tine. So, we are experiencing one of the greatest achievements in human history across the world, particularly in eco- nomically advanced countries. How can we be longevity ready? In particular, it requires fundamental shifts in attitudes towards many areas, not just financial planning to pay for our longer lives, but particularly in our attitudes towards work and retirement.
From my work at the Centre on Longevity at Stanford and our research programme called The New Map of Life (
https://longevity.stanford.edu/the-new-map-of- life-initiative) a few observations – please do check out our recent report which looks at the multi-disciplinary response we need to supporting longer lives.
1. It’s important to clarify that lon- gevity and ageing are not the one and the same
Longevity is the duration of life – it’s not about the biological process of ageing. Longevity is not old age which is a life stage. Longevity is about the whole of life, it’s about the conditions that support long life and the way we can optimise well-being at all stages of life for all people – it starts at birth. We are looking at a longevity society not an ageing society.
2. Second – speed
We must recognise that the speed of achieving these increases in life expectancy and adding 30 years to life expectancy in the space of just 100 years means the social institutions, economic policies, social and cultural norms that evolved when people lived for half as long are no longer up to the task. There are over 700 million people in the world cur- rently aged over 65 years and that will more than double in the next 30 years1
.
The opportunity we have is to redesign the institutions, practices and norms to
January-February 2023
bring them into sync with the health, social and financial needs of our longer and, in many cases now, our 100-year lives.
3. Achieving a longevity society is a shared responsibility
A successful 100-year life is a shared re- sponsibility of government, private sector and individuals. The opportunity is from a focus on three things – health, education and employment. But we must act now in a more joined-up way. For example, long life learning – opportunities for people to learn and refresh skills throughout life. Work – collaboration across the genera- tions with multi-generational workforces with flexible working patterns to support longer lives.
Turning to shifts in work and retirement
What are the new pathways for working, saving and retiring? What shifts in atti- tudes changes are we seeing towards work and retirement?
– on average people run out of money eight to 20 years before they die. Expect to work 60 years or more over the course of a 100 year life – what does this mean?
l Challenge conventional, chronolog- ical models – a chronological age, for example, 65 is selected as the benchmark for retirement regardless of a person’s health or abilities; there is an assumption that workers are financially prepared for retirement – few workers can fund a 30 year retirement with a 40 year career. Important data by consultants such as Mercer2
Flexibility is more important to the older worker – than pay or promotion increase. Recent work by the World Economic Forum – Redesigning Retire- ment: Planning for the 100-Year life.3 For example, offering a “Glide path” to retirement over a few years. Flexibility also means, for example, midlife intern- ships and gap years, other intervals that space out earning and non-earning years
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