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By Marie Howes & Suzanne Cook, PlanetLongevity.com
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
Financial Gerontology, Part 1: Murky waters in an aging world
By Marie Howes & Suzanne Cook, PlanetLongevity.com
Longevity & Aging
By Marie Howes & Suzanne Cook, PlanetLongevity.com
Review: The Longevity Revolution
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One of the most useful books I read in preparation for a recent talk I gave on longevity was The Longevity Revolution, published in 2008 by Robert N. Butler, M.D. Apart from being a Pulitzer Prize winner, Dr. Butler is also the founder of the International Longevity Centre.
The book is subtitled The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life. Butler observes that in less than 100 years, human beings have made greater gains in life expectancy than it did in the preceding 50 centuries. From the Bronze Age to the end of the 19th century, life expectancy grew by only 29 years or so, from 20 to just under 50 years. But in the 20th century, Life Expectancy surged another 30 years to reach over 77.
The paradox of a downside to what should be good news
Optimizing CPP: how to avoid missing out on $100,000 of retirement income
Because the Financial Independence Hub was moved Monday to a new server to accommodate ever-rising volumes of web traffic, we took the liberty of posting the normal Monday “Hub” blog at sister site FindependenceDay.com. The guest blog below is on optimizing CPP benefits: the same subject as my Financial Post column that ran online Monday under the headline: Optimizing Your CPP is no trivial exercise. Now let’s get it from the horse’s mouth: Doug Dahmer. — Jonathan Chevreau
By Doug Dahmer, Emeritus Retirement Income Specialists
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
Canadians are an easy going and trusting people. Every year thousands of people, across the country, carelessly start their CPP payments and in the process forego hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to which they are entitled.
I call this “The Great Canadian Pass Up.”
To ensure you fully appreciate the value of making the right decision, before you elect to a start your Canada Pension, Emeritus Retirement Income Specialists has created a powerful tool called the CPP Optimizer. Give it a try at: www.cppoptimizer.com.
Most people seriously underestimate their lifetime CPP income entitlement:
Your CPP benefits are a big deal. For a couple, where both spouses have regularly contributed to the CPP plan, the lifetime CPP income they can anticipate will likely exceed $700,000. Consequently it represents an important strategic contributor to the creation of a sustainable retirement income. Therefore, decisions about this benefit need to be taken seriously.
Reliance upon “conventional wisdom” can be very costly
The Longevity Game Show: Stay Hungry for the Bonus Round
By Mark Venning, Change Rangers
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
If you thought that getting through the long 2015 federal election campaign — the “spin the wheel for tax dollars” game show – -was more than your attention span could handle; think again. The Longevity game show is in full swing! And by all accounts, we have barely begun to see the peak in audience participation.
As one of over 9 million Baby Boomers playing from home with your finger on the buzzer, your first question is – “What is your longevity expectation?” Quick thinking might suggest to you, based on the last statistical survey you read, that you are an “average Canadian,” so your immediate answer could be 82.
Finger off the buzzer. Depending on what perspective you have from the perch you sit on in your age band, how you envision your life expectancy will depend on so many variables. Living beyond that average 82 may appear like a short or a long game. So the second question is: “How will you feed your longevity?”
Financing your longevity
A rare breed of financial planner
by Doug Dahmer, EmeritusFinancial.com
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
Retirement Income Specialists are a very rare breed of financial planner. So rare, in fact, that to date, the vast majority of North Americans are unaware of their existence and consequently very few have benefitted from the valuable, and much needed, services they provide.
This new specialized category of financial advisor is at the leading edge of strategically assisting North Americans to convert their accumulated retirement nest egg into a reliable and sustainable income stream.
Long-lived boomers face greater saving challenge
The challenges are not for the faint of heart. With baby boomers living longer, the years to be funded have increased significantly. There is no clear path to follow, as baby boomers are redefining retirement in terms of both planned activity level and their desire to slowly transition out of active employment.
Most importantly, baby boomers represent the first generation where the vast majority will be left to their own devices to cobble together a process to fund their lifestyle after work ends. Continue Reading…
