One number to predict retirement happiness?

[Lisa99]

Interesting. If I stop drinking and drop BMI 3 points I add 11 years to my life. Goes from 82 (which coincidentally is the age that both paternal grandparents died) to 93.

Curious why BMI doesn't go below 25.

 

[robnplunder]

Gotta work that BMI down.

Chuckle. BMI's ok. Having 1 drink per day cuts the lifespan down by quite a bit. I thought a drink a day is healthy (gets one's heart rate up). We can't win.

 

[target2019]

Interesting. If I stop drinking and drop BMI 3 points I add 11 years to my life. Goes from 82 (which coincidentally is the age that both paternal grandparents died) to 93.

Curious why BMI doesn't go below 25.

I am guessing that the source database doesn't distinguish below 25.

Here is one answer from the extensive FAQ:

How do you work out how long I will live?
All our statistics are straight from the*World Health Organisation. This tells us your life expectancy depending on which country you live in, your sex, your lifestyle (BMI, smoking habits) and of course your current age!*

 

[Bestwifeever]

Alcohol is probably considered a risk factor for accidents--no alcohol, no risk, never mind any studies saying a little is good for you.

I think the bmi menu is stuck-- when I first opened the page, >25 was s choice, but now it is not giving that option, just starting at 25. The fine print at the bottom says "As your BMI is a good indication of a healthy lifestyle it has the biggest effect on your prediction. It is never too late to adapt to healthy living, a diet intake that balances out your physical excersions is the key to weight loss!"

I was surprised not to see parents' longevity considered.

 

[ejman]

I better mend the error of my ways. I'm currently 64, the calculator says bucket kikin' time is right around the corner at age 71. I should tell my dad - 99 - that he should stop drinking that glass of wine or two he has been drinking for many years since it'll impact his longevity...

 

[daylatedollarshort]

This research highlighted on a 60 Minutes show on how to live to 90 found that moderately overweight and normal weight seniors along with moderate drinkers actually lived longer:

Want to live to 90? - CBS News

 

[robnplunder]

This research highlighted on a 60 Minutes show on how to live to 90 found that moderately overweight and normal weight seniors along with moderate drinkers actually lived longer:

Want to live to 90? - CBS News

"Vitamins didn't seem to affect longevity, but alcohol intake did, with people who drank up to two drinks per day having a 10-15 percent reduced risk of death compared to non-drinkers. "A lot of people like to say it's only red wine. In our hands it didn't seem to matter," says Dr. Kawas"


A note to myself ... I should drink more (from one to two drinks per day) .

 

[Live And Learn]

Got it:
The Death Clock: Calculate your life expectancy today

There are better calculators but they say that I may live long enough to run out of money. This calculator however says that I can probably spend 3x as much as I think I need.

 

[tmm99]

Just by changing from Neutral to Optimistic, my longevity extended by over a decade.

 

[target2019]

Just by changing from Neutral to Optimistic, my longevity extended by over a decade.

Oh yeah. I meant optimistic. But wait, Mr. Grim Reaper...

 

[braumeister]

Probably better to just emulate my friend's uncle, who knew precisely when he would die. The judge gave him the exact date.

 

[aja8888]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/number-could-help-predict-happiness-190700356.html

Nice fish!

 

[sengsational]

Caution: This is a light article from Yahoo news I found interesting. Many here don't like it or don't like the snippet I posted with it, so you might waste 30 seconds of your life clicking the article and reading the few paragraphs. That is 30 seconds of your life you will never get back mind you, so think very, very carefully before you click the link because it may not be all that fascinating to you.

I think that THIS comment was more entertaining than the article.

Nice fish!

Agreed! The picture of the guy with the fish was more entertaining thatn the article.

 

[target2019]

I suppose I might add something relevant to this thread, having posted an very-much off topic post or two.


The article mentioned in the OP was simplistic in deriving a single value from the ratio of income to expenses. Well, it got the advisor quite a few mentions in the fluff news.

While digging into the subject of post-retirement happiness, I found this link to a PDF:

https://ngam.natixis.com/docs/938/581/FINAL_Global_Retirement_Index_2014_140220.pdf

The title is 2014 Global Retirement Index. The complete PDF is long in page count, but actually a pretty quick read if you don't review all of the country statistics pages (about 50 pages of the total 81 pages).

The firm has selected 20 criteria, and categorized them into 4 sub-indices:
- Health
- Material Well Being
- Quality of Life
- Finances in Retirement

This does seem like a reasonable break-down, and probably provides better basis of how happy you'll be in retirement.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I do wonder if retirees with a ratio of 2 or 3 to 1 or better in retirement income to retirement expenses feel more secure than just a simple 1 or better ratio, given similar portfolio sizes.

 

[sengsational]

Current Consumer Reports Article

I do wonder if retirees with a ratio of 2 or 3 to 1 or better in retirement income to retirement expenses feel more secure than just a simple 1 or better ratio, given similar portfolio sizes.

According to the article in the current issue of Consumers Report, extra satisfaction drops off fast. The subjects of the poll were CR subscribers.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

According to the article in the current issue of Consumers Report, extra satisfaction drops off fast. The subjects of the poll were CR subscribers.

I found that online:

"Your mother probably told you that money doesn’t buy happiness, and our data prove it. Our survey found that retirement satisfaction was significantly higher among households reporting between $400,000 and $1 million in savings than among those with less. But happiness didn’t rise much more for those who had $1 to $2 million. And we found that people are often perfectly content with far less. In fact, retirees with less than $250,000 in savings who were highly engaged socially were more satisfied with their circumstances than retirees with $1 million or more in savings who were not. And numerous studies have found a connection between social engagement and better cognition in elderly people."

Stop Freaking Out About Retirement - Consumer Reports

It does address absolute dollars but not retirement spending to income ratios.

 

[mathjak107]

I thought the number to predict retirement happiness was the number of times one had sex every week.

with a partner??

 

[splitwdw]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/number-could-help-predict-happiness-190700356.html

Nice fish!

Not retired; still working. I read the article in the link. I'm a little math challenged and sometimes have to read books/articles a few times for something to sink in. How do you forecast what your monthly income will be? I know how much money I had as of Friday closing but that was then and anything can happen to my savings. Same with social security, I can figure out what both of us will receive in retirement but suppose one of us dies. That leaves a hole in your monthly income. How are the people on this forum or in that article forecasting future monthly income, guesstimate?

 

[David1961]

I thought the number to predict retirement happiness was the number of times one had sex every week.

As the Beatles said, "Eight days a week, I love you....."

 

[Mulligan]

As the Beatles said, "Eight days a week, I love you....."

Maybe I need to go get my "T" tested.... Ya, back in the day 25 years ago... Now twice a week is plenty.... 8 sounds like a full time job to me now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[photoguy]

I found that online:

"Your mother probably told you that money doesn’t buy happiness, and our data prove it. Our survey found that retirement satisfaction was significantly higher among households reporting between $400,000 and $1 million in savings than among those with less. But happiness didn’t rise much more for those who had $1 to $2 million. And we found that people are often perfectly content with far less. In fact, retirees with less than $250,000 in savings who were highly engaged socially were more satisfied with their circumstances than retirees with $1 million or more in savings who were not. And numerous studies have found a connection between social engagement and better cognition in elderly people."

Stop Freaking Out About Retirement - Consumer Reports

Wow. With journalism like that, I'm glad we dropped our consumer reports subscription. I hate it when the author makes a conclusion that is totally contradicted by their own data.

Their own survey says if you have less than 400k (which is probably the vast majority of people) more money makes you happier (strictly speaking this is correlation and not necessarily causation). Even if you have more than $1M, having more money still makes you happier.

They should have said something like people with more money are generally happier but there are deminishing returns. And many people are happy despite not having much money at all if they are socially engaged.

 

[imoldernu]

My own plan is similar to the one in the OP, except the calculation is made in reverse.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/sharing-23-years-of-frugal-retirement-62251.html

Our plan is extremely simple... On the spending side, we have three different budgets that we can adjust as circumstances warrant. Best case... Nominal... and Austerity.

On the Asset/Nest Egg side, We boil our assets down into three categories.
1. Fixed assets... house, auto, and other valuable non cash items... real property, jewelry, . We do not count household goods... (experience tells us that this is not realistic)
2. Non Income producing assets... bank accounts, cash, cash value life insurance policies.
3. Income producing assets... stocks, bonds, annuity.

All of these items are kept on a spread sheet and periodically updated. It's easy to come up with a total value... and then to average the income from the total...

To calculate where we stand in our retirement plan, we add
a. Social security amount.
b. Amount of interest earned on income producing assets.
c. ... and add the Total Assets divided by the number of years between now and age 85.

The only real difference is that this adds an end time specific planning date for sustainablilty... ie. age 80, age 90, age 100 etc.

 

[aja8888]

Not retired; still working. I read the article in the link. I'm a little math challenged and sometimes have to read books/articles a few times for something to sink in. How do you forecast what your monthly income will be? I know how much money I had as of Friday closing but that was then and anything can happen to my savings. Same with social security, I can figure out what both of us will receive in retirement but suppose one of us dies. That leaves a hole in your monthly income. How are the people on this forum or in that article forecasting future monthly income, guesstimate?

Not really a guess, but more in line with a bit of research. There are lots of threads here that talk about SS benefits after one spouse dies. The SS site can give you facts on that also.

As far as savings, if you are in the market, you can buy protection on stocks (puts) and not gamble on risky assets. Many retired folks move into fixed income vehicles (CD's, bonds) to minimize risk.

Figuring income going forward is not nearly as hard as figuring expenses as you have more control of the income side of the equation.

 

[kcowan]

The calculator is a joke. I have a glass of red wine every day (which is supposed to be good for health), yet by saying I drink daily, the calculator chops about 9 years off of my life expectancy. Huh? Give me a break.........I'll take my chances, and keep drinking the wine.

Me too. But if it is true, it is still worth it. It would just SEEM like we were living longer!

What about grandma who had a brandy every night and lived to be 98?