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If you’re in your 20s, 30s or 40s, you may not have a clear idea what a happy retirement looks like for you. Many financial advisors would tell you that’s fine, as long as you’re diligently saving and investing for your future.
After all, whether you eventually plan to spend your golden years playing golf or chasing your grandkids or traveling the country in an RV, you’ll need enough money to finance your lifestyle without the income from your 9-to-5.
Once you quit working, however, finding retirement well-being comes down to more than just what you have saved, says Wes Moss, a certified financial planner, managing partner at Capital Investment Advisors and author of “The Retire Sooner Method: The 5 Secrets Behind America’s Happiest (and Unhappiest) Retirees.”
Moss has spent years conducting research into the characteristics of happy retirees beyond the size of their nest egg — the results of which he shares in his book, which published on Sept. 1, and on his “Retire Sooner” podcast.
“As a younger financial advisor, I saw plenty of people who did reach big financial milestones and really did have plenty of money that still really had something missing,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons I started doing research on retirees and trying to find the happy ones and the unhappy ones. And along the way, I found out that the lifestyle side of the calculation takes on an enormous amount of importance.”
Moss’s research shows that certain factors are far more prevalent among those enjoying their retirement than those who aren’t. Here are three he says you can work on now to increase your odds at a happy retirement down the line.
The money still matters, so start investing early
Money alone isn’t enough to bring you fulfillment in retirement, Moss notes. But you’ll probably have a hard time making your post-work plans a reality if your retirement is underfunded.
As a general rule of thumb, Moss recommends building a portfolio of at least $1 million in investable assets, though the ideal size of your portfolio depends on factors such as the length of your retirement, other sources of income and the cost of your planned lifestyle. To that end, if you’re planning what life may look like, you can start with your anticipated expenses and do a little back-of-the napkin math.
“Say you need to spend $100,000 a year, let’s call it $8,000 or $9,000 a month. You’re getting $50,000 in Social Security between you and your spouse. Then you just have to solve for the other $50,000.”
To do that, Moss suggests applying the classic “4% rule,” which assumes that you may be able to safely withdraw 4% of your retirement portfolio each year, adjusted for inflation, without running out of money in retirement. Dividing your missing $50,000 by 4% gives you a target savings of $1.25 million.
Amassing a $1.25 million nest egg may seem difficult, but the nature of compounding returns is such that, the earlier you start, the better your chances of hitting your goal number.
A 20-year-old who sets aside $2,500 per year in a retirement portfolio and earns an 8% annualized return could theoretically expect a balance of $1.22 million by the time she turns 67, according to CNBC Make It’s compound interest calculator. Someone starting 10 years later would have to contribute about $5,500 a year to achieve the same result.
Find passions to pursue
Once they’ve stopped working, the happiest retirees find meaningful and varied ways to spend their time, Moss says. Happy retirees are far likelier to report having five or more “core pursuits” — pastimes that bring them purpose and fulfillment — than unhappy retirees, who typically report four or fewer, according to a 2025 survey conducted by CGK research in partnership with Capital Investment Advisors.
Once you’re no longer clocking in at the office, “you have to create new purpose for yourself,” Moss says. “You can’t just find it.”
For younger folks, building the potential for a happy retirement starts with understanding that your passions will be the major building blocks of your life once you’re no longer working, says Moss.
“The second step: If we accept that [these pursuits] are important, then we also accept that it takes some time and creativity to build that list out,” he says.
Beyond the things that you like to do now, start building a roster of things you haven’t done but are excited to try, or learn, if you had the extra time to devote to them. The goal, says Moss, is to arrive at retirement with a deep roster of potential ways to bring yourself joy and fulfillment.
“Getting that down on a piece of paper is a really powerful exercise,” he says.
Cultivate community
Do you have enough close friendships? Among the retirees surveyed by Moss, the answer to the question is a key marker of happiness. Among happy retirees, 81% said they do, compared with just 38% of retirees who identified as unhappy.
“In order to have a happy retirement, we have to be able to keep that community at a certain size,” Moss says, adding that those with five or more close friendships show higher chance at a happier retirement. “If you have two or three friends, or fewer, it makes it really hard to have a happy retirement. Period.”
Moss’s research is consistent with the results of an ongoing Harvard University study that began in 1938, which finds that positive relationships keep people happier and healthier, and help them live longer.
Other research also suggests that changing opportunities and life circumstances make it trickier to make friends as you age. A 2013 meta-analysis from a group of Germany-based psychology researchers, which examined 277 studies, showed that social networks grow through early adulthood and then steadily decrease.
You can still make new friends once you retire, Moss says. But maintaining your friendships and cultivating new relationships when you’re younger can come with a major payoff later in life, he says. The social aspects of your life, he says, are just as important to establish early on as socking money away in your 401(k).
“These are lifelong, holistic habits,” he says. “Put yourself in a great financial position, and also to have an extraordinarily enjoyable retirement, you want to be doing all this stuff in your 30s and your 40s.”
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