Happy retired couples are also financially healthy

Retirement is full of life upheavals and new activities. Finances also tend to change.

Understanding your options for living in retirement and spending long-saved money may be more complicated than mastering pickleball, yet couples who navigate all of this change together tend to be financially healthier than those who delegate to one person or ignore the financial changes.

The first year of retirement for even long-term couples is challenging, requiring two people to adapt to new schedules after a lifetime of working. Success, both financially and with your mate, is possible by acknowledging this transition and accepting that you will have to work out the kinks as you ease into your new life.

Remember, this is a process — retirement is a continuously evolving state, not a destination.

What should you do to be sure you navigate retirement as a happy couple? Start the conversations now. Look at the topics that successful couples asked one another in order to become successful retirees:

Open-ended questions that get to the root of your wishes are helpful to ponder separately and together. By talking about them more than a year before you retire, they can evolve, and your vision for retirement together will become clearer.

Here are some questions to get the conversation rolling:

Stay on top of your finances by monitoring them together. In many couples, one spouse assumes the primary responsibility for managing the household finances. While you are enjoying a regular income from your jobs, it’s easy to become accustomed to a high standard of living without much focus on spending. Talk about how much money you have available and how you will adjust your spending if necessary.

Both spouses should understand their financial situation and regularly discuss it. Then, you can deal with changes as they come up. Plus, studies have shown that couples with long-term financial happiness have joint financial discussions.

Everyone talks about how, post-retirement, there will be time to relax, practice hobbies and enjoy life more. However, you

will need to adapt emotionally after spending decades working, when you may have relied heavily on co-workers for a social life. Now, it’s critical to reach out to old friends, new friends and neighbors; don’t expect a spouse to give all the fulfillment you need.

Partners should not feel they have to spend less time with their friends in order to spend more time with a spouse. Even in retirement, couples take some separate vacations, pursue different hobbies and find time to be home alone. This takes some planning and discussion but contributes to the long-term health and happiness of your marriage.

Discuss where you want to live long before you retire. Do you like your current community? Maybe you want to downsize? Move to a 55-plus community? Near more family?

Don’t be surprised if your ideas are not perfectly aligned. This is why talking ahead of time matters. You may think you are on the same page but discover that you have different ideas.

Establishing where you will live is one thing when you’re healthy and active. But you also need to discuss what happens if one of you is disabled, or if both of you can no longer care for your home. Think out loud now about the future so that you understand what your partner wants if a major physical change arises.

Being together through the “golden years” means being prepared financially and emotionally, and investing in yourself and in your partnership.