If you are no older than 30 today, chances are that you will get to live to be a hundred the way medical technology appears to progress these days. Of course this sounds wonderful at first. Living to 100, you'll get to buy presents for your great great grandchildren’s birthdays. But only if you can afford those presents, that is.
As disturbing a thought as that is, it should strike you as entirely a reasonable fear. There is much talk these days about how people have worked their 80s before retiring because in their working years, they can't put enough money by for a 20 year retirement. They can't retire at 65 and hope that the money they've put by will last them until they are 85. What are people supposed to do if they live even longer? How are they supposed to work until they're 65 and put enough money by to get by on for the next 20 or 30 years?
What is worse, by the time today's 35-year-olds turn 85, the Social Security and Medicare systems will probably be more or less unable to provide for anyone anymore. The only bright spot to all of this is how technological advances are likely to make you healthier and to make your healthcare needs easier to handle.
As disturbing a thought as that is, it should strike you as entirely a reasonable fear. There is much talk these days about how people have worked their 80s before retiring because in their working years, they can't put enough money by for a 20 year retirement. They can't retire at 65 and hope that the money they've put by will last them until they are 85. What are people supposed to do if they live even longer? How are they supposed to work until they're 65 and put enough money by to get by on for the next 20 or 30 years?
What is worse, by the time today's 35-year-olds turn 85, the Social Security and Medicare systems will probably be more or less unable to provide for anyone anymore. The only bright spot to all of this is how technological advances are likely to make you healthier and to make your healthcare needs easier to handle.