Why 60s are our Glory Decade

In Greek mythology, Eos, the goddess of the dawn, fell in love with Tithonus, a mortal. Eos asked Zeus to make Tithonus immortal but neglected to specify under what conditions. Zeus maliciously granted Tithonus immortality but not eternal youth. Poor Tithonus lived on over countless years, growing frailer until he was barely more than a whisper.

Thanks to medical advances and general economic prosperity, life spans are getting longer almost everywhere. At the Living to 100 Symposium in Florida recently, longevity experts predicted that the average person born in developed countries like Canada after 2000 can expect to live to 100, a good 15 years more than current life expectancy. This sounds promising but are we destined to become like Tithonus as a result? Unlike Eos, we should not automatically assume that all our remaining years will be healthy ones.

It is only a matter of time before we succumb to stroke, heart attack, cancer, Parkinson’s, dementia or some other age-related illness. It is important to know how many quality years we have left since it affects how we decide to spend our time in retirement.

I couldn’t find any good recent data for Canada but Eurostat, the European equivalent of Statistics Canada, has compiled some interesting data on average healthy life expectancy for 25 European countries.

The average European woman who is age 50 can expect to live another 34.3 years, but a startling 16.2 years of those years will be marred by disability that will moderately limit activity for an average of 10.1 years and severely limit activity in the last 6.1 years.

The story for men is similar, with the average 50-yearold European man expecting to live another 29.4 years, of which 12 will be spent with moderate or severe disability. Hence a 50-year-old European can expect to live disability-free to 68 in the case of women and 67 in the case of men.

This is very close to the little Canadian data that are available (from 1997) and suggests that, while there will be many exceptions, our 60s will probably be our last really good decade of life.

So what does this mean for people who are approaching retirement now?

The guiding principle is simple: Do the things you want to do when you can do them. Don’t wait too long to take that three-month trip around the world or to finally take some golf or scubadiving lessons.

Your 60s are your Glory Decade.

As for working in your 60s, you may have no choice financially, but if you do have a choice and like your work, then maybe consider working part-time instead of fulltime.

If you are under 50, you can add roughly five or so years to your disability-free life expectancy which will take you well into your 70s. If you are under 35, you can add another five years on top of that so your Glory Decade will be your 70s.