Living longer than expected - good news or bad news
Andrew J Scott is a professor of economics at the London Business School, who is known for his work on longevity and macroeconomics. In a recent interview with our administrator Discovery he stated, in line with other experts on the topic, that the majority of children born today can expect to live to more than 100 years of age. According to Scott, our lifespans are longer due to new technology and human progress. While life expectancy in other countries is still higher than in South Africa, our youth in South Africa already has a 50% higher chance of getting much older, says Scott.
Living longer means that we have to re-evaluate our different life stages as well as how we live and plan them. While the baby boomer generation started families in their early twenties, their children only got married ten years later in their lives. Today, people in their mid-fifties are starting to study again, changing careers or opening their own business, while their parents at that age were starting to think about retirement.
A career-starter today needs to consider financial planning for a longer timespan than his parents planned for. The planning should of course consider how many years of income the person needs after retiring for housing, food, entertainment or travel. It is just as important to provide sufficient funds for increased healthcare costs, both in terms of healthcare inflation and of course how many years of healthcare costs one needs to be able to fund.
Whatever we invest in our healthcare today will hopefully reduce our healthcare costs later. Living a healthy lifestyle and taking up preventative care is the best we can do now to keep healthcare costs low as we age.
The effect of longevity on the economy can be seen in new solutions, services and products for a new target group-a more mature population that is interested in healthy ageing, self- managed healthcare monitoring, mobility assistance and, in general, to make aging more comfortable.
The 'silver economy' refers to economic activities, services and products that are designed to meet the needs of an ageing population with a focus on innovation. From wearable tech monitoring your daily vitals and health status, to home automation and aids for a more independent lifestyle for elderly people.
Living longer may at first sound scary, especially if we think of our grandparents' old-age, their mobility and lifestyle. However, considering all of these new solutions, living longer in the future can look very different and can come with new opportunities.
Longer lives will lead to new professions, the creation of jobs that relate to the silver economy or the care for the elderly. Gerontechnology is a field of research and application to create enabling environments for the ageing population, offering new solutions to health, housing, mobility, communication, leisure and work of older people.
According to Scott, technology has the capacity to make our work more fulfilling. He suggests, "Governments and firms must use technology to augment the quality of work, rather than to automate work away. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation will be good for jobs for older workers because they make it easier to carry on doing physical work. We will see the emphasis on human skills, which is about listening, making the most of a team. And while I don't like age stereotypes, there is data that suggests older people are on average better at interpersonal skills than younger people."
Living longer than expected can be good news or bad news depending on decisions we make today - both health-wise and financially. Ultimately, these decisions will impact our quality of life, something which we can influence and improve by staying fit, staying engaged, keeping a sense of purpose and maintaining good relationships with friends and family. According to different longevity studies, a socially integrated life can lead to better health and a greater life satisfaction.
Published: August 2022.