Will you be healthy in retirement?

Don't put off your retirement... you'll may end up sick!  A study  on Healthy Life Expectancy (pdf file) shows that living longer does not guarantee people will be fit enough to work into old age

Life expectancy increased by 10.1 years worldwide from 1990 to 2015. However, healthy life expectancy – the time people will live without illness or disability seriously affecting them – grew by an average of only 6.1 years. If you are a high income individual your life expectancy is higher than those who have middle, or lower income globally. 

Worldwide if you are 65 today and are in a low income, you can expect to live:

• If you are a women another 13 years with 4 of those years in poor health. 
• If you are a man another 12 years with  3 of those years in poor health.

If you have a high income you could expect:

• If you are a women another 21 years with only 5 of those years in poor health. 
• If you are a man you with a high income you could expect to live another 18 years with 4 of those years in poor health.

In the chart below I show how long a person who is 65 and in a high income bracket, may live (in various countries) in good health and how long they can expect to live in poor health. This also has huge implications for health care in each country.

Country Age 65 Now	Women Life Expectancy		Men’s Life Expectancy
	In Good Health	In Poor Health	In Good Health	In Poor Health
Canada	Another 21 years (86)	For 5 of the 21 years	Another 18 years (83)	For 4 years of the 18 years
United States	Another 21 years (86)	For 6 of the 21 years	Another 18 years (83)	For 5 of the 18 years
UK	Another 20 years (85)	For 4 of the 20 years	Another 18 years (83)	For 4 of the 18 years
Russia	Another 17 years (82)	For 4 of the 17 years	Another 13 years (78)	For 5 of the 13 years
Germany	Another 21 years (86)	For 5 of the 21 years	Another 17 years (82)	For 4 of the 17 years
France	Another 23 years (88)	For 6 f the 23 years	Another 18 years (83)	For 4 of the 18 years
Ukraine	Another 19 years (85)	For 5 of the 19 years	Another 16 years (81)	For 3 of the 16 years
Australia	Another 22 years (87)	For 5 of the 22 years	Another 19 years (84)	For 5 of the 19 years

Happy?

Some studies conclude that older people have lower expectations so they are happier with less than they once were. Other results point to more realistic and mature attitudes that provide older people with wisdom and the importance of what contentment really is about.

People who enjoy life in general, age better, are healthier, fitter, and more active. Amherst College’s research in longevity has also credited friendship and social connection with:

• Boosting happiness
• Lowering risk of mental illness
• Improving self-worth
• Providing fun

A 10-year study of 1,500 people 70 and over conducted by the Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging (pdf file) reported that those with the strongest network of friends and confidants were 22% less likely to die during the study than those with the weakest network of good friendships.

Key Findings 
1. Participants have aged with differing degrees of success. Those classified at Baseline as ageing less successfully were more likely to die in the intervening eight years. 

2. Risk factors for mortality included 

• Undernutrition
•  Lack of exercise: people who did not exercise were found to be at high risk of mortality over the first 2 years of the study. Those who reported exercising more survived longer were more likely to be male and have better self-reported health 
• Social networks comprising discretionary relationships were protective against mortality in a ten year follow up. This was found for participants living in both the community and residential care facilities. 
• Psychological factors including intact cognitive functioning, a higher expectancy of control over life, and for women, better morale, were linked to better survival odds over 8 years, independent of health and physical functioning. 
• Depressive symptoms present a greater risk of mortality for men than women, with incident depression in old age representing a greater risk for men. 

Since there is absolutely nothing you can do about the number of years you have lived or will live, the only logical conclusion is to embrace whatever number you are currently at, and then forget it. 

Do everything possible to do what makes you feel good and discover how good you do feel when you help others. Other than that, if being happier means Botox, injectable wrinkle fillers or platelet-rich plasma therapy, go for it. If none of that is for you, trying taking a brisk walk every day. 

Eat healthier. Every positive step begets another. Put a few positive steps together and watch for the change in attitude = happiness that results.

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.

Life might be boring if

Would it be as much fun, if you never stopped laughing?
If there were never any clouds? 
If you were never challenged? 
If you were never alone? 
If you never heard the whole truth when it hurt? 
If you always knew what would happen, what to do, and where to go?
I would find life that is like that BORING, I suspect you might as well.