Life expectancy in the U.S. has declined. What does that mean for your retirement? https://www.marketwatch.com/story/life-expectancy-in-the-u-s-has-declined-what-does-that-mean-for-your-retirement-11673301269?siteid=yhoof2 "Last month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its most recent U.S. life expectancy estimates, and sadly, the report found that, once again, Americans’ average number of years remaining have fallen. As reported recently, life expectancy at birth is now 76.4 years (as of 2021), down from 77 a year earlier. This is a drop of approximately 7 months over a one-year period, which takes life expectancy back almost a quarter-century to 1996."
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that MarketWatch focused on the financial planning implications, but it would be interesting to know what the cause was.
COVID and opioid abuse, including accidental fentanyl overdoses. Since I've neither gotten COVID nor use heavy painkillers I think I'm safe. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2022/20221222.htm
How to be instantly unpopular with many Americans: Be a Canadian and list the reasons for US lower life expectancy. Ahh - popularity? Who cares. Here it is, anyway. COVID Drug Overdoses Deaths from drug life - malnutrition, blood-borne diseases, illness from exposure, violence High Accidental injury rates Under-performing health care system - per National Research Council. America spends more per cap. on Health care, gets less results Relatively High Infant mortality. High death rate from violence among young adults Obesity - 70% of Americans are overweight, 36% obese High homicide rates Foregoing medical treatment due to financial factors US is only developed country without universal health insurance Poverty, economic inequality - slow development Access to healthcare. I'd add one - easy access to low-cost bloaty sick-making crap food. (Lots of crap in Canada - just costs more.) Good report here: https://ourworldindata.org/us-life-expectancy-low Lot of folks in US tell me to shut up about the (dreaded "socialist") Canadian System, but I'm feeling brave tonight... An American told me that his country's health care system was great. He'd had a relatively minor problem, gone to Hospital Emergency, had it taken care of, well and promptly, and only paid a $40 deductible. Fine, but he forgot about $1,000 or so every month he paid for his family's Health Care insurance premiums. Canada: no deductible, no premium. Canadian life expectancy - 79.7. American 77.2 A 19-year old Canadian can expect, on average, 52 more years of perfect health. (I was close to the money. I got 53 years before my heart surgery, which was taken care of 8 years ago, at zero cost to me.) A 19-year-old American can expect, on average, 49.3 years, on the same metric. And Canada spends less per capita. Canada's not perfect - I realize that. But by the same token, I think there's not a pair of prescription glasses in the world that could help many Americans see the deficiencies in their system.
Yeah, well alcohol kills more Americans every year than all illegal drugs combined and the older we get the less physically able we are to manage the stuff. Watch out for that Knob Creek friends. As to the effect on retirement...it's a ghoulish thought but the Social Security trust fund might be a bit better off as a result.
Amen. That kicked in for me, significantly, at about 60. So I quit - Cold (Wild) Turkey. Glad I did. BTW I got a nice Swiss watch for my 80th, yesterday. A Mathey-Tissot, from my son. Had I not quit alcohol when I did, I might well not have lived to enjoy that.
Same here in Canada. From a Federal Gov't report: "Alcohol consumption in Canada was associated with approximately 15 000 preventable deaths, 90 000 preventable hospital admissions and 245 000 potential years of life lost in 2014. The collective impact of alcohol use on health care, crime and lost productivity was estimated at $14.6 billion, higher than the costs of tobacco use and the costs of all other psychoactive substances combined, including opioids and cannabis." BTW - something else I might not have enjoyed, if I'd continued drinking: Seeing my then-small grandchildren grow into adulthood... Nobody wants to miss that!
I still consume alcohol almost daily. But the amount and the timing? That's all changed. Radically. And it's a direct function of aging. Of course, the word now is that zero alcohol is better. I make have to drink about that for awhile.
Around age 60, 10 years into retirement, I found that was changing, for me. Radically. But my change was the wrong way! That's why I quit. My take: There's nothing inherently wrong with drinking. In moderation, it even has benefits. Many people have no problem whatsoever keeping drinking in safe bounds, all their lives. Good for them. Enjoy! Over a period, I left that group - entered hazardous territory - realized where I was - and quietly went back to safety, on the only basis that would work for me - and that was to leave alcohol totally behind. I'm pretty sure I had some incipient problems in the previous 40 years that I ignored, but there was a definite change for the worse, at 60. Why? I think it's being 10 years into retirement. I had "freedom to drink" whenever. No job to show up sober to, and no driving, to keep sober for. (I gave my last car away in 1996.) Now, I could drink whenever I wanted - and, until I decided this wasn't me -- I often did. There's nothing like the invigorating, frigid rattle of ice cubes against your teeth at 7:00 a.m! I'm told drinking problems often surface after retirement - and "freedom" (and boredom) seem to be the causes. Interesting story I read about 20 years ago. There was a long-term UK study of the health of non-drinkers vs. moderate ones. After 30-odd years, the study had to be discontinued. Reason: All the non-drinkers had died.
I admit my work these last eight years has really poisoned my view of liquor and the alcohol industry.