How Long Can A Retiree Expect To Live?

Some people have families with long lives.  Some people have families where dying from a heart attack is common.  For those people, it’s easier to plan around how long they can expect to live.  For the rest of us though, it’s a tougher question to answer.  When asked, most retirees think they’ll live about the average life expectancy.

But what is the average life expectancy?

According to a 2008 report from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, our average life expectancy at birth is 80.3 for women and 75.3 for men.

The problem is that these numbers include the mortality rate for all age groups.  So, if we strictly look at those 62 and older, we get a slightly different picture.

If I’m 62 and want to plan for my retirement, how long can I expect to live?

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and the Social Security Administration has answered that question for us.  Their data gives us a picture of the chance a 62-year-old male, a 62-year-old female, and at least one partner in a married couple can expect to each age.

To make the data easier to read I’ve put together this infographic.

As you can see, this paints a different picture than the average life span so often reported.  Once we have a greater expect life span than the simple number so often reported by the media.

Planning for old age offers us specific problems.  The most worrisome is outliving your assets, which is why it’s important to have a sound financial strategy and time your Social Security benefits correctly.