For the third post in the “What If” series (here are the first and second posts), I’m asking about becoming a centenarian. Do you know what a centenarian is? Don’t worry. I didn’t know exactly what the word meant until sometime last year. A centenarian is a person who is 100 years old or older. It is the fastest growing age group in the United States. Life expectancy in the United States is just under 79 years (or around 4000 weeks), but many of you reading this could very well live to be 100 years old.
So What?
If people live longer, the length of retirement will be longer. This is important because living past 100 means your retirement may be considerably longer than previous generations. If you retire at 60, you’ll be alive for 40 years of retirement. Even if you retire at 75, you’ll still be retired for 25 years. Will your nest egg make it 25 years? Or 40 years or longer?
Are you saving for retirement? Will you have enough saved for a retirement if you live until you are 100 years old or longer? If you haven’t started thinking about saving for retirement, now is the time to do so. Below are links from previous posts about saving and retirement:
“One Easy Way To Give Yourself THOUSANDS More In Retirement”
“How Should You Save For Retirement?”
“How Much Do You Really Need to Retire?”
“How are you planning around a military retirement, pension, or social security?”
“Can one change in your retirement planning save you over $100,000?
“Roth IRA – The Most Powerful Retirement Account”
“How Much Will Your Military Pension Be?”
And here are links for financial calculators:
Retirement Nest Egg Calculator
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