Money won’t be a problem for most of you. The problem will be that you’ll have all this money but you won’t have much time.
I recently learned about health life expectancy. The World Health Organization collects data on the average number of years a person can expect to live in full health to do all the fun things they want to do.
Based on the 2024 reading, health life expectancy in the US is 63 years of age. Japan is at the top with a health life expectancy of 74 years. In fact, health life expectancy in the US is not even in the top 10 of the countries because Americans live a far more sedantry life than the countries who rank higher.
So imagine working all your life, doing all this planning and when it comes time to do all that you deferred and delayed, you’re too old for it.
I have come to realize more and more that 55 is an ideal age to retire especially if you dread your work. You now have a good 8 healthy years to enjoy your money. Beyond that, you need luck.
But you can create your own luck by balancing sleep, diet and exercise. I know some of you walk as a means to exercise. Walking is great but you have to mix in some strength training in your workouts. Our body naturally sheds 3-8% muscle mass every decade past age 30. The decline starts slow at first and then it accelerates to 30% in the decades of 60s and 70s. Strength training not only reverses that decline but it makes you stronger, extending your health life expectancy by many years.
I like compound workouts that are low impact but hard. Apart from the usual bodyweight exercises like push-ups and squats, two of my favorites are Dead Hangs and Farmer’s Walk. They don’t need much equipment and you can do them whenever you want. I find them fun.
Find your own version of fun to enjoy the fruits of all this planning.
Thank you for your time.
Cover image credit – Estudio Polaroid, Pexels