as a visit.

Putting it all together

Of course, you know better than anyone how much family matters. But old friends matter too. New friends matter. Church, neighbors, volunteer work, hobbies, clubs, and communities all contribute to our health & our happiness.

We usually put so much emphasis on financial health (Rightfully so. That one matters too!) But mental health, physical health, and relationship health need to be prioritized just as much, if not more!

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Jeremy Finger, Founder

Jeremy grew up in Nichols, South Carolina, where fishing with his dad sparked a lifelong interest in how money shapes our lives. Since becoming a financial advisor in 1996, he’s helped people navigate life’s biggest moments—and today, with Riverbend, he offers a calm, personal approach that helps clients focus on what matters.

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