Join Al Smith on this episode of Retirement Unpacked as he delves into the fascinating world of longevity and life expectancy. Discover the leaps in life expectancy across the globe and how these statistics can shape your approach to retirement planning. From historical records to modern-day figures, Al unravels the stories of centenarians and supercentenarians, offering insights into the factors that contribute to a long life.
Welcome to Retirement Unpacked with Al Smith, owner of Golden Eagle Financial. You want a retirement plan that alleviates your fears about the future so you know your money will last. As a chartered financial consultant, Al Smith will help you find a balance between the risk and reward of the market and the safety of your retirement income. And now, here’s your host, Al Smith.
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Welcome to another program of Retirement Unpacked. I want to thank you for tuning in. I’m sure there’s other things you could be doing, but I have some good information for you today, some of which you might have heard in the past, but a lot of the things I talk about deserve repeating because as we move toward retirement or through retirement, there are a lot of concepts that we need to keep in mind. But before I dive into one of those concepts, I want to first announce I am having an event. And the event has to do with the tax pitfalls that we may face as we approach or move into retirement. There will be an event at the Bennett Library. And that will be Friday, October 17th at 1.30 in the afternoon. And the Bennett Library is easy to find. I don’t have their address at my fingertips, but I’ll be able to provide that because there’s about three and a half weeks before the event. Again, that’s Friday, October 17th at 1.30, where we’re going to talk about the the tax traps or the tax pitfalls that we may be facing as we move toward and through retirement. We’re going to cover those. It will be a one hour event, so we’re not going to have some marathon two or three hour kind of thing, but we’re going to highlight the really important things about taxation in retirement. I thought about quite a few different things for my topic today, and one of my favorite topics, I’ve talked about this in the past, but I believe it deserves some attention. We’re going to talk about life expectancy and longevity. Now, the reason that’s kind of an important topic is because when Social Security, for example, was first passed into law in 1935 during the Roosevelt administration, the Social Security benefits kicked in at age 65. And ironically, one of the first who filed for Social Security benefits was a lady named Ida Mae Fuller. and she paid into it for a few years. She was a legal assistant in Vermont. She paid in about $22 in benefits, and she collected about $22,000 because she began collecting in 1939, and she collected until the 1970s because she lived to be about 100 or very, very close to it. But the point is that’s something that we are all facing. Some of the statistics about longevity, for example, a woman age 65 has a 25% chance of reaching age 90. And when there’s a couple who are both age 65, the odds are even higher that one of them will live into their 90s. And there are a lot of factors that affect longevity, and I think most of us know what some of those are, exercise and better diet and things of that nature. But I’m going to dive into some of the things that have to do with life expectancy. In developed countries, for example, the life expectancy is between 77 and 90. I know that’s a broad spread. In what they call developing countries, which is a kinder word for saying undeveloped countries, it’s only between age 32 and age 80. One country, for example, the average life expectancy is only age 41, and that is in Mozambique, Africa. Now, one of the things that’s interesting is since they’ve been gathering these statistics, the life expectancy has increased by one to three years for both developing and non-developing countries. And some other interesting things, I always found it fascinating when people reach 100 years old, And that goes back a while. The first person for whom it has been documented that lived to be 100 was named Iliff Philipson. And in 1785, it was recorded that he lived to be 102. And these had to be documented, so there had to be some documents of these people’s birth and so forth. There was another person named Gert Boomgart. I think he or I think she was a German. And this was in 1899. She lived to be 110. Another lady named Margaret Neve died in 1903. She was 110 also. A lady named Jean Calmet, I think she was French, in 1997 she died after living 122 years. Another woman named Sarah now spelled K-N-A-U-S in 1999 lived to be 119 years old. The very oldest man His name was Jeroman Kimura. He was Japanese, I believe. He’s the oldest man who ever lived, and in 2013, he died at age 116. So these centenarians, as they’re called, living to age 100, they are benefiting from the 20% to 30% cause of, call it a cause of longevity, but call it a factor of longevity. Because when people live longer than 100, genetics plays a greater part. There are certain genes and things of that nature that help the body’s immune system to fight off diseases in later years, and some of that immune system becomes weak as we age. What’s also interesting about the centenarians is how their number has increased. In the United States, for example, in 1950, there were 23,000 people who were 100 years old or older. By 1990, that’s 40 years later, there were 110,000 people who were 100 years old. And let me re-talk about these statistics. These are globally. These are not just within the United States. In 1995, there were 150,000 people 100 years old or more. In the year 2000, only five years later, that number jumped to 209,000. By 2005, 324,000. By 2009, 455,000 people were age 100 or older. By 2019, 675,000. And five years later, they’re are or were in 2024, 935,000 people who were 100 years old or more. And what I have also found very interesting is the country of Japan Just Japan alone is expected to have 272,000 people who are age 100 or older. And what they also did, some of the statistics I looked at, looked at various countries and how likely is it that people living in those countries will reach age 100. In the United States, 28 people for every 100,000 may reach age 100. In South Africa, it’s 36 people out of every 100,000. In Spain, it’s 41 people out of every 100,000. Barbados, which is not one I would have guessed, 39 people out of every 100,000 will reach age 100. Thailand, 69 people out of every 100,000 will reach age 100. And in Japan, which leads all of the other countries by an enormous margin, 80 people out of every 100,000 will live to be age 100. So longevity is something we, you know, clearly need to be concerned about and if you’re thinking as you’re moving closer to retirement wondering is my nest egg large enough or how will I be able to convert this lump sum of money into an income that will last as long as I do well these are things that I talk to people about when they come into the office you can reach my office at 303-744-1128 If you’re driving, you can reach me by contacting KLZ. You can also reach me on my cell. That number is 303-875-4572. And you might be wondering, or maybe not, but I’m going to give you the information anyway about animals and plants. How long do they live? There’s a bristlecone pine in California that is 4,850 years old. There are rockfish that are as old as 200 years old. There is a clam called the quahog clam that is the longest living animal that lives to be 507 years old. Some other clams that are common also, they often live to be as old as 370 years. And so maybe this is an incentive for any of you with aquariums to get clams because you may not have to replace them very often. There was a bowhead whale that was killed back when whaling was permitted, and it was the oldest living mammal at 211 years old. Now, we talked about centenarians. There is another category called supercentenarians. They are folks who live to be 110, and some of those live in what are called blue zones, and that’s a… topic in and of itself. There are certain places in the planet where people seem to live a lot longer. A lot of those places are in Mediterranean areas. But the supercentenarians who live to be 110, only one in a thousand people who reach age 100 can expect to live to be 110. So that’s quite an expectation. We’re going to talk a little more about longevity and what factors will determine how long you’ll live after the break.
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We’ll be right back. saving taxes, helping you defer taxes where it makes sense, and skipping them altogether if or when that’s possible. Tax evasion is illegal, but tax avoidance is encouraged by the IRS. So let Golden Eagle Financial help you figure out how to avoid taxes where you can, using Roth IRAs and other products, and be strategic in your plan for retirement. Find Golden Eagle on the advertisers page at klzradio.com and send out a message for a free, no obligation consultation. That’s klzradio.com slash money. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Golden Eagle Financial Limited are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to the second half of Retirement Unpacked. We’ve been talking about life expectancy, longevity, and so forth. We had a whole bunch of statistics, especially about folks who made it to be 100 years old centenarians. And there are factors that most of us are familiar with that are going to permit us to live longer lives. One of them is sleep. it’s highly recommended that people get between seven and nine hours of sleep i can’t remember the last time i got nine hours i think maybe it’s when i only got four or five hours the night before or something like that but that’s what is recommended And sleep is incredibly important. They say we spend a third of our lives asleep or somewhere close to that. But in the absence of sleep, when you don’t get enough sleep, your performance in whatever you’re doing, whether you’re retired or not, it seems to suffer. Your emotional state suffers, your mental alertness suffers, and so forth. So it’s incredibly important to get enough sleep. And, again, that’s a topic I know. John Rush has had people on his show on health and wellness who’ve talked about the importance of sleep. And I think some of the things that are important for that is before you go to sleep, sort of unwind. It’s recommended that you not have alcohol right before you’re going to be going to sleep and just to sort of unwind before you actually lay down and rest to go to sleep because if your mind is really cranked up with anxiety or whatever you have that you’re concerned about, it may take you 40 minutes to fall asleep instead of 20 and your sleep may not be as good. So that’s highly important. Exercise is also very important. They say even moderate exercise can add four to five years to your life expectancy. There is a book, I had a whole show about it in the past. The book is called Spark, and it has to do with how vigorous aerobic exercise can improve mental performance as well as it can delay depression. some of the things that we experience as we get older, some of the mental acuity that seems to be lacking as people get older. Sometimes it even can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. I apologize, I don’t have the author handy, but the title of the book is Spark. I have a copy, which if you come into the office, I’ll let you read it. It’s a very good book. Diet is also very important in living longer. And what’s highly recommended is a diet called the Mediterranean diet, which includes plant-based food primarily, which includes fruit, nuts, beans, grain, whole grain, pasta, bread, olive oil, red wine. fish, dairy, and meat, and so forth. I think they probably recommend less red meat, more fish and poultry and that sort of thing. But primarily fresh food rather than processed food, heavily weighted toward, you know, fruits and vegetables. And that’s Highly recommended. Something else that’s incredibly important in life expectancy as well as having a more fulfilling life later in life is social connections. Being active with other people. Doing things. Staying socially active. Avoiding isolation. And besides having that an effect on your longevity, that’s also going to make you’re losing a little bit of mental acuity less likely if you’re engaging with other people. It means you’re likely to live longer and your life is likely to be more fulfilling and you’re likely to stay mentally sharper than you would otherwise. There are some other important things to As you age, continue to challenge yourself. Challenge your brain. If you drive somewhere nearly every day, take a different route when you go. Do puzzles. I get the newspaper. And I’m amazed at how it comes on different days every week, even though I’ve ordered it to come four days. That’s, I guess, the irony of the nature of delivery of the newspaper in a time when not very many people read the newspaper anymore. That’s pretty much all I’m going to talk about, about longevity, because one of the things that has been bouncing around in my mind for quite some time, and that’s gratitude, I believe. Not only I, but many people I know are extremely grateful for a lot of reasons. I’m incredibly grateful for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, because that gives some meaning to my life. I think we who live in the United States are blessed. We have the First Amendment. And it has come under a little bit of scrutiny, especially with some of the things that have happened lately with Charlie Kirk and Jimmy Kimmel. But I believe living in this country is truly a blessing. I believe living in Colorado is one of the very best places in this country where we can live. and i also think that relationships that we have with other people i was just talking about that with longevity that’s something i’m extremely uh blessed with when you have family and friends and people with whom you associate that is an incredible blessing and that’s something you may not realize until perhaps you may meet someone who is not well connected maybe doesn’t have a lot of activities maybe that person is a little bit isolated if you know someone like that Visit that person. Go out to lunch or breakfast with that person. Sit down and talk about a book that you’ve both read with that person. Another thing I’m very grateful for is KLZ. KLZ is the oldest radio station in Colorado. It’s also one of the oldest in the United States. And the people who are on KLZ are conservative Christian folks who, in my mind, have in their programming what’s best for all of us and what’s best for our country. I’m also very thankful of our health care system, which, flawed as it is with all the enormous bureaucracy, it is still the best in the world in terms of being able to get care when we need it. And there may be hoops to jump through. There may be a wait of some length of time at an emergency room and things of that nature. It’s still, in my opinion, the best health care in the world, no question. Bouncing back to that First Amendment, for which I am extremely grateful, and we can compare that, other countries, especially Canada and the United Kingdom, There are people who are in jail in the United Kingdom because they posted something which was deemed to be misinformation. It may have been critical of transgenderism, or it may have been critical of something else about the United Kingdom’s government, and people have gone to jail. in the United Kingdom when they were expressing what we would call in our country their First Amendment rights, but the United Kingdom doesn’t have a First Amendment. people in Canada back during COVID, there were pastors who were jailed, and they were jailed because they were trying to worship and gather their flock for worship. Some of them were jailed during COVID. Another thing that occurred in the United Kingdom there was a woman who was doing nothing more than praying. And she went to jail. So again, these are things for which I am extremely grateful. And our First Amendment, if you’ve been watching the news and so forth, gives us the opportunity and the right to say anything we want, but it doesn’t mean that there will be no consequences for what we say. If you say something that is extremely displeasing to your employer, you may get fired. If there’s something that places other people in danger, you may get in trouble. If you say something that is untrue about someone else, you may get sued. But there in our country is no, there is no preemptive laws against free speech. And some of that was challenged during COVID when the powers that be were prohibiting the dissemination of what they defined as misinformation. And the big question I had during that period is who determines what’s misinformation versus just an alternative opinion. So a lot of things I’m truly grateful for, including relationships with people with whom I’m close. I’m very grateful for my church, Redemption Hills, which is a Bible-believing, non-denominational church. I’m very pleased with my relationships with my family. And I think we all, if we were to sit down and think about it, we may have some problems going on or some challenges and that sort of thing. But I think we have a great deal more to be thankful for than we have to be overly concerned or anxious about. Again, I have an event coming up October 17th at the Bennett Library at 1.30 in the afternoon. If you’d like to come, call my office. We’ll make a reservation, 303-744-1128. You can also call if you’d like to have a conversation with me. In the meantime, God bless you, and hopefully you’ll be here next week.
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But are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.
