Considering all the pains that come with old age, how many Americans actually want to live to be 100?
Many of us, after all.
According to one survey, more than half of Americans (54%) say their goal is to live to be 100 years old. new report From Corebridge Financial, a financial services company.
Much of the rest of the 20-page report deals with the cost of living for a century.
And that’s what’s scary about these numbers, experts say.
“If we live to be 100 and retire at 65, we have to fund 35 years of retirement,” he said. lina walkerAARP Senior Vice President of Global Thought Leadership.
Retiring after 38 years? The cost of living to 100 years old
The calculation is as follows:
As a rule of thumb, financial planners say you should expect to spend about 80% of your earned income in retirement.The country’s median household income is $74,580According to the Census, a typical household may need about $60,000 a year in retirement savings.
The average American retires at age 62. If he lives to be 100 years old, it will take him 38 years to retire. At $60,000 a year, your retirement budget would be approximately $2.3 million.
Social Security income will cover at least some of these costs. Anyway, that’s a lot of money. Only 27% of respondents in the CoreBridge survey said they were confident they would never outlive their retirement savings.
In fact, two-thirds of those surveyed said they fear running out of money more than they fear death itself.
The findings are based on a 2023 study of 2,284 adults by Morning Consult.
How many of us will live to be 100 years old?
Can half of us reach 100? Probably not. However, the number of centenarians continues to increase.
The number of Americans over 100 years old is 4 times more By 2054, there will be 422,000 people, according to census figures analyzed by Pew Research.
The number of centenarians alive today is approximately 101,000, nearly three times the number alive in 1990.
“While it’s impossible to say whether an individual will live to be 100 years old, and we don’t have a crystal ball, some population groups are particularly likely to reach that milestone,” he said. katherine schafera research analyst at Pew.
Of all centenarians alive today, 78% are women and 77% are white, Schaefer said.
Retirement experts worry that many future centenarians will run out of retirement funds long before they take their last breath.
“Millions of Americans are at risk of depleting their savings.” katherine collinson, CEO of Transamerica Retirement Research Center. “It affects their own households, their own health, well-being and longevity. It becomes a burden on their families.”
BlackRock CEO realizes retirement is imminent
Larry Fink, CEO of investment firm BlackRock, made headlines last week when he argued in his annual letter to investors that the country faces an impending retirement crisis.
Building a stable retirement is “a much more difficult challenge than it was 30 years ago,” Fink wrote. “And 30 years from now, it’s going to be an even tougher proposition. People are living longer. They’re going to need more money. . . . We need a systematic, high-level effort to ensure we have a successful year.”
As expectations for longevity increase, so does concern about what it will cost to live a comfortable life.
Suppose a man retires at age 65 with $250,000 in savings. If he spends it at a rate of $30,000 a year, that money could last him until his 73 1/2 years of age. However, according to the life expectancy chart, he can expect to live another 10 years, to the age of 84.
About 64% of American workers are confident they have money. live comfortably According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2023 Retirement Confidence Survey, the following percentage of employees will retire.
Northwestern Mutual’s 2023 report says Americans will need an average of $1.27 million to make this happen. retire comfortably. But the average adult was able to save just $89,300 toward that goal, the report found.
Less than half of Americans have a retirement account
And less than half of Americans have a retirement account, according to Census data.
Experts say much of the public’s anxiety about retirement stems from national strategies for financing retirement.
Over the past 50 years, workers and employers have gradually transitioned from traditional pensions to modern 401(k) and IRA plans.
Annuities typically provide retirees with a guaranteed monthly deposit that continues to pay out checks until they die, even if they die after age 100.
In contrast, 401(k)s provide a way for employees to build their own retirement savings, often with help from their employers. After retirement, retirees largely decide when and how to spend their money.
Experts say making your 401(k) or IRA last until age 100 requires planning.
And many of us vastly underestimate how long retirement will last.
Many Americans underestimate their life expectancy
Life expectancy increases with age. The average lifespan for an American man is 73 and a half years, but if that man lives to 70 years old, his life expectancy increases to 85 years.
Many elderly people expect to die by age 85. Yet, paradoxically, a majority of Americans of all ages say in the CoreBridge survey that their goal is to live to be 100 years old.
CoreBridge officials said the discovery surprised even them. This reaction may reflect America’s hopes more than its expectations.
“Living to 100 seems to be becoming more achievable because more and more people are living to 100,” he said. Brian PinskyPresident of Individual Retirement at CoreBridge.
in 2022 survey, Transamerica phrased this question differently. He asked older workers and retirees, “How long do you plan to live?”
“Too young to retire”:What caused these workers to retire before they were ready?
Roughly 1 in 10 older Americans say they plan to live to be 100 years old, and the majority say they plan to live into their 80s or 90s. Many more said they were unsure. The survey surveyed more than 4,000 older workers and retirees.
According to the report, the typical American retires at age 62. This is five years younger than the expected retirement age of 67 for older workers. And he’s far from 100 years old.
Mr Collinson said: “If the median retirement age is 62, how can you afford to live in retirement for 38 years?” That’s the big question. ”
