Jiminy Cricket was not far off in those days.
I was in boarding school in high school because we grew up on a farm that was pretty far from the town where the school was, and if I wanted to do all the sports and after-school activities that I loved, my (single) Mom could not afford to drive me back and forth – especially seeing that I was one of six kids.
Sometimes on Saturday nights we used to have movie night, and there was always a “Short Feature” that showed before the main movie on one of those projectors where you had to change the reels.
Many times we learned life lessons from the life Guru himself at the time – Jiminy Cricket. I loved his song and remember it to this day. I have always agreed with Jiminy that “I’m going to live to be 103!”
Well, today that same mother of mine is 86 and has recently had a heart valve replaced and is back driving and walking and having fun just a month or so after her surgery with just two little holes in her femoral artery to show for it. Pretty amazing for an amazing woman! I bet she could live to 103.
So this brings us to Financial Planning and how this longevity might affect us and our finances. We need to ask questions like: Will I sell my house? When will I take social security? When should I retire? How long will my money last? What is the rate of return I will need on my investments? What inflation do I account for? What about long-term care? ….. and the questions go on.
Click HERE to see Jiminy’s song
Picture credit – Disney Clip Art
When I take retirement benefits will depend a lot on my expected longevity, which depends on my lifestyle, my family’s health history, and very importantly today on Exponential Technologies.
When Jiminy Cricket was around most people never lived into their 80’s, which is why social security and pensions were OK then.
Life insurance companies have changed their illustrations from what used to be to age 100, and now use charts that go up to age 121. This is because if they are insuring someone today at the age of 30, who knows what medical technologies are going to be available over the next 60 years that might allow people to live to 120.
In the last decade, the number of centenarians has increased by 44% – what will that number look like in the next 10 or 20 years. If you are 50 today, 20 years of increased medical technology will put us at age 70 which even today is relatively young.
This longevity puzzle will become just as important for those who are fortunate enough to have pensions. Even as longevity creeps up today, many pension funds are in trouble and are trying to get members to take lump-sum payouts because of what they see coming down the road as people live longer.
All of this boils down to is the fact that having a comprehensive and a defined financial plan is becoming more and more important.
Whether it be for College Planning or Retirement Financial Planning, let’s PLAN
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