Longevity

Insurance companies use statistics and actuary tables to predict life expectancy and they are very good at predicting how long you may live.

I can’t tell you how often I have had a retirement conversation that goes like this.

Q: “When do you think you will retire?”

A: “I don’t have any money saved. I am going to work until I die.”

Q: “What happens if you are forced to stop working before you die due to your declining health issues or those of a loved one?”

A: “I might die tomorrow. Why should I worry about it?”

Q: “But what if you do live a long time?”

A: “Well with global warming or some other global disaster probably none of us will be here.”

Ignoring a problem will never solve it, but this is exactly what people do all the time when faced with an issue they prefer not to address. This is just one popular option utilized by folks looking to avoid a possible painful situation without an easy solution. Wearing blinders will never change the writing on the wall.

Just because your expectation is that you will work until you die doesn’t make it so. Sickness, family health issues, caring for a family member, all these things may keep you from working. Outdated skill sets may precipitate early retirement as you become unemployable in the new world. Job losses can be attributed to technological advancements, to robots, offshoring…

You belong to a species whose life expectancy is increasing. Despite people’s unwillingness to state, guess or pontificate on their perceived longevity there is an excellent chance that you will live a long time. Living to 80, 90 or even 100 is not as infrequent as it once was. Do you have relatives that have lived to a ripe old age? This can be highly predictive of your chances to live a long, long life. Genetics and heredity can play a big role in your longevity.

Thanks to the internet amazing medical advances are being developed by hundreds of small companies across the globe further advancing your chances of living a long life. Big Pharma has now found it easier to buy these companies than to develop these advancements in house. You may think you have seen major advances in your lifetime, but you haven’t seen anything yet. Labs are now growing body parts, using 3D printers, developing targeted personal therapies thanks to gene mapping, stem cells… The list seems endless.

Retirement planning is as important to your future self as career planning was to your younger self. Failure to plan is not an option. Hope is not a strategy or a plan. Being proactive in life is preferable to suffering a reactive life.