But, the financial intermediaries beat us to it.  Now they’re skiing in Gstaad and eating Caspian Beluga roe on toast points while we clip coupons and postpone our golden years indefinitely.

 

Many who had pension funds will discover that the money owed to retirees exceeds what is available to pay them.  The PBGC, created to make sure retirees would get their money, reports that as of September 30, 2009, they had only $68.7 billion in assets to cover an estimated $89.8 billion in liabilities.  The PBGC reports that “potential exposure to future pension losses from financially weak companies” is approximately $168 billion.

 

 

More and more households are starting to look like the Walton’s with three or four generations living under one roof.  Aging parents and underemployed adult children with children of their own are squeezing boomer households.

 

Now, we need to bridge the gap between expectations of an idyllic retirement and the new reality that we may live a very long time and have to work for most of it, if we can.

 

 

It’s a whole new ball game.  In 1900, average life expectancy was 47 years. There wasn’t any retirement to plan for.  Staying ahead of the grim reaper was a dead sprint and a very short race.  Those who lived longer kept working until they were unable to.  Few people lived long enough to develop dementia.

 

Today, according to a United Nations Report, Japan leads all countries with an average life expectancy of 82.6.  Men live an average of 79 years and women outlive them by 7.1 years to a ripe old age of 86.1.

 

The US ranks 38^th with an average life expectancy of 78.2.  Men live to an average of 75.6 years, and ladies, you’ll get 5.2 more years and live to be 80.8. 

 

Our immediate neighbors to the north, where we generally assume that things there are pretty much like they are here, are on to something.  Canada ranked 11^th with an average of 80.7, and note the unusually narrow gap between men and women, 78.3 to 82.9.

 

Canadian men live longer because there is more equitable access to health care, and because they don’t get killed in gun battles either foreign or domestic.  Not getting killed is the key to longevity.

 

This helps illustrate an important point, the longer we live the further out our expectancy reaches.  A man who has already sprinted to 65 can look forward to 16 more years.

 

Research by the late Dr. Roy Walford of UCLA suggested that maximum life expectancy for humans is between 120 and 140.  Only one person has been verified to have lived past 120 so it is definitely the outer edge.

 

Walford’s theory of why we do not reach maximum life expectancy is simple, we eat too much.  He believed that optimal caloric consumption, in his case 1600 calories per day, was the key to retarding the aging process.

 

Walford himself lived to the age of 79 finally succumbing to Lou Gehrig’s disease, which he believes was brought about during his time in Biosphere 2, where he was subjected to long periods of oxygen deprivation.

 

Despite his illness, he believed that his restricted diet allowed him to do better, longer in managing his symptoms, but in the end, the perils of living finally caught up with him.

 

 

I’m a country boy from the Midwest and I am a recovering meat-aholic.  I firmly believe that the amount of bacon I could eat is limited only by the supply available.  Vegetables in January in the Midwest?  That would be potatoes—boiled, mashed, baked, escalloped, steamed, creamed, fried and au gratin.

 

My point is, I couldn’t live on a bowl of dried lemon grass and the steam from weak tea, but we can be certain that a healthy diet plays a very important role not only in terms of longevity but in terms of how we feel in those extended years.

 

We know things about the affect of what we eat that we did not know even two decades ago.

 

We know that exercise gives us energy and optimism.  We are going to need strength and energy.  This is starting to feel less like an economic hiccup; welcome to the New America, the land of downward mobility.

 

More and more economists are starting to acknowledge that there will not be enough job creation to improve things anytime soon, and they are suggesting that things will remain as they are for two years.  In government years, that is a decade.

 

The need for health insurance alone will keep many people working, not just to get it but to pay for it.

 

So here we are, just where we didn’t want to be, well past our middle-earlies and racked with anxiety.  What do we do?  Acknowledge the reality of our situation, make a new plan, and get going.

 

 

Retirement as a prolonged period of leisure spawned the Del Webb’s and the leisure villages.  Endless days of golf and sunshine, and not a care in the world, or anything else to give purpose to life.  Fun isn’t fun if that’s all you’re having.

 

As a matter of fact, it leads to boredom, alcoholism, and death by television.

 

Some of the realities for us are that we will live longer and, in most ways, be more fully functioning.  Even if we could afford to retire, we would need something challenging, rewarding and important to give purpose and meaning to our lives.

 

Depending on how we respond, for some this will be an opportunity unanticipated even 25 years ago.  It may very well be different than what we envisioned and even planned, but life is full of surprises and blessings, we just have to have faith.

 

 

Many workers will simply stay longer in their current jobs.  Ageism continues to be a problem for older workers, and one can understand some generational resentment that we aren’t getting out of the way and ceding the reins of power.

 

Some will have to leave jobs that have become too physically demanding, and the bridge to less physical work could be additional education and training.  I expect most campuses, both technical and academic, will see enrollment increase among older adults.

 

The world of work has changed substantially during our working lives.  There could be unimagined ways to apply the talents we have honed and the experience we have amassed.

 

We can still make a difference.  A lot of the idealism of the sixties was the by-product of raging hormones and too much LSD, but it’s not too late to get behind something important and reap the emotional rewards.  IF we couldn’t make the world a better place for ourselves and our children, maybe we can make it better for our grand kids.