If you knew you were going to live till you were 130 years old…
Would you change your current financial goals and objectives?
Would you change your career path?
Would you change your spouse? OK, so this one doesn’t belong here!
There is a new book on the market called Eternity Soup: Inside the Quest to End Aging
But Wait There Is More!
It is an interesting perspective on a common human obsession that both provides some hope and dispels a number of myths.
For anyone that ponders personal finance and preparation for retirement, its difficult to not consider the implications of an extended lifespan.
Most retirement calculations factor financial needs estimating a predetermined lifespan. Even if a monte carlo simulation indicates a 95% likelihood of meeting your retirement needs, you could blow it by up and living an extra decade let along an extra 50 years!
Today, the prospect of living till you are 130 years old is unlikely but all statistics point to a growing percentage of the population aging in excess of 100. That would be enough to cramp most retirement plans! One amazing statistic in this book is that with every day that passes the average lifespan is growing by 5 hours. For every 10 years that pass, you can tack on the need for another 2 years of retirement funding. Since 2000 the number of people who are 100 or older has doubled!
The good news is that we are living longer, the bad news is we must figure out how to pay for it.
Unfortunately, none of us have a crystal ball. But if you knew you would live an extra 50 years, what would you do different today?
If you like to be challenged to see things with a fresh perspective, if you like to learn new ideas and different concepts, sign up for my RSS feed or enter your email address here to receive updates directly to your in-box.
Whoa, imagine the implications of that! Anyone who starts considerably investing in their 20’s could easily become a billionaire… If that was the case, would there be a greater discrepancy between the rich and poor since the older people would have even more exponential benefits of the time value of money?
I would also wonder how we would feel at 100, if we would still be able to work at that point or if we would still physically limited starting at age 65 or so…
Imagine the wisdom that could be gained in a life that long… amazing.
I wonder about your quote
“Since 2000 the number of people who are 100 or older has doubled!” As the population has probably grown significantly since then so it may not be as impressive on the aggregate.
As a sidenote here’s a great video from the TED series talking about how to live to 100… simple living!
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100.html
.-= Ryan @ Planting Dollars´s last blog ..Starting an Online Business – The Waikiki Site =-.
Ryan – The power of compounding interest would be compounded for sure! I’m thinking you wouldn’t care about working at 100 if you made the right choices no later than about 40 years old. I’ve read about the blue zones before, it’s fascinating stuff. I wonder if that’s part of the reason I love sushi so much now?
Thanks for the video!
btw… dropping the job is a big scary step! More power to you, if anyone deserves to have their plan come together you are one of em’!
Hola Lean – It would be nice to live 50 years longer. The problem is we will probably have to work another 20 years to support ourselves! It’s a tough trade off, but one I guess I would take.
Any book giveaway competition opportunity?! 🙂
.-= Financial Samurai´s last blog ..Someone Always Farts In A Crowd =-.
I guess this falls in the good news/bad news category. We’ve all heard stories of people who planned their retirement savings to last until a certain age and then went on to live much longer. If our life expectancy is really trending up that rapidly this will probably become the norm (especially since we’ll have government health care to take care of everyone).
.-= David @ MBA briefs´s last blog ..The definition of FAILURE =-.
As a civil servant, I become eligible for retirement at age 50. I have an excellent retirement plan, that unlike many others is 100% funded at it’s lowest point in the last 20 years because the managers are outstanding investors. However, if people like me are going to live that long, these programs (which sadly bank on my type of professional dying much sooner)are going to have to rethink their long term as well. In fact, recent studies have shown that my colleagues have learned to defy the odds due to improved lifestyle choices and healthcare.
It also makes it more important to have a second career plan to do something for love more than money. If the second stage of life is going to be longer, we should try to enjoy it!
.-= Tracy´s last blog ..New Car or Used Car: Eco-Friendly Or Not? =-.
@Tracy – Maybe we should be doing what we enjoy from the beginning?
@FS & David – My first thought was, “how great would this be!” I figure with the knowledge, the power of compounding interest, and a longer investment horizon we would be able to build a bigger and better retirement fund with less money up front!
LLC – I saw this article, but didn’t take the time to read it! Wish I did, I updated my post to link back here.
Daily Finance ran an article (series on why health care reform was needed). The author was a doctor whose father-in-law recently past. He made a comment to the effect – he probably spent more money in the last 2 years of his life than in the previous 75.
Thanks for the comment, you’re dead on about a goal of millions. Not many overestimate the projected costs and really undercut their futures by doing so.
Nice monte reference by the way 🙂
[…] the Muda wonders what if we live to 130… How will that change our financial […]
[…] the potential advances in healthcare, it’s likely I’ll live into my 100s. How can I say […]