Future You

What would your quality of life be like if you live to be 150 years old?

Why am I even asking you that question?

Well, according to David Sinclair, director of the Harvard Medical School’s Paul F Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research, the first person to live to 150 years’ old has already been born.

I imagine that is someone who is pretty young at the moment but none the less it does make you think.

According to data shared by the CIPD in their WORK magazine of March to May 2024, time in retirement by 2050 will have increased by 7 years since 1958; despite the fact that we may be working longer, life expectancies are outstripping pension age rises so that most of us will get more retired years… but will they be healthy? According to the CIPD, a woman in the UK might expect to live to age 85 but her healthy years might only be up until the age of 78.

If you are anything like me, (and I am an optimist) you might have not considered the fact that there could be that many years in later life that are not healthy.

I thought I’d check out my likely life expectancy further by using the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Life Expectancy Calculator – if you want to use it, click here. Here’s what it showed me given my age and sex:

So this is telling me that I’ve got a 1 in 4 chance of living until I’m 94 and a 1 in 10 chance of living until I’m 99. Given that 3 of my grandparents lived until 89, 91 and 92, I’m guessing I may get to see 90 at least.

I do what I can currently to give myself the best chance of a good quality later life through exercise, sleep, diet etc as well as to keep my brain stimulated and keep up social connections which we know are important too.

I’m also one for living my best life now, taking opportunities to do things while my body is still physically able.

That being said, seeing this data though has made me reflect on something.

What IS the best life to be living now … one where I do make the most of my current levels of health, perhaps to the detriment of the income I could be accumulating, or would it make more sense to ‘make hay while the sun shines’ financially, knowing that I could be retired for quite a few years?

And of course there is no right answer and no crystal ball.

Why do I share this today?

In case it helps you to reflect on what is important to you.

Here are 5 questions that might be interesting for you to consider in light of longer living:

1. What are you currently working for and why? Is it just for the short term or are there longer term benefits and intentions?
2. When are you targeting for your retirement age and why?
3. How does how you are living and working today contribute to the quality of your life in your retirement years?
4. What experiences, connections, skills and characteristics could you be building over the upcoming working years that will give you the best quality of life in your retirement years?
5. What would you at 85 be telling you today that is important for you to hear?

If this has given you any food for thought, do share your reflections below.