Longevity or how long you will live has always been important in making many decisions about your future. But this blogger has never known until reading the Wall Street Journal article cited below that the American Academy of Actuaries and Society of Actuaries have calculated longevity factors based upon the assumption that everything goes well for the individual and upon the latest mortality data from the U.S. Social Security Administration.
That data has been compiled in the Actuaries Longevity Illustrator, which helps an individual see how long he or she might live. (This is different from life expectancy tables that have the average number of years someone will live from a given age.) [1]
The Illustrator is simple to use. You only enter your date of birth, your retirement age, your gender, whether or not you smoke and whether your general health is excellent, average or poor, which terms are not defined.
Examples of Excellent Health Males and Females
For example, an 84 year-old non-smoker male with excellent health has a 94% chance of living to age 85, 59% chance to age 90, 26% chance to age 95 and 7% to age 100.
An 83-year old female non-smoker with excellent health would have a 91% chance of living to age 85, 64% chance to age 90, 33% chance to age 95 and 12% chance to age 100.
Examples of Average Health Males and Females
An 84 year-old non-smoker male with average health would have a 92% chance of living to age 85, 51% chance to age 90, 18% chance to age 95 and 4% chance to age 100.
The 83 year-old non-smoker female with average health would have a 89% chance to reach age 85, 56% chance to age 90, 25% chance to age 95 and 7% chance to age 100.
Observations
Josh Zumbrun, the author of the Wall Street Journal article on this subject, says, “The good news [from these longevity statistics] is that many Americans live a lot longer than they expect. The bad news is that this often leads to financial regret as they realize, sometimes too late, that [earlier in life they made financial decisions that have not provided sufficient financial resources for these additional years].”
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[1] Zumbrun, You Might Live Longer Than You Think. Your Finances Might Not, W.S.J. (Feb. 10, 2023); Actuaries, Longevity Illustrator.
