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- Robert Laura, 24 Mar 2026
Applying the Power of Curiosity to Your Retirement Strategy — and Your Vision Care
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Bob Laura, Founder of Retirement Coaches Association
Most people approach retirement planning by focusing on the typical financial questions.
How much money do I need? When can I actually stop working? How long will my savings last?
But after decades of working with retirees and those preparing for this next chapter, I’ve come to believe that truly comprehensive and proactive retirement planning doesn’t begin with answers to these mainstream questions. Rather, a better starting point is curiosity.
Curiosity is what transforms retirement from just a financial event into a life design opportunity, allowing you to move from simply leaving the workplace to intentionally creating a life filled with vitality, independence, and purpose.
Perhaps most importantly, curiosity is what can help protect retirees from surprises or falling into common traps and pitfalls — things that can quietly undermine your confidence, your health, and your freedom.
Curiosity is the natural human drive that helps keep us engaged, our brains sharp, and our perspectives open.
In retirement, curiosity becomes especially important because structure, novelty, and external motivation often disappear when work ends. Without it, retirees can default to passivity and routine that lacks meaning. With it, retirement can become a period of exploration and opportunity.
Curiosity pushes you to ask, “What will my days look like?” instead of just, “What will my income be?” It encourages you to imagine not just how long you might live, but also how well you want to live. We are living in a longevity era which means retirement is no longer brief. For many, it’s a 25- to 35-year chapter that calls for personal reinvention.
That’s why curious retirees tend to flourish. They explore new hobbies, cultivate relationships, and stay mentally and physically active. But curiosity also matters when it comes to the more practical side of retirement, like understanding the benefits you’re leaving behind, and how to adjust your coverage.
For decades, many workers receive benefits automatically through their employer: health insurance, dental coverage, vision care, and wellness programs. These benefits are typically bundled, subsidized, and something most workers never think twice about.
Then retirement arrives — sometimes by choice, sometimes unexpectedly. In either case, it’s like stepping off what I call "The Benefits Cliff,” where the infrastructure you once relied upon simply disappears.
Many retirees assume their Medicare coverage will replace the benefits they once relied on. It’s an essential foundation, but it does not cover everything. Annual eye exams, glasses, most dental care, and hearing aids, for instance, are typically absent in basic Medicare coverage.* Unfortunately, many retirees discover this only after they need care and receive a bill.
That’s where curiosity becomes a safety rail. Instead of assuming Medicare will cover everything you need, curious pre-retirees can begin to explore and ask:
Questions like these help pre-retirees begin to explore replacement options instead of reacting to unexpected expenses, especially for protecting key senses like your vision.
Vision’s Essential Role to Retirement
Within the Retirement Coaches Association, when we comprehensively talk about retirement, conversations should include how to maintain independence, identity, and purpose. Many of the activities that matter most — things like driving to see grandchildren, traveling, reading, and pursuing passions — depend on one critical sense: vision.
As we age, our eyes naturally change, and that’s where curiosity matters here again. Rather than waiting for vision changes or problems to arise, you can start by asking the right questions now:
These aren't small questions. When vision declines, so can the activities that keep you independent, connected, and engaged in the life you've built. Protecting your vision helps protect all of that.
Curiosity itself may support healthy aging. Research suggests curiosity is associated with cognitive engagement and ongoing learning over time.¹
Curiosity can also encourage people to ask questions, seek out information, and pay closer attention to changes in their health, which are all important parts of aging well.
And when you apply that curiosity to your health, particularly your vision, you discover what most retirement plans miss: sensory assets matter as much as financial ones. Your vision connects you to your environment, enables safe mobility, supports cognitive engagement, and keeps you socially connected.
Use curiosity as prevention, not reaction. Ask yourself now: What can I do to protect the life I want later? For your vision, explore a VSP® Individual Vision Plan — customizable coverage starting at just $13 a month. Enroll today and use your benefits the same day. Be curious. Be proactive. Be ready.
¹Kidd, C., & Hayden, B. Y. (2015). The psychology and neuroscience of curiosity. Neuron, 88(3), 449–460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.09.010 (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
*Check your Medicare Plan to see if your vision care needs are covered and/or if a VSP Individual Vision Plan is right for you. VSP Individual Vision Plans does not coordinate benefits.
Information received through VSP Individual Vision Plans channels is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, medical recommendations, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your eye doctor, physician, or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
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