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Do you want to live to be 100?
If so, join the crowd. More than half of Gen Xers and boomers, and about 6 in 10 millennials and Gen Zers, hope to reach age 100, according to a recent study by Houston-based Corebridge Financial and the Longevity Project, an organization that promotes research on the effects of longer living.
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Their chances are getting better. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the centenarian population will more than quadruple over the next three decades, from around 100,000 now to about 422,000 in 2054.
As life spans grow, are retirement strategies keeping up? In the Corebridge survey, which included nearly 2,300 U.S. adults ages 22 to 75, 55 percent of respondents said they were very or extremely concerned about running out of money in retirement.
“We have to get more financial education and awareness on what it means to live to 100,” says Bryan Pinsky, president of individual retirement at Corebridge. “For example, people ask themselves, ‘How would I want to spend my retirement?’ But it’s important to ask, ‘How am I going to afford my retirement?’ ”
It isn’t a question just for those aiming for triple digits. According to the Insured Retirement Institute, there’s a 73 percent chance one partner in a 65-year-old couple will live to be 90 and a 45 percent chance one will reach 95.
Most of us want all the time we can get to spend with loved ones or pursue new experiences (the top two benefits of living to 100, according to the Corebridge report). But if you’re anticipating a retirement that lasts 25 years or more, you need your resources to last that long, too. Here are some ways to increase the odds that you’ll have as much money as you have time.
Embrace the new retirement reality
When we think of retirement, many of us are influenced by what we’ve seen our parents and grandparents do. But for those aiming to live to 100, there aren’t many role models. Even if you have, say, a centenarian cousin, “someone who is 100 today more than likely benefited from a pension plan,” Pinsky notes. Nearly half of U.S. private-sector workers participated in a pension plan in 1980; the figure now is about 1 in 10.
Are You Saving Enough?
The AARP Retirement Calculator can help you find out if you’re on track.
You’re considerably more likely to be responsible for saving for your own later years, through individual retirement accounts (IRAs) or workplace plans such as a 401(k). Get started as soon as you can afford to, and as you get older, take advantage of “catch-up” contributions. Under IRS rules, workers ages 49 and under can put up to $7,000 into an IRA and $23,000 into a 401(k) in 2024, but the limits go up to $8,000 and $30,500, respectively, if you’re 50-plus.
The SECURE (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement) 2.0 retirement savings law passed by Congress in 2022 will provide even bigger catch-up opportunities for people ages 60 to 63, starting in 2025.
Diversify your retirement accounts
If you’re saving for a long retirement, consider using multiple accounts that have different tax treatments, says Chris Urban, founder of Discovery Wealth Planning in McLean, Virginia.
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