'Retirement is not a math problem': Money expert reveals aspects of a happy and successful retirement that are often overlooked — how many are you ignoring?

“Just stop it, people, if you’re just focusing on the calculators and all that stuff,” Christine Benz said on an episode of Morningstar’s podcast “The Long View” posted Sept. 17. “You should do that but ‘don’t stop there’ is the point … there are several aspects of having a happy and successful retirement that maybe are under-discussed.”

Overlooked in the retirement equation

In writing “How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement,” Benz sat down with other personal finance aficionados. They include Ramit Sethi, host of Netfix’s “How to Get Rich,” who talks about optimizing happiness, and HerMoney podcast host Jean Chatzky on how women need to approach retirement differently.

“People might be surprised to see a book from me that is half non-financial — maybe not even half,” Benz told MarketWatch. “But I feel like people are overly focused on the financial and not enough on the non-financial.”

To be clear, as Morningstar’s director of personal finance and retirement planning, Benz doesn’t suggest you ditch attempts to calculate or extrapolate your portfolio. In fact, one of her co-authored books is the “Morningstar Guide to Mutual Funds.”

And to that end, “How to Retire” does unpack some financial strategies for retirement security. On the subject of withdrawal rates from a portfolio, Benz points to the wisdom of tweaking them on a year-to-year basis based on the health of your holdings.

But she also stresses the need to assess and then embrace the non-financials that make retirement well worth the adventure, a lesson she learned while penning her new book. On the Morningstar podcast, Benz talked about how doctor and personal finance expert Jordan Grumet impacted her as she crafted the final chapter.

“He talks about what he calls the ‘Big P’ purpose, which are the really aspirational things like climbing Machu Picchu or starting a foundation.”