We receive many questions from our readers and clients on retirement planning, and the subject has become even more popular as the first wave of the baby boom generation enters the retirement years. Many more will soon follow.

Most retirement questions revolve around how much money you need to retire, and the best way to generate a steady, comfortable income after you have left your working life behind. But Pat’s answers sometimes involve more than money.

Pat certainly has a clear perspective on how to maximize your retirement income (see for instance his discussion on dividends and retirement—view the video here.) But the quality of your retirement depends on other decisions as well. Here is a replay of the recent video in which Pat explains that, in planning for a happy retirement, time is just as important as money.

Q: Pat, we hear a lot these days about how much money people need to retire on. What do you tell your Wealth Management clients when they ask you about this?

Pat McKeough: I can help them guess—and it’s basically a guess—how much money they’ll make on their investments over a long period of time. We take a conservative value and you don’t really go too far wrong when you do that. But the thing is that you don’t know how much money you’ll need, because you don’t know what you’ll be doing. You don’t know how you’ll be spending your money or your time.

So I advise people, when they ask how much money they’ll need, to start by doing a journal of every nickel they now spend in some lengthy period of time. Then go back and think: is this an expenditure I want to continue? Is it something I need more of? Is it something I can do without?

Some of the things you’ll do in retirement will require you to spend more money. For instance, many people want to travel more when they retire. But some changes you make in retirement can cut your need for money, lack as the end of the need to drive the car to the office every day. There are things that add to your budget and things that reduce it.

Another thing to think about, too, is that people are living longer all the time, especially if they stay active. So I advise people again that, never mind how much you’re going to make on your investments, think of something you can do during the day.

It probably won’t be as tiring as your career may have been, but it should give you something you’ll take pride in, something that you’ll enjoy doing. This could be volunteer work, obviously, but it can also be consulting. It can be related to the arts, to music, to cooking, and to filling in gaps in your knowledge.

The most satisfied seniors and retirees I see these days are almost as active as they were back when they were working. Maybe they don’t have quite as much money, but they have more time to do things for themselves. And, when they do things for themselves, they often like the final product better than what they might get from an employee or a contractor.

So, to sum up, retirement planning is something you should start to think about long before you retire. But don’t get the idea that you have to come up with a complete answer to it ahead of time, and don’t confine your planning strictly to the financial side. The abundant free time you’ll have in retirement could turn out to be a great asset, both from the financial point of view, and from the personal happiness and well-being it can deliver.

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How do you plan to use your free time in retirement? If you are already retired, has your use of your free time changed from what you expected to do with it? Do you have any comments or warnings for those who are about to retire? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. Click here.