Mohr Keet of South Africa bungee jumped when he was 96, landing himself in the Guinness Board of World Records.

Yuichiro Miura of Japan climbed Mount Everest when he was 80.

Not everyone in the golden years of life will attempt and accomplish such extraordinary feats, but most people can take steps to keep themselves young — at least in spirit — when they reach retirement.

Unfortunately, for many people retirement planning remains fixated on finances, so when the big day arrives they’re not quite ready to segue into life’s new chapter.

After you’ve planned for the money, you still may face anxiety about retirement. You don’t know what it’s like to not work and so there is that emotional part of retirement you need to manage. Sometimes people aren’t ready in any way, shape, or form for this big change.

Here are a few ways to hang onto a little youthful exuberance while aging gracefully in retirement.

• Be a lifelong learner. Making the effort to learn about new things keeps our brains young. Read something you wouldn’t normally read. Sit in on a lecture that a college opens to the public. Some of my clients mention they took classes in philosophy or in a foreign language. It’s proven that those who are lifelong learners have a greater sense of optimism and a lower chance of dementia.

• See the world — or at least some of it. No doubt, you have plenty of places you haven’t visited — some close by, and others far away. Traveling and enjoying new experiences is a great way to keep you feeling young and enthusiastic about life. It doesn’t matter whether you head to a state park just an hour’s drive away, or you board a plane bound for Paris. Part of the fun of traveling is deciding where you want to go. The sky should be the limit. Don’t eliminate anything from your initial list just because of expense. You may be able to find bargains, and because you’re retired you can travel any time you want, which allows you to go in the off season when prices are lower.

• Remember your doctor’s advice. Activities such as enrolling in a college class can help keep you mentally young, but you want your body to cooperate, too. We’re always looking for that magic bullet, the easy and quick way to feeling younger. The truth is that those things your doctor tells you — exercise, eat a healthy diet, get the appropriate amount of sleep — are about as close to a magic bullet as you’re going to get.

People think that money is the most important aspect of retirement, but it’s really No. 2. You can have more than enough money, but if you aren’t healthy or doing the things you enjoy, the money won’t matter.

Ann Vanderslice is president and CEO of Retirement Planning Strategies. Vanderslice (www.annvanderslice.com) holds the registered financial consultant designation from the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants and the chartered retirement planning counselor designation from the College for Financial Planning.

As everyone knows, owning and operating a small business is risky. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), 50 percent of new businesses will survive five years or more. The percentage of businesses that will survive 10 or more years is only 33 percent. The probability of survival increases with the firm’s age. It is striking that the survival rates have changed very little over time. So, why do businesses fail? There are a number of reasons.

For starters, most new business owners seem to have completed little to no research before hand. When people are thinking about starting a new business, they must research the following: the industry, the market, the customer, and the competition. Many questions surround those considerations. You must completely understand the industry you wish to enter. Working in that industry, researching that sector, familiarizing yourself with the dos and don’ts of that industry is a must. If you have no prior experience in the industry in which you wish to start a business, you’re already setting yourself up for failure. Make sure you research your market. Where will you sell and how will you sell? Knowing your market, and how to reach it, is incredibly important. Research who your customer will be. Know the customer’s demographic. Complete surveys to see if in fact the person you think will be your customer, is indeed your customer. Lastly, research your competition. There are two kinds of competitors — indirect and direct. Indirect is in the same field but perhaps has a slightly different focus. For example, you are a chiropractor and I am a chiropractor, but you see prenatal patients and I see athletes. Direct competition is when we both see prenatal patients. No matter what you sell or provide the customer with, you have competition. Customers can choose to spend their money on anything they wish, so you will always have competitors. Know who they are — both currently and potentially.

Another reason why businesses fail is that they are undercapitalized from the start. That means you’re always playing catch up financially. You need to research your costs to get started. Do the numbers make sense? When you apply for a loan in the amount needed for your startup costs, make sure you are also incorporating some working capital for those first few months. Working capital is a cushion to use for the first three to six months of operating expenses. If a lender comes back to you with a lower amount than requested, make sure you reexamine the numbers for your business. If you don’t adjust the startup costs to take into account the reduced financing, then you will be playing catch up from the start. For example, consider the story a business owner who was seeking $50,000 from the lender, and had $5,000 of her own money as a down payment. The total project cost was $55,000. The lender came back and offered the client $40,000 ($10,000 less than the $50,000 loan request). That $10,000 difference in the loan really ended up hurting the client because she was undercapitalized. She never went back and reexamined the numbers to make changes to the startup costs without having the extra $10,000. This put her financially behind the eight-ball from the onset of the business.

Businesses also fail because sometimes the owners are so good at making the products or providing the services, they forget all that comes with owning a business. Having management skills is a must. You must not only know how to do the job, but also how to run a business. You have bills to pay, employees to manage, projects to oversee, and much more. Management skills involve not just managing your employees, but also your time, day-to-day operations, and your clients. Organization will help you a ton in this area. A good inventory system might be the ticket, Quick Books could be the answer, or even a calendar. Whatever will help you better manage your business is an absolute consideration before you even open the doors to doing business.

Lastly, another reason that businesses fail is that they have little or no compliance with laws and regulations. Know what is required of you by law. Do you have to have permits to operate? Do you need special licenses? Did you get your employer identification number, certificate of authority, or your entity paperwork filled out correctly? If any of these things are overwhelming to you, contact the experts. For example, filing for an LLC or a corporation can be confusing. Hire an attorney to do it properly. Once a lawyer told our office he makes more money on the people who tried to establish their entity on their own than the people who just hired him to do it in the beginning. If you feel it’s too expensive to hire an attorney, then you are probably undercapitalized. Go to the experts in the areas in which you are not an expert. Make sure you have taken all the steps possible to be prepared.

Starting a business is not impossible. The biggest thing is to seek assistance. Research everything before you dive in head first. Be as prepared as best as you can. Will you know everything? Of course not. Each year is a new learning experience of how to do business better, more efficiently, and more effectively. Don’t stop trying to learn, research, or look for better strategies.

Melissa Zomro Davis, a former small-business owner in the equine industry, is a New York State-certified business advisor at the Small Business Development Center at Onondaga Community College. Contact her at m.l.zomro@sunyocc.edu or call (315) 498-6066.