SUMMER 2019
LONGEVITY BRIEFING   SUMMER EDITION  

We hope you enjoy this Summer Edition of our Longevity Briefing newsletter. Look for the next briefing in your inbox in September.
CENTER UPDATES
HELPING OLDER WORKERS MAKE IMPORTANT RETIREMENT PLANNING DECISIONS
How do you decide if you have enough savings to retire? How do you deploy your savings in retirement to last for the rest of a potentially long life? These critical retirement planning tasks are very difficult for most older workers to complete on their own. 

To help address these questions, the Center recently published a comprehensive study in collaboration with the Society of Actuaries. The study analyzes the feasibility of the Spend Safely in Retirement Strategy, a straightforward retirement income strategy that can be implemented in most IRAs and 401(k) plans. 

This strategy can help older workers make important life decisions, such as when they can afford to retire, how much they can spend safely on living expenses to last the rest of their lives, and how to protect themselves in retirement from longevity, investment, and inflation risks. It also describes how an employer can implement a retirement income menu in their 401(k) plan that enables their older workers to effectively implement the strategy. 
LONGEVITY IN THE NEWS
June 24, 2019 | MarketWatch

Setting the record straight on 5 Social Security myths
Researchers tell us that most people would be better off waiting to claim Social Security benefits. Yet most people file early. More than half apply for Social Security before they reach full retirement age, which is currently 66 and rising to 67 for people born in 1960 and later. More than 30% apply as soon as they can — at age 62. Only about one in 25 applicants waits until age 70, when monthly benefits max out.

June 13, 2019 | Next Avenue

Does Getting Older Make You Less Stressed?
A recently released Gallup Global Emotions poll suggests that as people age, they tend to experience less overall stress in their lives. The poll asked respondents from over 140 countries questions about positive and negative experiences they had yesterday (a single day in 2018).The immediate answers may or may not surprise you, but the way they fit into an entire body of research on happiness in the course of peoples’ lifetimes almost certainly will.

June 6, 2019 | CNBC

How much Americans contribute to their 401(k) plans—and how much you should be saving
In a 2018 report, the Stanford Center on Longevity determined that if you want to retire by age 65, you should be setting aside 10-17% of your income. And that’s if you start saving as early as age 25. If you wait until 35 to start, you have to save 15-20%. Other experts point out that how much you need to save is highly individual and comes down to when you want to retire and what you want your future lifestyle to look like.

June 3, 2019 | Quartz

The number of Americans working in their 70s is skyrocketing
There has a been a big increase in the number of people in the US working into their 70s. Over the past 20 years, the share of Americans working in their 70s has risen from less than 10% to nearly 15%, according to US Census bureau data. In addition to people being healthier and living much longer, economists say that a combination of financial considerations such as years of stagnant real wages and a shift away from traditional pensions in the private sector are some of the reasons people are working longer.

BOOK REVIEW
ELDERHOOD: REDEFINING AGING, TRANSFORMING MEDICINE, REIMAGINING LIFE
By Louise Aronson
In a recent interview at Kepler’s Books in Palo Alto, Louise Aronson called her new book Elderhood a “battle cry.” She is a woman on a mission, to create a culture where the decades of life after 65 are celebrated rather than feared, and medical schools and practitioners understand and support the many phases of “elderhood.”
SUMMER READING LIST
Looking for more summer reading suggestions? See our favorite staff picks below.
How To Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations
By Marc Freedman
In How to Live Forever, Encore.org founder and CEO Marc Freedman tells the story of his thirty-year quest to answer some of contemporary life's most urgent questions: With so many living so much longer, what is the meaning of the increasing years beyond 50? How can a society with more older people than younger ones thrive? How do we find happiness when we know life is long and time is short?

The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World's Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market 
By Joseph F. Coughlin
In The Longevity Economy, Coughlin provides the framing and insight business leaders need to serve the growing older market: a vast, diverse group of consumers representing every possible level of health and wealth, worth about $8 trillion in the United States alone and climbing.

The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 
By Jonathan Rausch
Why does happiness tend to get harder in your 40s? Why do you feel in a slump when you’re successful? Where does this malaise come from? Most important: will it ever end? Drawing on cutting-edge science and human stories, The Happiness Curve shows that happiness follows a U-shaped trajectory, declining from the optimism of youth into what’s often a long, low slump in middle age before starting to rise again in our 50s—and then offering an unexpected bounty of contentment and wisdom.

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow 
By Yuval Noah Harari
Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder
By Chip Conley
Part manifesto and part playbook, Wisdom at Work ignites an urgent conversation about ageism in the workplace, calling on us to treat age as we would other types of diversity. In the process, Conley liberates the term "elder" from the stigma of "elderly," and inspires us to embrace wisdom as a path to growing whole, not old. 

The 100 Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity 
By Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott
Uniquely drawing on the authors’ expertise in economics, psychology and sociology, Gratton and Scott offer a broad-ranging analysis and a raft of solutions covering what to do with your finances, your education, your career and your relationships to succeed in creating a fulfilling 100-year life. This book provides insights into what individuals, politicians, firms and governments need to do and demonstrates that the 100-year life can be a wonderful one.

This Chair Rocks; A Manifesto Against Ageism
By Ashton Applewhite  
From childhood on, we’re barraged by messages that it’s sad to be old. That wrinkles are embarrassing, and old people useless. Author and activist Ashton Applewhite believed them too—until she realized where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Lively, funny, and deeply researched, This Chair Rocks traces Applewhite’s journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks myth after myth about late life.

Extra Time: 10 Lessons for an Aging World
By Camilla Cavendish
The world is undergoing a dramatic demographic shift. By 2020, for the first time in history, the number of people aged 65 and over will outnumber children aged five and under. But our systems are lagging woefully behind this new reality. In Extra Time, award-winning journalist Camilla Cavendish embarks on a journey to understand how different countries are responding to these unprecedented challenges.

Purpose and a Paycheck: Finding Meaning, Money, and Happiness in the Second Half of Life
By Chris Farrell
Growing numbers of Americans are no longer retiring in the traditional sense. The numbers are striking and largely unappreciated. Purpose and a Paycheck tells the compelling story of how a growing movement of older entrepreneurs and part-time workers are creating a stronger and more vibrant economy.

Retirement Game-Changers: Strategies for a Healthy, Financially Secure, and Fulfilling Long Life
By Steve Vernon
We face game-changing challenges in our retirement years including longer lives than our parents and grandparents, the demise of traditional pension and retiree health plans, stock market crashes that can derail our retirement and sky-high medical and long-term care costs. Based on substantial research, Retirement Game-Changers helps older workers navigate the series of critical decisions they face as they transition into retirement.

Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From Those Who've Lived the Longest
By Dan Buettner
Dan Buettner has traveled the globe to uncover the best strategies for longevity found in the Blue Zones: places in the world where higher percentages of people enjoy remarkably long, full lives. Region by region, he reveals the "secrets" of longevity through stories of his travels and interviews with some of the most remarkable--and happily long-living people on the planet.

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