Whatever age you are today there will be an age that you are expected to live to.
This is known as your life expectancy. This is an age which in the past hundred years or so has risen dramatically. For example in 1900 a male born then could expect to live to 48 years, by 1950 this had risen to 66 years and today it is now 77 years. The comparable figures for females are 1900: 52; 1950: 71; today: 81.
(Source Government Actuaries Department).
Life expectancy is an average and an expectation. For every 1000 men who are 20 today we know that they will all live different time spans, some will die young, through illness or accident, some will die close to the average and some will die much later.
The expectancy is an average and must be adjusted for individual variations. For example someone at age 20 with chronic health problems is less likely to live to 70 than someone who is in good health.
We also know that these figures are subject to change: medical improvements, wars, plagues and all sorts of other unexpected occurrences could occur to change the figures. But the simple fact is that as far as we know given today’s numbers most men and women who reach the age of 20 will (a) reach retirement and (b) live in retirement for a very long time.
Another part of this site may interest readers in this regard how likely is that I will reach retirement? This is a section detailing the likelihood that any individual looking ahead should understand that they will almost certainly reach retirement. This section is intended to persuade some of the “live today” brigade that they ignore tomorrow’s realities at their peril and that retirement planning is an almost must for anyone starting from the age of 20.
Life expectancy for an individual is very important from a retirement planning perspective. This is because if you know your life expectancy.
Want to talk to an adviser to make your plans for retirement?
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