We don’t have to think of retirement as a time of inactivity and decline. We once heard an active eighty-year-old describe his contemporaries as ‘waiting to die’. Nowadays, the idea of retirement is far from that. It is about using the opportunity to achieve one’s full potential. There is optimism. and one chooses a personally satisfying level of activity. It doesn’t have to be restricted to recreation and other ways of having fun. It can include self-discovery and service to others. It can also include an element of work but with lower priority than before.

The concept of lifestyle portfolio captures this idea. Here is how to use it. Think of the areas of your life as shown in figure below. How much time are you currently spending in each of the quadrants? What would the ideal distribution of time look like for you?

Another way to see things is to thing about change. You can use the figure below. What are the things you are doing now and enjoy doing? Since these activities satisfy you, continue them or even increase time spent. What are the things you are doing but hate doing? Besides the obvious things, this could include activities that increase your stress level. Cut these out entirely, reduce (e.g. paid work), or get others to do it for you (e.g. managing tenants if you are a property investor).

What are you not doing which you wish you could? E.g. learn to fly an aircraft, travel to distant lands. Put in your strongest effort to add these activity. This change will probably make the biggest difference to your quality of life.

You can combine the two figures above. For example, in the area of family and friends what change do you want?