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Writer's picture Treavor Dodsworth CFP®, CPA, CKA®

#94 - How Long Will You Live?


How Long Will You Live?

As a part of my normal financial planning process, I attempt to map out someone's financial life for the remainder of their life. One of the more notable assumptions in this process is life expectancy.


There are a number of free calculators available that attempt to calculate someone’s life expectancy. While some calculators take into account family history or a variety of medical facts, some simply use gender and birthdate to estimate.


One of the most popular sources for estimating life expectancy is the Social Security calculator. When I input my information, I find my life expectancy is about 81 years old.


Now my assumption has been if my life expectancy is age 81 that must mean there is a fairly high likelihood of my reaching age 81. As I dive deeper into the numbers, it appears that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, using the calculator I linked to below, it indicates there is actually only about a 50% chance of my reaching life expectancy.


Life expectancy calculators are fun to play with and helpful to some degree but I was reminded that only God truly knows the number of our days.


Two quick thoughts as a response:

1. I need to make sure I know what my eternal state is. Do I believe Jesus is the Savior of the world and more specifically my Savior?

2. I can't forget about the moments right in front of me.


I believe it is helpful to occasionally remind yourself that this life will come to an end. Think through your upcoming day. Does a recognition that you will die and that there is a decent probability you will die before life expectancy, cause you to make any adjustments to your day?

 

Interesting Article(s) or Video(s)

  • The calculator attempts to estimate your percentage probability of living to a given age using your gender and current age. It pulls information from the Social Security Period Life Table 2004. Although the calculator and numbers are fairly dated, I found it interesting to review. No assurance provided.

 

Thank you for reading!

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