Anthony Boateng, FCMA, CGMA, Npontu Technologies’ chair, explores why retirement planning is about much more than saving money and illustrates the nonfinancial ways that professionals can invest in themselves to prepare for and maintain a sustainable and fulfilling retirement.
Boateng introduces his model for retirement planning, including four main areas he considers essential for growth and relevance into retirement years.
He also suggests several strategies for optimising networking and building deeper relationships, and he explains why a sharp mind matters the closer we get to retirement.
“At 50 and beyond … you are no longer just working for today,” Boateng said. “You are building the intellectual foundation for the next 20, 30, or 40 years.”
What you’ll learn from this episode:
- Why preparing for retirement is about more than saving money.
- One critical question for reframing our approach to retirement planning.
- Four pillars that can help steer a fulfilling, purposeful retirement.
- The interplay between relationships and wellbeing.
- Three approaches for authentic, meaningful networking.
- Why intellectual growth matters more as we age.
Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:
— To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.
Transcript
Steph Brown: Hi, listeners. Welcome to the FM podcast. This episode is all about preparing for retirement and why it’s about much more than saving money. Speaking on this topic is Anthony Boateng, FCMA, CGMA, Npontu Technologies’ chair, a leading technology consultancy and IT service provider based in Africa. Anthony also has extensive experience in governance, strategy, and financial management roles across sectors.
On this episode, we will be discussing key considerations for finding fulfilment in retirement, tips for building a supportive social network, and how to ensure we age into significance, not obscurity.
Welcome, Anthony.
One of your thoughts about retirement is that it’s about much more than just saving money. In a few words, why do you think it’s important to consider more than just money when it comes to retirement?
Anthony Boateng: I think, for most of modern history, retirement was just a brief chapter of our lives, relatively short working life. Today, the reality has changed completely. We are living longer, healthier, and more dynamic lives than any generation before us. Someone turning 50 today may have 30 to 40 years of purposeful living still ahead.
Retirement is no longer a finish line. It is an entire life phase that demands intentional planning and a clear understanding of what it means to thrive.
One more point is that what’s often overlooked is that this longevity revolution isn’t just limited to wealthy nations. Over the past say 50 or so years, life expectancy has risen dramatically across the developing world as well, due to improvements in sanitation, nutrition, basic healthcare, education, etc. So, countries that once lived very shortly in terms of early mortality, now routinely see people living into their 70s and beyond.
I think many people still approach retirement planning as a purely financial exercise — save more money and you’ll be fine. But a fulfilling life is never built on money alone. It depends just as much on the sharpness of your mind, the strength of your relationships, and the vitality of your body. Without these, even the healthiest pension feels hollow. Preparing for retirement, therefore, isn’t just about funding a longer life. It’s about equipping yourself to live that longer life as well.
Brown: I liked your comment that you made about retirement, or specifically a question: “Who will I be when I retire?”
What does that question mean to you?
Boateng: I think usually we make the mistake in thinking that we are what we do and this is because for most of our adult life, work quietly answers that question for us. It structures our days, shapes our sense of usefulness, and provides recognition, challenge, and community. And when work fades, that borrowed identity often fades with it.
This question then forces a deeper reckoning. When the meetings stop, the emails stop flowing, and the external validation disappears: What remains? Who are you when your calendar suddenly empties and you are no longer needed in the same way?
For me, this person is an invitation rather than a threat. It asks whether retirement will be a period of contraction or expansion. Whether I retreat into comfort and familiarity or grow into purpose, contribution, and meaning. It challenges me to define myself not by what I did, but by how I think, how I connect, how I learn, and how I serve.
Money can support a lifestyle. Only identity sustains a sense of wealth.
Brown: You’ve come up with some pillars and capitals you believe are essential to a fulfilling retirement, and they create the acronym FISH. What are those pillars?
Boateng: Retirement, as I said, is not a single event. It is a new stage of life that requires a more holistic approach. From that insight, the FISH framework was born.
While fish has always been my preferred source of protein, I never imagined it would become a model for preparing meaningfully for later life. Now, every fish meal I take comes with a quiet reminder to think more comprehensively about the retirement journey.
The F stands for financial capital. This steers you to provide stability, freedom, and choice in terms of the monetary aspect of preparing for your pension. The I is intellectual capital, which keeps you relevant, curious, and mentally active. Whilst the S is your social capital; this delves into your networking, your connectedness, and protects your health more powerfully than almost any medicine. Then you have the H, which is your health capital. This gives you the strength and vitality to enjoy everything else you’ve built.
But neglect any one of these, and the whole system weakens.
Brown: I’d like to focus on what you refer to as “the social capital” of retirement planning. There’s obviously a lot of concerns about loneliness in retirement and not building relationships and how that becomes much more difficult when we leave the workplace.
How does having a supportive social network support other components of retirement?
Boateng: I think the social capital is often dismissed as nice to have, but not essential. The reality is far more profound. Your social network isn’t just about companionship or weekend plans. It’s a life-extending medical intervention disguised as friendship, I put it.
The science is unequivocal. The strongest predictor of long-term health, happiness, and resilience isn’t wealth or status. It’s the quality of your relationships. One of the clearest sources of evidence comes from a study called the Harvard Study of Adult Development — the longest running study of human flourishing ever conducted. Its findings are striking. It states that people with strong social connections live seven to ten years longer, and loneliness increases the risk of premature death by 26%. Social isolation raises that risk by 29%, and social disconnection increases mortality risk by 50%.
So, every meaningful connection you invest in literally extends your life. But social capital doesn’t just support health. It multiplies intellectual and financial capital as well. Opportunities flow through people. Relationships expose you to ideas, information, mentorship, and support that no book or investment account can provide on its own. Having a good network might lead you to a possible consultancy contract because you get exposed to people and they get familiar with your intellect. How you relate. How you make difficult issues very simple to understand.
That positions you and creates visibility in terms of your capabilities. At 50 and beyond, this becomes even more important. Careers shift, children leave home, roles change. Without deliberate investment, social network shrinks rapidly. Exactly when they matter most for health, fulfilment, and longevity.
Social capital tends to be the inner spoke in the wheel. It brings in financial capital, if you’re well connected. It gives you the health vitality that you need. And, also, it helps improve your intellectual capital. That’s how social capital interconnects in the FISH model.
Brown: Weekend friends is, I guess, a critical distinction when it comes to relationships as we move through an increasingly digital era, which makes it easier to connect with more people than we could years ago. But we’re also more reliant on technology to engage with other people, which can also make it harder to build and maintain deep, valuable relationships.
What two or three tips would you suggest to make networking less awkward and tedious and more purposeful? Or, in a more general sense, what’s your advice for those struggling to move beyond shallow interactions?
Boateng: The first is, usually, networking feels awkward when it’s transactional. When the unspoken question is: What can this person do for me? Humans are remarkably sensitive to intention, and few things repel connections faster than perceived self-interest.
The solution isn’t to network harder, but to network differently. First, reframe networking as curiosity rather than promotion. Enter into conversations to learn, not impress. I think being yourself in terms of asking genuine questions. Ask thoughtful questions. Listen more than you speak. People remember how you made them feel, not how clever you sounded.
I think this helps in forging deeper connections than superficial ones. Secondly, prioritise shared contests over cold encounters. What that means to me is networking becomes far more natural when it grows out of environments you already enjoy. Learning groups, professional communities, volunteering, sport, or shared interests.
Repeated exposure turns strangers into acquaintances and then acquaintances into allies. Finally, play the long game, as I put it. The strongest networks are built slowly and genuinely with more generosity around that. Offer insight, make introductions, share opportunities without immediate expectations. And, over time, goodwill compounds, and networking stops feeling like work and starts feeling like relationship building.
So, the whole idea is not to make it transactional, but to deepen the relationship.
Brown: Thanks so much for sharing that advice with listeners.
The finance profession is one that requires a commitment to lifelong learning. This is something you state as fundamental, especially as we get to age 50 and above to ensure that we age into significance, not obscurity.
From your perspective, why is it more important to prioritise intellectual growth when we’re closer to retirement than early on in our careers?
Boateng: Because of the different generations that we have now.
We have those who were born around the First World War still alive; people around [90] and almost 100 [years old] still there. We have the baby boomers. We also have Generation X, who are gradually moving away from the helm of affairs. We have the millennials taking over. And we now have [Generation Z] forming a lot of the workforce.
So, when you’re approaching 50, you can imagine where you’re placing yourself within this sphere. You might learn how to become more relevant if you work on your intellectual growth. Focusing on this gave me some form of deep learning into the relationship between knowledge, intelligence, understanding, and wisdom. I think a good appreciation of the difference would help position someone getting much closer to 50 in terms of where to find themselves.
You might learn how a new regulatory system works, and this is knowledge. You then apply it in your role. This becomes intelligence. Over time, you understand its broader impact on clients, industries, and strategy. This is understanding. Eventually, you guide others, anticipate future challenges, and shape best practice. This is wisdom.
Now, wisdom doesn’t appear overnight. It grows because the roots, stem, and branches were deliberately cultivated. At 50 and beyond, this progression becomes critical. You are no longer just working for today. You are building the intellectual foundation for the next 20, 30, or 40 years. The question shifts from, “Will I retire?” to “Who will I be when I retire?” Back to that question.
Will you retire as a trusted expert with influence and insight? Or as someone whose skills quietly became obsolete? Intellectual capital is one of your greatest retirement assets. It enables advisory roles, portfolio careers, mentoring, and purposeful engagement long after full-time work ends. It allows you to age into significance, not obscurity.
Brown: Thanks for a really interesting conversation on preparing for the journey into retirement and some of the key ways we can start to think about how to reframe our identity along the way.
Do you have any final thoughts you would like to share with listeners?
Boateng: We should tend to be holistic in terms of preparing for retirement. If we do it well, it’s much more enjoyable when you’re retiring, because your life becomes much more purposeful than it being more mechanistic.
I think retirement shouldn’t be seen as the dead end of life: It should rather be seen as an opportunity to make your mark and leave a good inheritance to the generation you’re leaving behind.
Brown: Thanks for a great discussion, Anthony. Thank you for being on the podcast.
Boateng: Thank you, Steph, for having me.
