Living a long life.
If our plan is one of growing to adulthood, followed by 40 years of work and family and then 20 years of retirement we might need to rethink.
In a longer life the boundaries between study, work, family and leisure will likely become blurred. A multi stage life could include multiple career transitions and gradual, flexible retirements. Families will commonly be up to four generations.
With a longer life comes opportunity as well – we will have greater choice in how we live our lives. But we will need to be proactive. We don’t want to be older for longer, but younger for longer. Being proactive means taking steps to improve our work opportunities, our health and social care, our family and our social networks.
Relationships are central to people’s lives, and good health and wellbeing are reliant on those connections. Research shows that people who are more socially connected to family and friends as well as the wider community are happier, physically healthier and live longer. Digital technologies have a role to play already and that will continue.
Unfortunately UK statistics also show that the number of men and women aged 65 plus divorcing is increasing. With this increase comes the risk of lost connections. Additionally living alone can be more challenging financially.
Maintaining our financial resources for longer will require more focus and planning. Ensuring we are employable by being flexible and continuing to learn, and by improving and extending our skill-sets will be important as automation and the ongoing shift towards new technologies continues to impact. Being able and willing to move into new roles will be an advantage.
We may face other financial pressures. Prioritising health and the prevention of illness and disease will be more important. Living longer but with poor health will place pressure on our finances – with the potential for loss of income and additional costs.
The report itself simply notes “financial capability, budgeting and the ability to save through-out life will help manage these and limit negative consequences”. It also suggests that taking up self employment and business ownership later in life can be a flexible and autonomous way to extend our working lives. That’s true but these options can also come with risk.
The world continues to change. For each of us the risk is that we don’t notice and we get left behind. Building up a solid financial base as we go along and actively considering how we might best live a long life should we be that lucky are skills we should all want to master.
***
1. Living the Future Life, research report by Priya Khambhaita for the Pensions Policy Institute, published 18 July 2018.
***
Stephen McFarlane is an adviser with NZ Funds Private Wealth in Timaru. The opinions expressed in this column are his own. A copy of Stephen’s Disclosure Statements are available on request, free of charge.
First published in the Timaru Courier on 13 September 2018, as 'Preparing for a long life.'
