Madden Mischief

If you want to stay healthy, not to mention solvent, forget about that aged concept called retirement!

That’s the advice strategic wealth advisor and certified financial planner Nancy Hite gives to her clients, especially those in or approaching seniorhood.

As living to 100 is becoming more common, here’s what you should do, says the author of The Retirement Mirage.

First, Hite says forget about that “old fashioned word, and concept, retirement as it’s a mirage.” 

Here’s what you should do instead to prepare for the inevitable, call it more and more maturity.

People planning to live until age 100 will want to bolster their finances ahead of time as much as possible.

She advises delaying Social Security until age 70 and taking on easier jobs after your main line of work is over, which will help keep you healthfully active and your money supply percolating instead of just parking yourself on some beach chair.

Having a financial advisor can ensure that your assets keep growing even after you leave your main line of work that got you where you are.  You might also consider purchasing long-term care insurance.

Yes, more people are living to 100, and to Hite that means not just stretching your savings but keeping them invigorated with other activities that are easier, preferably even more fun to do. 

Thankfully for us humans, longevity is a growing trend sparked by improvements in healthcare and medicine creating wonderfully longer lifetimes.

In the next 30 years, the number of Americans living to age 100 and beyond is expected to quadruple, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

In 2024, there were over 100,000 centenarians in the U.S and by 2054, that number is expected to exceed 420,000.

“Living to 100 isn’t rare anymore,” said Hite, “thanks to biotech innovation and healthier lifestyles, so don’t underrate good financial planning as more folks will be hitting those triple digits.”

That’s maybe 30 or even 40 more years beyond that 9 to 5 job, so better plan for a longer future than you’re figuring, she strongly advises.

Financial Planning for a Longer Life

A longer lifespan means you’ll need not just a larger nest egg, but to keep on feeding it eventually with income from lighter work that’s fun to do. 

A study by Nationwide found that healthy, higher-income retirees were significantly more likely to live to advanced ages. The report found that for healthy couples, there was a 20% chance that one partner would live past the age of 100.

So, if you’re a healthy individual with no pre-existing conditions, you might consider working a few years past what used to be the typical, excuse the expression, “retirement age” to keep building up your savings. You may also consider delaying Social Security to maximize your benefits, Hite says.

Every year you keep actively earning past 70, the benefits pile up until you’ll have a guaranteed, inflation-adjusted income for life.

Hite says you can convert a traditional IRA or 401(k) into a Roth IRA, which offers tax-free growth.

“As people live longer, strategies such as traditional IRA and 401(k) conversions to Roth IRA and planning around Medicare premium brackets make sense,” said Hite.

“I usually ask people “IS the IRS is their favorite charity?”  Always get NO as an answer and suggest they set up a ROTH account to move some of the 401K into the ROTH so that by the time they retire, they have paid all the taxes.  Once in the ROTH, the growth is tax deferred just like the regular 401K and when they pull it out all the money is tax free.  Is there anyone who does not like tax free money?

“Usually when people are working they have deductions on their tax returns and this usually reduces the tax they will pay.  Once people retire, their goal is to not have any outstanding bills, and so the deductions disappear and the income is added to their SS & other savings, and many times increases the taxes due.  “Make sense?”

To Hite “retirement” is an old-fashioned word, and concept.   Today she says people need to discard what mentally she views as “the horse and buggy generation concept” and advises maintaining good health as much as possible, picking a profession or trade they love, and continuing to earn money at what they love to do as long as possible, perhaps slowing down as they age and losing some energy, but basically looking forward to each day just as she does after many illustrious years as a leader in her profession.

“Take more vacations through the years when you are younger, even if it means not traveling, but taking time off to enjoy the things you love and then returning to ‘work.’  Maybe we need to find a new word for that activity, and avoid negative connotations by calling it occupation, vocation, or job.

Her trademark, PAY THE TAXES ON THE SEEDS, NOT ON THE HARVEST” was approved by the US Trademark Dept. and she looks to have Congress make this ROTH account available in all retirement plans.

Tom Madden is as far from retirement as you can get, continuing to write countless articles, blogs and books while still CEO of TransMedia Group, the PR firm he started over 40 years ago when he left NBC in New York City.  Today his daughter Adrienne Mazzone is president of the firm serving clients worldwide from its headquarters now in Boca Raton, FL.