You’re Going to Live Longer Than You Think!

Mickey Mantle said, “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself”

Well, the former NY Yankees star passed away in 1995 at the age of 63.

These days in 2022 if a guy makes it to 60 years old, his life expectancy is 82 years old.

And women can expect to live until 85 on average!

Based on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data, women DO continue to live longer than men.

Even so, we are all living longer and healthier lives because healthcare is improving and older adults are staying active, eating right, and taking supplements.

Another reason for the increase in life expectancy has to do with safety.

We often assume that death is the result of health and disease, but there is also death by accident.

Think workplace accidents and auto accidents.

According to the National Safety Council, the number of people who died in car crashes reached its peak in 1937 with 31 car crash deaths per 100,000 people.

The current rate is 12.9 per 100,000, representing a 58% improvement.

By all measures, motor-vehicle safety has improved since the early 1900s.

Because of the improvements in safety and medicine, the US Census Bureau reports that the number of people 65 and over grew from 3 million in 1900 to 52 million in 2018.

That’s an increase of more than 1733%!

And during this same time, the over-85 population grew from over 100,000 in 1900 to 7 million in 2018—an increase of 7000%!

Studies show that the longer you’ve already lived, the longer you can expect to live.

This is all good news unless you saved for a life expectancy of 82 or 85 and live until 100.

What Mickey Mantle said back in the day would make more sense today if we changed it to say, “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have saved more for retirement.”

And that’s the conundrum.