JustCurious
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2006
- Messages
- 1,396
I know that most of us on this board are conservative financially, and we usually plan for the worst case scenario when planning for retirement. Therefore, I think that many assume that you will live to be 85 or 90 or 100 or longer, and you build that assumption into your SWR and the amount of money that you need to retire. But let's get real here folks, how long do you realistically expect to live?
According to the most recent figures I could find, if you were born in 1950, your average life expectancy at birth (average of males and females of all races) was 68 years. Now if you are lucky enough to live to age 65, you will beat the odds of all those people who died before reaching that age, and your remaining life expectancy is then 18 years, which would mean you would then expect to live until about 83. If you are then fortunate enough to make it to age 75, your life expectancy is then about 12 more years to age 87.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus06.pdf#027
So the statistics reveal that most people on this board will die on or before the ages of 68 and 87, with an average somewhere in the neighborhood of 78. Does it really make sense to deprive yourself of retiring so that you can save enough money to live beyond say age 80, since that is unlikely? I know that some people will beat the odds, you don't have to tell me that, but don't you think that money spent in your 50's or 60's will mean a heck of alot more to you quality of life than money that you have in your 80s or 90s, assuming you are even fortunate to make it that far.
Therefore, I have decided not to forego retirement for the sake of having a SWR past the age of 80. It just doesn't seem to make sense to me, especially since I will probably sitting in a rocking chair all day at that age, and, I will always have some social security. (Please don't turn this into a political discussion about social security)
According to the most recent figures I could find, if you were born in 1950, your average life expectancy at birth (average of males and females of all races) was 68 years. Now if you are lucky enough to live to age 65, you will beat the odds of all those people who died before reaching that age, and your remaining life expectancy is then 18 years, which would mean you would then expect to live until about 83. If you are then fortunate enough to make it to age 75, your life expectancy is then about 12 more years to age 87.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus06.pdf#027
So the statistics reveal that most people on this board will die on or before the ages of 68 and 87, with an average somewhere in the neighborhood of 78. Does it really make sense to deprive yourself of retiring so that you can save enough money to live beyond say age 80, since that is unlikely? I know that some people will beat the odds, you don't have to tell me that, but don't you think that money spent in your 50's or 60's will mean a heck of alot more to you quality of life than money that you have in your 80s or 90s, assuming you are even fortunate to make it that far.
Therefore, I have decided not to forego retirement for the sake of having a SWR past the age of 80. It just doesn't seem to make sense to me, especially since I will probably sitting in a rocking chair all day at that age, and, I will always have some social security. (Please don't turn this into a political discussion about social security)