100 Plus by Sonia Arrison

Author:Sonia Arrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2011-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

The Financial Implications of Longevity

VIRGINIA RASKIN IS a star real estate agent in Sacramento, California, selling million-dollar homes, taking calls from clients at all hours, and processing piles of paperwork. She is what many would call a “go-getter,” and in 2008 the local newspaper lauded her for “racking up sales in a down market.” You might expect a person with such high energy to be middle-aged or younger, but the surprising facts about Raskin are that she’s over ninety years old and this is her second career, following a career in nursing.1 Such stories make the news because most of us hope, either secretly or otherwise, that we will also be full of energy in our older years. Fortunately, because of advances in science and technology, we are marching toward a world where there will be more people like Virginia Raskin and fewer people retiring to nursing homes in their nineties.

Money makes the world go round, and living longer means both making and spending money longer. This begs the question, then, if the average person could expect to live a healthy 150 years, how would that change the economy? Or put a slightly different way, how would extending our economically active life span alter our financial world? There are many elements that define an individual’s economic life, including education, experience, ambition, effort, savings, and retirement plans. A country’s accumulated human capital and wealth are generated from its citizens’ individual choices regarding these elements. This chapter will consider the changes that longer and healthier lives will create in each of these important areas.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.