header photo Leawood 3/14/2016 11:00:00 AM
News / Finance

Longevity’s Negative Impact on Retirement Income

Longer Life Is the Rogue Variable that May Wreck Retirement

It can be argued longevity is more than just a risk multiplier—it’s a compounding multiplier. Medical expenses and long-term care costs are already the greatest drain on retirement monies rarely built into the budget. If simply living into your 90s is going to generate a short fall in your finances, what are ongoing medical and elder-care costs going to do, but utterly impoverish you at the end of your golden years?

If it isn’t health stealing your wealth, it’s fund fees, taxes and inflation. Most consumers are going to need a quick lesson in pursuing the lowest-fund fees, with the lowest risk for “reasonable returns.” Over a longer lifetime fund charges, plan administration costs and investment advisory fees can erode your real returns. The longer you live, the greater the U.S. deficit and that means higher taxes just to pay the annual interest on the national debt. When you live to age 90 to 100, the cycle of inflation will more than likely return during your lifetime to significantly marginalize you purchasing power. Watch the video interview with popular platform speaker, author, retirement software developer and professor at the American College, Curtis Cloke, address the impact of longevity during retirement.http://rightonthemoneyshow.com/longevitys-negative-impact-on-retirement-income-curtis-cloke/

For baby boomers, there’s little choice. Longevity will compel you to lower the cost of your lifestyle and generate income by working at least part time during retirement. This is the new hybrid retirement. For Generation X and Y, take heed: this is your first warning! Time is still on your side. For the Millennial generation and its succeeding generation, known as Generation Z or iGen, it’s about planning for a future without Social Security as we know it today. It’s about contributing to retirement without deductions. It’s about curtailing your lifestyle now, so your future can be reasonably comfortable.

We are the procrastination nation. Congress kicks the can down the road and we, her citizens, do the same, never believing a day of reckoning will ever occur—but it will. It will appear to us as sudden, but it has been our constant companion all along.

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