Belonging in retirement

Belonging to social groups can be an important factor in retirement. 

I read some recent research that tracked the health and well-being of a sample of people in the 6-year period following their retirement.It turns out that belonging to social groups is a good thing.

Specifically, mortality rates fell significantly if people maintained contact with the social groups that they belonged to before retirement.

Intuitively, membership of a social group can make you feel good about yourself. It can also allow you to influence other people in a positive way which can also feed back into your personal well-being. Think of the social groups you belong to and the ways in which you benefit.

It also seems useful to belong to groups that share a common thread rather than groups that are incompatible. Intuitively, this commonality may further help you to build closer friendships, and connect people together.

Retirement: You won’t know what it is like until you get there.