One of the key risks in retirement is unknown longevity; the risk of running out of assets before you run out of time.
How long will your retirement resources need to generate income for you?
Last week, I looked at how it’s now possible to use personalised life expectancy predictions to help you determine how much longevity risk you are prepared to take.
When determining longevity, we still base calculations on the population as a whole, but apparent socio-economic differences have been identified in mortality rates.
Until recently, it was thought that higher income and wealth, and more education correlate with longer lifespans.
But now, academics have suggested that longer lifespans correlate with a specific personality trait that not everyone has.
That personality trait is “long-term focus”; if you have this, you are more likely to seek out more education and practice better health habits.
The very fact that you are reading this post about retirement income planning suggests you probably have that long-term focus and can expect to live longer than the average person so if you have read this far, congratulations!
In the UK, it’s been shown that geography is also critical in determining life expectancy.
People who live in the South of England have longer life expectancy than the rest of the country. The connection between geography and life expectancy has been sufficiently proven that annuity companies vary the amounts they pay according to your postcode.
Those with higher than average wealth, in good health, with a long-term focus, who live in the South are more likely to be in the half of the population which is expected outlive the average.
This group of people can probably afford to take less longevity risk than the population as a whole and might need to adjust their retirement spending accordingly.
