After all those years of raising a family and leading a productive career, retirement has finally arrived. But is disappearing to a remote island beach really the best way to live out your final years? A new study from the University of Queensland in Australia has found that if you want to live for as long as possible after retiring, it’s important to live as part of a community. The chances of dying within six years of stopping work was two percent for study participants who were members of two or more social groups, like a church congregation, book club, or exercise group. If they left one group, their risk of dying during the study increased to five percent, and it rose to twelve percent if they left both groups. Lead researcher Niklas Steffens said that in retirement, social planning may be as important as financial and medical planning. “If you don’t belong to any group," Steffens says, "join one.” About.com Expert Dr. David Katz cautioned that it’s possible that, “Individuals prone to ill health, physical or mental, were less social as a result. (…) Still, the study reminds us of the importance of meaningful human interactions to our well-being." | 
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