"Healthy Life expectancy"

mark_cycling00

One quirky thing I was told is that your life expectancy goes up as you get older.

So when I was born by life expectancy might be 78. But once I've passed the age of dying from being reckless in my 20s, suicide in 40s, lifestyle illnesses in 60s. Then my life expectancy might be 84. 

Non scientific experience is definitely that everyone is dying earlier. Very sad. 

hugheskevi

mark_cycling00 said:

One quirky thing I was told is that your life expectancy goes up as you get older.

So when I was born by life expectancy might be 78. But once I've passed the age of dying from being reckless in my 20s, suicide in 40s, lifestyle illnesses in 60s. Then my life expectancy might be 84. 

Non scientific experience is definitely that everyone is dying earlier. Very sad. 

The key difference has historically been surviving to the age of 1, ie, avoiding infant mortality. This is much less of an issue now than it was in the past but it is still a key risk to overcome. Having safely navigated that hurdle your individual life expectancy is higher than your life expectancy at birth, prior to overcoming infant mortality risk. The same principle applies for the rest of life, albeit not as significantly.

In general, life expectancy is increasing over time, albeit at varying rates (very fast to 2010, much lower since then). So younger people have a higher life expectancy than older folks did at the same age. But offsetting that is that those older people still alive have survived all the hazards in the intervening years that the younger cohort have yet to safely navigate. For those in the younger cohort that survive, their life expectancy at the older age will be higher than the life expectancy of the older cohort today.

I've often seen that the effects above largely cancel out, ie, the life expectancy of a 45 year old man today is likely to be much the same as a 65 year old man's life expectancy today. But if that 45 year old survives to age 65, their life expectancy will be greater than today's 65 year old's life expectancy.

Sarahspangles

I think it feels like people are dying earlier when we reach the point where our own generation starts to go. Some of my friends have said ‘Nobody dies of old age anymore’* but the reality is they never did. Maybe people didn’t discuss cause of death so much when treatment options were more limited?

* except the Queen

singhini

interesting video. Almost have of the people still had >80% of their money at retirement 18 years later. This helps me justify why i stopped working in my 50ies.

I'm spending my savings, spending my pension money via drawdown, will spend the equity in my property through equity release and still some buggers going to get some sort of inheritance (though their likely to pay inheritance tax now Rachel Reeves is looking to change the law).

If you want to improve your life expectancy don't eat processed food and definitely don't eat ultra-processed foods. 

cfw1994

I’ve know I have mentioned this on previous threads, but around 9 years ago I attended 4 funerals in just over 12 months.  2 of whom were good friends my age (early 50s then) 😔   The others only in their 60s.
I’ve always had an interest in retirement, but that was certainly a salutary wake-up call to accelerate to getting some useful years from whatever time I have left.  Not that work isn’t useful, but I’ve always worked to live, not lived for work 🤷‍♂️

A mix of sporty things and too much beer here….still playing volleyball (just about), pickleball is the new hobby alongside fair weather cycling and walking.  Knees frequently ache afterwards 😳
I enjoy evenings out, but drink less now than I did when I was under 50…a good example being a long planned boozy day out with old work pals in London recently, which was a lot of fun but only 4 pints, which felt pretty lightweight to me 🤣🍻🍻👍

Remember: just doing the healthy stuff without the fun drinks won’t make you live longer, it will just feel like it 🤪
Oh, & the best medicine is of course laughter…a reminder that the Leicester Comedy Festival is on all month: have a day trip & catch some rays of fun around the City 🤣

michaels

Not sure too much should be taken from 'most with a DC pot don't run it down' - that is the whole premise of SWR, you cover yourself for the bad outcomes not work on the basis of an average or better sequence.

Cobbler_tone

singhini said:

interesting video. Almost have of the people still had >80% of their money at retirement 18 years later. This helps me justify why i stopped working in my 50ies.

These are just stats to reinforce what most of us already know through lived experience.
I haven't heard or read any stories where people retire with a decent income and end up in poverty. The two generations above me have seemed to have lived modest lifestyles and generate further wealth into old age. M&S and Waitrose is full of them. I am steadily migrating my own spending from 100% Aldi to 50% Aldi and 50% Waitrose
It has been well covered on here but it is incredibly difficult to go from being a saver to a spender. I mean, how many people consider selling their house to run down that asset?

The only thing (which is common I guess) is that health care needs can eat into this/wipe it out dependant on the nature of your exit from the world.

We will all be surrounded by the horror stories of people dying suddenly, or certainly too young.
We are here once so you definitely have to maximise those years where your health allows you to enjoy it to the full. When we reach the point (if we are lucky) that we can get out for a daily walk, or get into town for a cheeky coffee, we aren't going to spend what we have coming in. Not even close.

At the same time, many people live to work and there is nothing wrong with people working until they drop. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Phossy

Cobbler_tone said:

These are just stats to reinforce what most of us already know through lived experience.
I haven't heard or read any stories where people retire with a decent income and end up in poverty. 

Everyone's lived experience is different, and for me any meaningful stats (PLSA obviously are excluded) are useful to help make considered decisions, not just confirm my bias. One of my biases is that I think this forum generally directs people towards ending up the richest person in the graveyard. 

jim8888

Phossy said:

Cobbler_tone said:

These are just stats to reinforce what most of us already know through lived experience.
I haven't heard or read any stories where people retire with a decent income and end up in poverty. 

Everyone's lived experience is different, and for me any meaningful stats (PLSA obviously are excluded) are useful to help make considered decisions, not just confirm my bias. One of my biases is that I think this forum generally directs people towards ending up the richest person in the graveyard. 

I think the vast majority of advice on investment for retirement, such as the 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate, is very conservative and cautious. The book "Die With Zero" is one of the few I can think of totally focused on spending your savings and investments. For me, this would be a challenge, unless I decide to give the government 40% of what I've saved in an effort to get rid of it. And I really, really would object to doing that. 

michaels

jim8888 said:

Phossy said:

Cobbler_tone said:

These are just stats to reinforce what most of us already know through lived experience.
I haven't heard or read any stories where people retire with a decent income and end up in poverty. 

Everyone's lived experience is different, and for me any meaningful stats (PLSA obviously are excluded) are useful to help make considered decisions, not just confirm my bias. One of my biases is that I think this forum generally directs people towards ending up the richest person in the graveyard. 

I think the vast majority of advice on investment for retirement, such as the 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate, is very conservative and cautious. The book "Die With Zero" is one of the few I can think of totally focused on spending your savings and investments. For me, this would be a challenge, unless I decide to give the government 40% of what I've saved in an effort to get rid of it. And I really, really would object to doing that. 

I guess it depends if you enjoy casinos.

I would choose getting 1 of 100 average whole life finance outcomes rather than risk getting the 1 bad outcome out of a selection of 99 good and 1 bad.