I ran across these two charts recently and couldn’t help but scratch my head at what is going on in this country. This first chart shows healthcare spending. It’s been steadily growing +5.8%/year on average over the last 20+ years. That’s a whopping 2.4x the rate of overall inflation. The steady growth in healthcare spending stands at odds with political promises that came with the … Continue reading Healthcare Woes
A friend posted a picture of her grandmother celebrating her 103rd birthday this week – that’s some milestone! Since my birthday is also in April, I got to thinking about the odds of reaching three digits. I found this interesting online calculator that gives you an estimate of your likelihood to reach the century mark: livingto100.org. The doctor who hosts it – Doctor Thomas Perls … Continue reading Birthday Calculator
When people talk about reaching retirement, they often talk about what their ‘number’ is. That is, how big their nest egg needs to be to make them fully financially independent and empowered to walk away from their job into early retirement. The “other number” that people don’t talk so much about is life expectancy or lifespan. Clearly saving for retirement is a function of both … Continue reading Your ‘Other Number’ – Lifespan
I’ve been writing about personal finance and early retirement for more than two years now and have managed to not mention the topic of life expectancy once. Since there are only three real variables to use in planning for retirement – spending, investments, and life expectancy – after over 250 posts to this site, you can see how clever I’ve been in avoiding this ‘inevitable’ … Continue reading FIRE Planning For The Inevitable Future
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