Most traditional financial planners will use standardized life expectancy calculators to try and estimate how long you will live after your retirement. However conservative financial planners may try and five or 10 years to that period of time provided there is nothing in your family’s health history to indicate that there may be a problem, in which case they may subtract five or 10 years. This method of retirement planning seems to imply that there is an accurate way to estimate a person’s lifespan. However, this assumption is erroneous as lifespans can only be predicted when using a large group of people, statistically. This means that financial planning and predicting your lifespan may not necessarily work out. When it comes down to it 50% of the people will live much longer than the estimated lifespan they were given and 50% of them will die sooner.
This is something to take into consideration when planning your retirement and consulting with a financial planner. As soon as you start hearing something about your estimated lifespan you will automatically know that this is not correct and should not be a method that you will use to figure out how much money you want state. Instead, figure out what your yearly budget is and try to determine how much money you may need to live 20 years. This is assuming obviously that you are retiring at the age of retirement which is typically 65. Obviously, if you are retiring early you will need to add more time to that number. If you want to get the most accurate idea of how long you think your lifespan will be the best way for you to do that is to factor in any health problems you may have. In the same way, if you are 65 years old and completely healthy with low-cholesterol, no high blood pressure or any other medical problems to speak of you may want to aim high. If there is a family history of Cancer or another life threatening disease and your family members have all died at relatively young ages then you can take that into account as well.
You can use a retirement planning calculator to assist in working out how much you need to put away to maintain the lifestyle you’re accustomed to.