How long to you think you will live?

[Twinkle Toes]

How long do you think you will live? I am planning on living to be 100 as far as how long I want my nest egg to last. Deaths due to natural causes in my family range from 50 (heart attack) to 104 (old age). Hard to make any predictions for me, but I am in good health at 60. DH's family tends to live late into 80s - early 90s. We ER in '96 at 49 and are tracking within our "live to be 100" plans.

How long do you think you will actually live vs how long do your retirement plans have you living?

 

[Goonie]

How long do you think you will live? I am planning on living to be 100 as far as how long I want my nest egg to last. Deaths due to natural causes in my family range from 50 (heart attack) to 104 (old age). Hard to make any predictions for me, but I am in good health at 60. DH's family tends to live late into 80s - early 90s. We ER in '96 at 49 and are tracking within our "live to be 100" plans.

How long do you think you will actually live vs how long do your retirement plans have you living?

Unless something drastic happens, like death, I foresee living into my mid to late 80's at least....hopefully 90's or 100+. With investments and DB pension, I'm good forever, with no age cap.

 

[DangerMouse]

We are planning through to 100, however I think I will die much earlier than that. My father died at 58, my mother is in poor health at 65, if she sees 70 I will be surprised. I only had one grandparent make it out of their 60s. Diabetes and cancer has claimed the lives of so many in my family tree that it is not funny.

However on DH's side they are like Energizer bunnies, they just keep on going. Both his parents are alive in their 80s, one of his grandmothers died at 95 so for him he should be around for a long time.

 

[Donzo]

Most of my family makes into their late 80's. But with new meds and early detection - I am planning for mid 90's for DW and I - I'll let you know!

 

[growing_older]

Grandparents on both sides who didn't smoke made it to late 90's. I figure with reduced stress and a good ER plan, I should expect something similar, so I plan for 100.

 

[W2R]

Realistically, I think about 85 would be my best guess.

But for financial planning purposes, I am prepared to live to 102. This is due to longevity in the family, and a desire to not be both old AND broke at the same time.

 

[TromboneAl]

My dad died at 68 and Mom is still hangin' in there at 92.

Just last night I told my 64 year old sister that if she dies at the same age as Dad, she only has four more years to live. That's an eye opener.

Another eye opener is to hold a yard stick and say "If this is your life, you are about here."

 

[Orchidflower]

I've told my son many times that my goal is to live long enough that he has to change my Depends as that will be the only way I can get him back for being the oppositional child that he was. This is all said in jest, of course.

 

[bbbamI]

I figure I'll croak around 85, but finances are planned to 90.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

many of my family on both mom & dad's side live into their 80s & 90s. no heart problems, minimal cancers (my very favorite uncle with pancreatic died in his mid 70s & one aunt with skin cancer in her mid 90s) & i have one line (mom-her dad-his mom) with alzheimer's disease. i have well-off & even very wealthy relatives over 75 who still work. mom would have been one of them weren't it for a.d.

i retired early in part because life became temporarily so crappy but also in consideration of the possibility of alzheimer's at 70. i wanted at least 20 good years for me. i plan on the possibility of living into my 90s or beyond.

my mother always wanted to be a little old lady some day but never got the chance. when i see how life inevitably ravages the body and takes its toll on the soul (i'm not religious; i'm poetic) with old age, i don't know that i'd care for that and so i just might check out early. decision pending.

 

[retire@40]

Anything over 80 is frosting on the cake. The good thing about making it to 80 right now is that my life isn't even half over yet.

I also know that my budget at 70 or 80 will be different than my current budget, or even my beginning budget at full retirement. For example, I plan on traveling and doing the physical stuff now that I probably won't be able or won't want to do in my 70s, so the line item for travel and entertainment may drop considerably. But chances are the line item for medical will go up.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Mid to high 80's.

I remember being 10 and while I was setting the all time record for ticket sales to the Cub Scout Ball by preying on little old ladies who couldnt get over how cute I was in that scout uniform, that if I lived to 100 I was already 10% of the way there...

 

[Twinkle Toes]

many of my family on both mom & dad's side live into their 80s & 90s. no heart problems, minimal cancers (my very favorite uncle with pancreatic died in his mid 70s & one aunt with skin cancer in her mid 90s) & i have one line (mom-her dad-his mom) with alzheimer's disease. i have well-off & even very wealthy relatives over 75 who still work. mom would have been one of them weren't it for a.d.

i retired early in part because life became temporarily so crappy but also in consideration of the possibility of alzheimer's at 70. i wanted at least 20 good years for me. i plan on the possibility of living into my 90s or beyond.

my mother always wanted to be a little old lady some day but never got the chance. when i see how life inevitably ravages the body and takes its toll on the soul (i'm not religious; i'm poetic) with old age, i don't know that i'd care for that and so i just might check out early. decision pending.

Lazy, I know exactly exactly what you mean. Mom's AD was early onset.

Here's the rub: If you decide you don't want to go down that same road, how do you know when to pull the plug. I'm already several years older than Mom was when her AD began. I am also keeping my options open...and hoping that I'll still remember what the options were for when I get to the point where I need to exercise them!

 

[Texas Proud]

Wow... my number before I got in here was 85... and I see a number that are the same...

Dad died early 60s... mom is in great health at 88... both grandmothers died in their 60s, but granddads were mid 80s and late 90s...

I hope it is 100 or more, and will have money for it if it happens, but my BIL said the same thing and died a few weeks ago at 72... you never know.

 

[Khan]

The charts say 90-95 and I find that depressing. I have inherited all the joint and nerve problems from my mother's side, and (I assume) the penchant for strokes.

All my spreadsheets stop at 80.

 

[Meadbh]

On the one hand, many of my relatives lived to their 90s and there was even one person who made it to 101. On the other hand, there were relatives who kicked the bucket in their 50s or 50s. I am probably not as healthy as some of my long living clan at this age, despite being a nonsmoker. I took one of those lef expectancy quizzes last year and it came up with 76. I'm doing my calculations based on 90. But frankly I am more interested in quality of life than in quantity and I agree with Lazy on the issue of an early checkout.

 

[OAG]

I am already beyond the age of all of the Males on the paternal side of my family. I do however have one Aunt who lives by herself (and dog) out in the country (Northern Wisconsin) who will turn 90. Her sister, my other Aunt, is in her 80's. Mother made it to 80 but she smoked until about 2 months before passing. My Father's Grandmother lived to 105 or so. I do hope to make it to my mid 80's and the financial plan runs to 90 years.

 

[dex]

I think the deciding factor on how long I want to live is the quality of life. My mother is 88 and is restricted to an assisted living retirement home. A nice place but she can not go for a walk around the block.

Maybe the question should be:
How will know it is time to quit?
For me it would be when I could no longer take a walk to the bar, get drunk, and get around by myself. Being cooped up and only having the options to watch Jerry Springer Shows on TV is my limit. I'm sure I'll be able to get some setatives and a good bottle of wine to end it. The more I think about it; I think I'll do it in a strip club. I may not know at what I'm looking at or why but it might help me to remember.

 

[Moemg]

I hope long enough to tour Italy and see my grandchild grow up .I hope long enough to make a dent in my retirement savings and drive cross crountry .I hope long enough to have finally mastered sauces and learned yoga and gone on a great cooking tour and learned how to dive and crochet and gone on a Elderhostel trip by myself .

 

[grumpy]

I agree with Dex about the quality of life being more important than the length. I do not expect to die a "natural" death. Instead I hope to be able to die by my own hand (or with my doctor's help) when I reach the point where the quality of my life no longer justifies continuing. I support efforts by the organization "Compassion and Choices" to enact legislation giving us the right to make that choice. I realize there are many ethical and moral issues involved and attitudes and the law are slow to change. I hope I live long enough (in reasonable health) to see those changes. Both my parents lived to 89. Dad played tennis daily until 85 and died within 8 weeks of being diagnosed with lung cancer. Mom suffered from alzheimers from age 70 and spent the last few years of her life in a nursing home. That is a fate I have no intention of repeating.


Grumpy

 

[FlogBlogger]

I, too, side with quality of life over quantity. I'm forecasting to 2030. Chances are my personal, the planet's, or society's health will be on life support by then. And I've seen enough to know that death is not the worst that can happen to a person.

Always the optimist, I'll say that targetting a drop-dead date sure simplifies retirement planning!

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Lazy, I know exactly exactly what you mean. Mom's AD was early onset.

Here's the rub: If you decide you don't want to go down that same road, how do you know when to pull the plug. I'm already several years older than Mom was when her AD began. I am also keeping my options open...and hoping that I'll still remember what the options were for when I get to the point where I need to exercise them!

twinkle, i've got--as you likely already know--bad news, good news and no news.

the bad is early onset. so sorry to hear it. mom's was supposedly late onset though i'm not convinced that science is sure. even while always health conscious & well monitored & helped by psychologists throughout her life, mom wasn't diagnosed until she had trouble functioning at work in her mid 60s. brother & i assumed guardianship when she was about 70. but on looking back at earlier behaviors in the later light of the alzheimer's which developed, possibly mom was dealing with this for a very long time.

still, i understand that early onset can cause death even as early as one's 20s, 30s or 40s. it is truly devastating, sometimes hitting young families leaving the spouse to deal with the decline and then the death and then to continue as a single parent. not an easy life. also decendants of early a.d. victims are more likely to develop the disease than are those of late onset. the good news then is that if you have already survived past your mom's age then perhaps you have been spared. i wish you the best in that.

but if we are not spared, how do we time our exit just right. i would hate to die while i was still having fun and still with money to spend. the no news is, of course, that we will not know until we get there.

if you are brave enough in your convictions and secure enough in your beliefs then a window of opportunity will open for you between the time you realize your fate and then either denying or accepting that fate or taking no action and allowing such fate by default to reign. once the window closes only free will escapes and you are left to the fates.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

financial planning - I plan to live forever, with expensive medical problems. Pretty much covered.

time planning - I try to live like I only have a year left. I still am trying to break some bad habits
(like too much time in front of the computer) since retiring last year

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Lazy, thanks for the kind words. For the most part, I'm optimistic about the future. I must confess, when I lose the keys or something, I am ever so grateful when I remember where I put them...and that it wasn't in the frig!

 

[Nords]

How long do you think you will live?
How long do you think you will actually live vs how long do your retirement plans have you living?

Current biological estimates of telomeresis set the max at 120 years, and a woman in France managed to squeak a couple years past that. So we plan for a max age of 120. Not many retirement calculators want to tackle that goal.

Spouse's grandparents all went into their 90s or possibly 100s. (They lied about their ages for official documents so frequently that even they couldn't remember the facts.) Spouse assures me that her longevity will give her plenty of opportunity to nag me, which will somehow inspire me to keep waking up in the mornings. I keep trying to reserve the right to consult with an equivalent number of 21-year-old women to her age, but negotiations are currently deadlocked. Perhaps marriage just makes old age seem longer in a relativistic sense.

My parents/grandparents are all over the map but 90 isn't out of the question as long as I avoid cerebral hemorrhages and breast cancer. Hopefully there are no significant adverse longevity effects from acute exposure to volcanic ash or low chronic doses of ionizing radiation.

What really gives us the will to live is (1) collecting more pension than salary and (2) joining our alma mater's top ten oldest alumni. Currently the club membership doesn't even open below triple digits, and the record-holder made it until 110.

I can understand the bold sentiments & brave talk behind taking high-caliber control of one's lifespan, but my grandfather's 14 years of dementia were among the happiest of his life. (Pneumonia at age 97.) I wonder if the "we" that we're all going to become will want to be forced to live up to our current standards, or if we'll look to the examples set by Hawking & Reeves. If the Internet is this much fun now, imagine how it'll be with personal jetcars & virtual-reality biofeedback circuits!