The Retirement Plan No One Talks About: Why Health Matters as Much as Your Super
Why health should be part of every retirement plan, especially for women.
We spend decades preparing for retirement. We talk about superannuation balances, investment strategies, debt reduction, and whether we will have “enough”. Enough to stop working. Enough to travel. Enough to enjoy life. In my corporate world, working within one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, these conversations are constant. Helping people feel financially secure in retirement is a priority, and rightly so.
But there is a question I rarely hear asked. What is the point of financial freedom if your health cannot support the life you have planned? This question is personal for me.
Dad’s story
My dad was ahead of his time. A blue-collar worker in New Zealand, he had superannuation long before it was common. He and my mum made smart, consistent decisions. They paid off their mortgage, upgraded their vehicles, and had a clear vision for retirement: settling into the family homestead, spending time together, and enjoying a slower pace of life.
Then, at 60, he was offered redundancy after more than two decades with the same company. Financially, it was a strong position from which to step into retirement. On paper, everything was in place. But one part of the plan had been overlooked. His health.
At 64, just four years into retirement, he passed away from a massive heart attack. That reality has stayed with me ever since. Because what I see now, both professionally and through my work in nutritional medicine with midlife women, is that we are very good at planning the financial side of retirement. But we rarely plan for the physical capacity to live it.
Retirement is not just a financial milestone. It is also a physiological transition. And for many women, that transition comes with additional layers of complexity.
The gender gap and its impact
Across Australia, women retire with significantly less superannuation than men. The gender super gap is well documented and is driven by a range of factors that accumulate across a lifetime. Women are more likely to take time out of the workforce to raise children or care for family members. They are more likely to work part time. Many work in industries that are traditionally lower paid. Some experience divorce or separation, financial abuse, or other life circumstances that disrupt financial stability.
There is also a health dimension that is rarely discussed in economic terms. Midlife health changes, particularly around menopause, can significantly affect women’s ability to remain in the workforce during the very years when superannuation contributions are often at their peak. Fatigue, sleep disruption, brain fog, mood changes, metabolic shifts, and rising cardiovascular risk are common experiences for many women in their forties and fifties.
When these factors combine, the result is that many women approach retirement with fewer financial buffers. Which makes the health side of the equation even more important. Because retirement lifestyle is shaped by two forms of capital. Financial capital helps fund retirement. Health capital determines how much of that life you are actually able to live.
Energy influences whether you travel or stay home.
Metabolic health influences whether you maintain independence or manage chronic disease.
Cognitive health shapes how fully you engage with life, relationships, and purpose.
Yet very few people prepare for this side of retirement with the same level of intention they apply to their finances.
What if we approached retirement planning differently?
What if, alongside financial advice, we also asked questions like:
What will my health look like in 10 or 20 years?
Am I building the strength, resilience, and metabolic health I will need later in life?
How am I supporting my brain health, not just my bank balance?
What habits today are shaping the version of me who will eventually retire?
Because the reality is this. Your retirement lifestyle is not determined at retirement. It is built, slowly and consistently, in the years leading up to it. Midlife is not the beginning of decline. It is a decision point. It is the stage where we either continue along a trajectory that leads toward fatigue, metabolic dysfunction, and chronic disease, or we intervene with intention and create a different outcome.
The women I work with are not waiting until retirement to think about their health. They are stabilising their energy, improving metabolic health, supporting hormonal balance, and building sustainable habits that will carry them forward into the next phase of life.
Because retirement should not be the beginning of managing decline. It should be the reward for building a life you are well enough to enjoy.
Perhaps it is time we expand the definition of retirement planning. Not just wealth accumulation. But health accumulation. Because the quality of our later years will be shaped by both. Financial planning helps ensure we have the resources to retire. Health planning helps ensure we have the capacity to enjoy it.
Where to start
For many women, the challenge is not motivation. It is knowing where to start.
Midlife can bring a confusing mix of symptoms, conflicting advice, and a sense that something is changing in the body without a clear roadmap for what to do next. Many women know they should be paying more attention to their health, but they are not always sure which steps matter most, or who to speak to for guidance that makes sense for them. This is a conversation worth having earlier, not later.
So I am curious.
When you think about retirement planning, how much attention have you given to your health alongside your finances?
Do you think we should be talking more openly about health as part of preparing for retirement?
If this is something you have been thinking about but are unsure where to begin, I share practical information and guidance for midlife women through my work in nutritional and lifestyle medicine. You can find more resources and information at my website, or start with a single conversation.
Because preparing for retirement should not just be about reaching the finish line.
It should also be about arriving there well.
About the Author
Mary-Leigh Scheerhoorn is a Nutritional Medicine Practitioner and Accredited Metabolic Balance Practitioner and the founder of Genesis Health and Lifestyle Solutions. She works with professional midlife women experiencing fatigue, weight gain, burnout and hormonal disruption, helping them restore energy, rebalance metabolism and regain confidence in their bodies through personalised nutritional and lifestyle medicine.