Midlife 'Wealth Shock' May Lead to Death, Study Suggests

[bobandsherry]

 

[Grabberson]

Fortunately, some of us are past 45-55 midlife, so we won't get that shock.

Sorry, but according to the journal Sloppy Methods and Dubious Conclusions, most Americans over 100 have suffered a financial setback during their lives, and will die within a few years. The linkage remains unclear. More grant money is needed.

 

[GravitySucks]

All death can eventually be traced back to the causative factor, birth. Other stuff happens in between.

I think death is caused by sex. If we reproduced asexually by mitosis like sea anemones we would never really die.
But then would life be worth living?

 

[GravitySucks]

Middle age and $100K is 75% of your NET WORTH (not portfolio). Death was probably attractive.

I think that's about the net worth of 40% of all 65 year old Americans. I'm not seeing lines formed to jump off the bridge.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I didn't see anything all that unusual in the study. Many links between stress and health have been shown in other studies. There has been a stress scale around for some time linking divorce, death of a spouse, getting fired, and major financial changes to an increase in illness. The authors didn't say the 75% came only from investments. The CNBC article said the shock "could include a drop in the value of investments or realized losses like a home foreclosure."

 

[NW-Bound]

I didn't see anything all that unusual in the study. Many links between stress and health have been shown in other studies. There has been a stress scale around for some time linking divorce, death of a spouse, getting fired, and major financial changes to an increase in illness. The authors didn't say the 75% came only from investments. The CNBC article said the shock "could include a drop in the value of investments or realized losses like a home foreclosure."

Good point!

Other difficulties in life may accompany that financial loss, and the stress may come from more than the drop of net worth.

When one is sad and broke at the same time, it may be just too much.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I think that's about the net worth of 40% of all 65 year old Americans. I'm not seeing lines formed to jump off the bridge.

There's a number of studies showing that losses often hurt more than gains satisfy, so perhaps it hurts more to lose a home, business or significant nest egg than never to have one at all?

"Humans may be hardwired to be loss averse due to asymmetric evolutionary pressure on losses and gains: for an organism operating close to the edge of survival, the loss of a day's food could cause death, whereas the gain of an extra day's food would not cause an extra day of life (unless the food could be easily and effectively stored)."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_aversion