How much QTR is left?

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FindingForward

Recycles dryer sheets
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A quote in the WSJ "Retirement Rookies" column caught my eye: another interesting way to capture what many emphasize here for those in OMY mode or hesitating to retire. Time > money. For those not blessed with parents/grandparents who enjoyed long lives into mid 80s & beyond, the time that remains, (unless luck, diet and exercise can fight those genetics and buy us more time) certainly hits home.

"An intriguing metric of approaching frailty came from Colorado reader Marty, 77. “My college roommates and I devised a formula. We called it QTR. It stands for quality time remaining. Take your age and subtract it from the age of your last living parent when he/she passed away. Subtract 2-3 years for the final fatal illness and that is your QTR.”

Rest of the column is pretty good reading too - nothing earth shattering that isn't already covered in ER. But if you care to glance through, it's below. Hopefully this opens for everyone - it worked for me.
https://www.wsj.com/personal-financ...vtdglkf1ed5&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
 
Last edited:
Based on the current age averages for males, I should be dead :blush:. based on my family's longevity, I have 3 years left.:(
 
They should call this one the College Roommates' QTR. Of all my friend groups, my college roommates have been dropping like flies lately--well before their parents. I'm 63 and both parents are still alive. Dad is in his 90's, but quality time is over. He retired at 55 on a university pension. His Dad retired on a railroad disability pension in his 50's and lived to be 90. Skinny ER runs in the family.
 
My dad had triple bypass at somewhere around 52 IIRC plus a host of other issues before he died. My mom is 83, still active and has had no major surgery ever.

I kind of hope the mailman back then was really attractive.
 
If you go negative you're helping the next generation.
 
23 for me, but Mom smoked like a chimney for over 70 years and still lived to be 93.. if I use her mother/my grandmother's age then it is 29 years.

I'm 68 now but there is really good longevity on my mother's side of the family.
 
If your going to use the parents dying age, you need to do more than "Subtract 2-3 years for the final fatal illness and that is your QTR".
Dad's been dazed and confused for at least the last 10 years. 11 years ago I noticed that both parents were just struggling day-to-day with the results of aging.
It sort of triggered a thought of "that's not really living, so why am I requiring my savings to last that long?".
At the time it started a "go ride the motorcycle until the ATM runs dry and then do a Thelma and Louise" approach.. except the knee got boogered up long before the ATM dried up. Still the quandary of blow-the-dough/YOLO/you-can't-take-it-with-you vs. not wanting to have to fight the cat for dinner when I'm 90.
 
FindingForward said:
A quote in the WSJ "Retirement Rookies" column caught my eye: another interesting way to capture what many emphasize here for those in OMY mode or hesitating to retire. Time > money. For those not blessed with parents/grandparents who enjoyed long lives into mid 80s & beyond, the time that remains, (unless luck, diet and exercise can fight those genetics and buy us more time) certainly hits home.

"An intriguing metric of approaching frailty came from Colorado reader Marty, 77. “My college roommates and I devised a formula. We called it QTR. It stands for quality time remaining. Take your age and subtract it from the age of your last living parent when he/she passed away. Subtract 2-3 years for the final fatal illness and that is your QTR.”

Rest of the column is pretty good reading too - nothing earth shattering that isn't already covered in ER. But if you care to glance through, it's below. Hopefully this opens for everyone - it worked for me.
https://www.wsj.com/personal-financ...vtdglkf1ed5&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Click to expand...

Using that silly formula I should already be dead and gone.
 
If I use my parents' generation, I'm kinda screwed. Mom, dead at 74. My uncle (her brother), dead at 71. Dad made it to 71. One of his brothers died around 82, one is around 84 now, but in poor health and on oxygen.

Now my grandparents' generation, things actually look rosier. On Mom's side, Granddad died at 73, Grandmom at 91. On Dad's side, it was 76 for Grandmom, one month shy of 102 for Granddad. On Mom's side of the family, it was more common than not, for the women to make it to their 90s, so for Mom to die at 74 was a shock. Now the men, for the most part, didn't make it as long, but I'd like to somewhat chalk that up to them drinking and smoking more back then, and working jobs where they were exposed to chemicals, asbestos, and such. I think my maternal Grandmother's brother lived to around 85.

Anyway, I'm about to hit 54. I'm going to be an optimist and say maybe 20-25 quality years left. My paternal Granddad actually did pretty well, up until around 96-97. I seem to recall him having a fall and breaking something, and that seemed to make his age catch up with him really fast. And by 98, you could really tell the dementia was setting in. He gave up driving, voluntarily, at the age of 90. I wouldn't mind living out my life like that. Well, except for the last few years.

The one ancestor I'd really like to imitate would be my maternal Granddad's cousin Edith. She always had a lot of energy and ambition, and never sat still, and had a youthful fire about her, right up until the end. She gave up driving around 89-90. I last saw her on Thanksgiving Day, 2019, not long after her 94th birthday. She had just sold her house a couple months before, and was living in a small apartment temporarily, and prepared to move in with her daughter in Washington state soon. She even sent out one of those Christmas letters with the family story about everything that's been going on in your life, and she was excited about moving, and "starting this new chapter of her life," as she called it. Well, she ended up tripping over a piece of furniture in that cramped apartment, hit her head and messed up her neck. She went to the hospital, and for a brief moment seemed like she'd get better, but then rapidly took a turn for the worse and died, a few days before the end of 2019. I remember going to a memorial party (it wasn't really a funeral service) for her the first Saturday in 2020. I'm sure the final days were agony for her, but overall, I'd love to go out that way, living old and being optimistic and having some energy, right up until the end.
 
Kinda the same boat here. Dad died at 48, his brothers mostly young as well. OTOH, my mom's side lived forever. One of her uncle's was ckerking at the patent office when dirt was submitted for consideration.
 
Sweet. My grandma lived until 107.5.

But, the men in the family (so far) have developed heart disease in their 60s. My dad had quadruple bypass at 69 and is now 78.

My QTR is ~52. I am 53 now. But that is based on my grandma.
 
threeonesix said:
"QTR" seems to entirely disregard medical advances. 100 years ago you were OLD OLD OLD at 55.
Click to expand...

Were you though? Air quality was better. No micro plastics in your drinking water. If you didn't need medical treatments for defects you were born with and you avoided war and disease, I wonder...
 
23 years for me.
 
That formula sucks for me. Both my parents died relatively early: 70 and 72. Which gives me approx 10 years per the formula. Grandparents all made it to mid to late 70s, so maybe the formula will not apply for me since both parents died relatively young?
 
23 for me and I'm 72 now. However both of DWs parents died before age 38 so I'm not sure how to figure that.
 
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