How long will I live for? Life expectancies growing by the year

Article orginally published on sorted.org.nz

Just last month, I was sitting at my mother’s birthday, a special luncheon at a very fancy restaurant, full to the brim with family and a few very special friends who had flown in from all over the globe. The occasion? My mum’s just turned 100.

We got to hear lovely letters from heads of government, and past academic facilities, praising her for her hard work, and more importantly, reaching the ripe old age of 100.

As the years roll by this is getting less and less of a stand out abnormality, though. New Zealanders, and indeed, the world population in general, is experiencing a dramatic upturn in longevity.

Thanks to the marvels of modern medicine and science, we can now live for many years longer than we were able to before. Late in life injuries can often be rectified, and medicines can help to ease age-related conditions.

How long are we going to live for?

So, just how long will you live for? How about your children? Their children? Stats NZ have a nifty little calculator, that by entering your birth year, age on your next birthday, and your gender, it can estimate how long you will live for, as an average amongst fellow kiwis.

The results may be somewhat surprising. For instance, if you were a woman born in 1964, then assuming a medium death rate, you’d live to 89.1 years. This isn’t even taking into account the fact that you could live up to 20% longer – up to 106.9 years!

Planning for longevity

Because we are living longer lives we need to take this into account in our planning for retirement. Depending on what age we planning on retiring at, will determine how many potential years we have stretching ahead of us in our retirement.

If you retire at 65, will you have enough money to see you through for the next 30 years? Many older New Zealanders are planning on working well past the general age of retirement – that’s 65. And continuing work may be necessary for you to be able to live the kind of life you’d like to live throughout retirement. Have a browse through the New Zealand Government’s planning for retirement resources to browse for more help on the subject.

Even though my mum now grumbles about having no one her own age to socialise with, it’s very likely in the future that this will no longer be the case – and we should plan for our futures as such!