Monday, January 16, 2017

Living longer

A friend of mine's mother is still alive at 102 years old, the problem is that she has outlived most of her income and my friend just had to move her from the Nursing home she had been in for the last 10 years, because they could not afford it any more. It is too early to say what the impact will be on the mother, but the odds are it won't be very positive.

Knowing our live expectancy is important, What many of us do not realilze is that life expectancy for those alive at age 65 has also increased dramatically. In 1950, a 65-year-old male could expect to live another 12.8 years. In 2014, a 65-year-old male could expect to live on average of 18 more years. The same is true for women. In 1950, a 65-year-old woman could expect to live another 15 years. By 2014, a 65-year-old woman could expect to live another 20.5 years.

If you knew your date of death, retirement planning would be a breeze.

Unfortunately — or maybe fortunately? — you don't. And that can make planning for retirement extremely difficult. Does your nest egg need to last 20 years? 30 years? 40 years? And what about couples? How should couples go about planning for the likelihood that one spouse — usually the husband — predeceases the other?

Well, if you’re like most people, you’re guessing at this, and guessing quite wrong.

According to studies, most of us do not understand longevity well. Since we don't understand longevity, those of us who plan, often do not plan for long enough,”

Becoming familiar with current life-expectancy statistics is the first order of business. The link above is a link to a  tool, developed by the American Academy of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries,which is designed to provide you with perspectives on your longevity.

Following are resources, prepared by the sponsoring organizations that may be of interest for you in planning for retirement:

  • Managing Retirement Decisions – 11 issue briefs written in everyday language that tackle a variety of retirement decisions with practical considerations and advice.
  • Academy Lifetime Income Initiative - The goal of the initiative is to educate the public, lawmakers, regulators, financial advisors, employers and the media on the risk of inadequate lifetime income.
  • Retirement for the AGES - The American Academy of Actuaries' initiative, Retirement for the AGES, is intended to focus attention on the United States retirement-income system, which needs to be strengthened to improve financial security for retired Americans. 
I used the tool and found the results interesting in that it gave me a 50% chance of living another 20 years, and a 10% chance of living another 30 years So the odds are I need to plan for at least another 20 to 25 years of living.

There are two things to understand about retirement planning, the first is how long you might live, and the second is having the income to last  throughout your life. If you outlive your money, there may be a problem for you and your loved ones.

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