Business of Well-being

Retiring Well by Retiring with Wellness

Corporate wellness is impossible without a workforce dedicated to personal wellness, where there is a shared goal - by employers and employees alike - to achieving something greater, something better. That something involves reaching retirement in prime physical - and fiscal - strength, so workers can be just as active in this newest chapter of their lives.


To achieve that goal, and for it to be sustainable across a multitude of years, we need a more robust definition of both retirement and individual health; because the former is not (nor should it be) an invitation for lethargy, while the latter does not cease upon the receipt of a gold watch and the bestowal of various plaques and awards.

If we educate employees about the benefits of retirement, in their entirety, we markedly improve the chances for these people to take better care of themselves and their finances. Indeed, the sooner this process begins - the faster we are to adopt new programs and follow credible advice - the more likely we will experience a retirement renaissance, where people have the opportunity to engage their minds and their bodies during this transition.

I write these words from experience, where I run the Retirement Income Blog, which gives users the latest news and opinion about everything from the status of the Social Security Trust Fund to the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union to individual retirement planning.


I also offer this statement with the knowledge that there is a retirement crisis in this country, which is a metaphor for the overall health of the body politic; that if we take one for granted - if we ignore the warning signs of one - the more likely we are to dismiss the challenges of the other. We retire, just as we work, at risk to ourselves and our families - unless we change this situation for the good of all.

To repeat: Corporate wellness is inseparable from personal wellness, which is indivisible from fiscal wellness. For example: If an employee is in poor health, he cannot do his job; and if he cannot do his job, the coworkers on his team cannot do theirs; and if one employee can disrupt an organization, and that same individual can exhaust his savings on medical care for a preventable condition, how can that person even have the means to eventually retire? The question is rhetorical, of course, because retirement will be as illusive as the most fantastical story.

Having this discussion is critical because it can transform a passive workforce into an engine of efficiency and productivity. It can incentivize people to see beyond the daily exercises of work, and to embrace the exercise of physical exertion and fiscal effort.

Achieving these goals will make retirement more probable, and its related activities more possible - and fun. We must make these issues a corporate priority, so they can become a personal priority, too.

Let us travel this road to wellness, in good health and great spirits.

About the Author

Larry Klein The founder of RetirementIncome.net, Larry Klein is a seasoned writer, financial commentator and retirement expert.

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