Are You Prepared to Live Longer? MIT AgeLab Answers Questions

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Joe Coughlin is founder and director of the MIT AgeLab, which recently partnered with the John Hancock Life Insurance Company to create the Longevity Preparedness Index.

Here, he tells Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine what the research reveals about Americans' attitudes to longer life, why social connections need just as much attention as retirement funds, and how best to start preparing for your later years.

Q: What does the index measure, and what are you hoping to learn from it?

The index asks Americans: Are you aware of what you need to do to be prepared for a longer life, have you assessed where you are now, and have you taken any action to be ready in the future? To get a read, we asked over 1,300 people questions about their social connections, finances, daily activities, care options, home, community, health and life transitions and evaluated each domain on a scale of 0 to 100 to get a baseline of how prepared we are.

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Q: You found that most Americans are underprepared for longer lives; you give them a “D.” What are we doing wrong?

It’s not so much that we’re getting it wrong, but we’re hacking longevity because we have no precedent. We are living longer but don’t think about the practical aspects — where we’re going to live, how we’re going to get around. The point of the index is not to give people a grade, but to give them a heads-up. We’re hoping it sparks a movement toward awareness and action.

Q: Very few people you surveyed knew who is going to care for them as they age and how they’ll afford care — it was the biggest blind spot. Why?

We are terrible about projecting our future selves. While we might be able to see the need for care coming, we don’t want to admit to it. We haven’t had conversations with our spouses about care to put a plan in place.

Q: What is the connection between financial readiness and longevity preparedness?

As you might expect, we found the better off you are financially, generally speaking, the more prepared you are for a longer life — but not in all cases. Many of us did not anticipate our lifespan outrunning our wealth span. We’re having a wealth of time and a dearth of resources, as evidenced by rising poverty rates among older Americans.

Q: The index shows that women are generally more prepared for longevity than men. Why?

Women typically are the primary caregiver. They are the chief consumer of the house; they make the health care decisions. As a result of their roles over a lifetime, they realize that having a robust investment portfolio does not predict a robust retirement.

Q: What are the most important steps we can take to better prepare for our longer lives?

The first thing is to ask yourself, is your home age-ready for you to stay there? We should rethink simple things such as: Can we get to the front door? Is it three steps up? Ten steps up? Your fifties and sixties might be a good time not just to remodel, but to think about whether your cabinets can be lower and whether the bed is low enough to get in and out of without falling.

After that, the most important thing to do is to have the care conversation. Talk to your spouse or partner; talk to adult children, if you have them. If you don’t have those people, start thinking about your social network of close friends you can depend on.

Q: Were there any findings that surprised you?

I don’t think people are fully aware they need to continue to invest in their social portfolio — their social connections — as much as they invest in their retirement portfolio.

Q: What are the benefits if people become better prepared to live longer?

Anticipating what is to come will probably incentivize us to be far better financially prepared. Longevity preparedness also means you might be able to remain independent longer. That takes the burden off your children and your spouse.

Ultimately, longevity preparedness improves society in general. It’s about keeping people engaged and productive. That can reduce chronic-disease costs down the road. The question is, how much quality of life can we have now that we have a longer life?

Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.

Richard Eisenberg is an "unretired" personal finance writer, editor and podcaster. He writes a column for Dow Jones' MarketWatch; freelances for outlets including Kiplinger, AARP The Magazine, PBS' Next Avenue, The Stanford Center on Longevity Magazine and People magazine; and is co-host of the Friends Talk Money podcast for people over 50.

Previously, he was managing editor at Next Avenue, executive editor at Money magazine, special projects director/money editor at Good Housekeeping and director of NYU Summer Publishing Institute's Digital Media Strategies Program. He is the author of "How to Avoid a Midlife Financial Crisis" and "The Money Book of Personal Finance." Eisenberg graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and lives in New Jersey.