Might You Live to 100?

Live to 100. Sounds great. But what are the downsides of longevity? “How can there be downsides?” you may ask. After all, you’d have more time to golf, go fishing, and spend with the grand-kids. Well, the risk may be that if you hadn’t planned to live that long you could end up running out of money.  Very few people have sufficient retirement savings to live to 100.  Yet, if you are already age 70, life expectancy of living to age 100 is 3% (one of every 33 people).  If you make it to age 80, then your life expectancy to 100 jumps to 4% (one out of 25 people). So how long of a retirement should you plan for?  How can you prepare for significant longevity? According to the IRS longevity tables, a 70-year-old person is expected to live for 17 more years to age 87. However, this is an average. Half of the 70-year-olds will live longer, and half will not. Therefore, a 70-year old individual who is basing his or her retirement plan and spending habits on living to 87 is rolling the dice. Furthermore, when you consider that there are more than 70,000 U.S. centenarians  who represent the fastest-growing segment [...]

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