Considering Healthy Longevity and Retirement Planning

This article isn't a particularly deep or insightful discussion of the topic of retirement and longevity, and, given the source, isn't all that applicable to people of modest means and ordinary employment, but I point it out its existence as an indication of the degree to which the concepts of radical life extension are spreading in the media and the public at large. The more that people think about this sort of thing, and realize that the science makes it plausible for the near future, the more support we find for the necessary research and development. While the new longevity Americans now savor seems to offer nothing but an upside - you're cheating death longer, right? - the downside of retirement, if it can be called that, is the absolute need to do more planning and budget in many more expenditures. And that's just for starters, because no one knows how long "longevity" will eventually extend, given the scientific world's ongoing research into stem cells. With stem cells, engineered tissues and organs may someday replace our disintegrating originals. "You could get an 'oil change,' an upgrade to your cells every few years. If, 20 or 30 years into the future, your heart is defective, maybe you can grow a new heart in a dish. The underlying biology and access to cells is getting there." It's hard for anyone to put a number on it. Depending on whom you talk to, those estimated ages of longevity - again, 81.4 years for men and 84.3 for women, according to 2011 actuarial ta...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs