I realize that I write and speak a lot about longevity. But I only do so because it’s so very important in planning your retirement.
A recent video of mine highlighted longevity as the largest of the 5 major retirement risks. Why?
Because the longer you live, the more likely the risks of inflation, investment losses, higher health costs and tax increases are to happen.
According to Social Security, half of all woman aged 65 today will live to or beyond age 84. But the longer people live, the more likely they are to last into their 90’s. Let me repeat that because it is very important. The longer you live, the more likely you will last into your 90’s!
Once that same woman hits age 84, she’s likely to live another 7 plus years. At age 91, there’s a 50% probability that she’ll be blowing out candles at age 96. And if you’ll indulge me one more moment, at every age 96 or older there’s a good shot of becoming a centenarian.
If that woman is healthy and active as a 65-year-old, the odds of a very long life get even higher. She has a 62% chance of living to age 90 and a 28% chance of living to age 95
The statistics for men are very similar but about 3-4 years lower in ages. But as a couple, the odds of at least one of them living into their 90’s start getting very big.
According to a recent New York Life study of people aged 80 or older, more than half of the octogenarians living today, said that when they were planning their own retirements 2-3 decades ago, they never expected to be still living now.
They didn’t expect it but look where they are today. It’s my job to not only expect it… but to actually plan for it.
When I design retirement income plans for my clients, I like to run them out until age 100. Now to be fair, most of my clients will NOT live that long. But until I can foretell which ones will and which ones won’t I’ll keep pushing for prudence in planning for a long life (especially for a couple!).
all the best… Mark