Physical challenges are also important, said Anthony, because challenging one’s body helps to stimulate the brain.
Clients with intellectual careers should be encouraged to continue pursuing their lines of research, if interested.
“The fountain of youth is nothing more than curiosity,” said Anthony. “It’s the scientist who has studied fruit flies for 43 years and says he’s barely scratched the surface. When you wake up with curiosity, it’s impossible to be old.”
How To Engage
Advisors should help clients find their purpose in retirement, said Anthony, by asking simple, open-ended questions.
“If I were to come up with the simplest retirement conversation possible, it would be something like this: “Mr. and Mrs. Client, how are we going to spend your time, and how are we going to pay for that,’” said Anthony. “Which question needs to be answered first? The answer is ‘how are you going to spend your time?’ Spending money is a reflection of how one spends their time.”
Anthony also encouraged advisors to help clients chart out their time in retirement with a weekly schedule so that they had some idea of what they would be doing with all their free time.
Advisors may also want to ask their clients about what they’ve witnessed from peers and other acquaintances and friends who have retired, encouraging them to share the good stories and the bad stories, to gain perspective on the possibilities of a life after work and the drawbacks of a poorly planned retirement.
Most importantly, advisors should feel comfortable telling clients that they don’t have to retire at 65, 67 or any time in the near future.
“There are a lot of people about to make the wrong decision, and you can help them,” said Anthony. “They’re looking to you for permission. Give it. Broaden the dialogue. ...