How Long Will You Live After Retirement?

Retirement Answer Man

Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA®

Education, Investmentmanagement, Saving, Self-improvement, Careerplanning, Retirement, Business, Lifeplanning, Investing, Retirementplanning, Financialplanning, Retirementpodcast

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Roger Whitney explores one of the most overlooked variables in retirement planning: longevity, and how assuming you’ll live too long can quietly force you to save more, spend less, and potentially miss out on life. Through a conversation with Dr. Bobby Du Bois, he challenges default planning assumptions, walks through the real trade-offs, and introduces a practical way to think about lifespan so you can better align your money with how you actually want to live.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

(00:00) This show is dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement, but have the confidence to lean in and rock it.
(01:13) Roger introduces the idea that we plan heavily for running out of money but rarely consider the probability of running out of life.
(02:04) Roger recognizes everyone who reached out about Sherlock’s passing and plays an audio message from a listener.

ROCKING RETIREMENT IN THE WILD

(03:50) Jerry shares how returning to backpacking in retirement helped him reconnect with friends and stay physically and mentally engaged.

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT WITH DR. BOBBY

(05:50) Roger and Dr. Bobby explore why longevity assumptions are often flawed and how they directly impact how much money you think you need.
(23:54) The conversation shifts to the limits of predicting lifespan and the emotional and behavioral implications of trying to do so.
(29:55) Real-life examples illustrate how longevity assumptions influence major life decisions like when to retire and how to spend your time.

ROGER’S LONGEVITY FRAMEWORK

(35:25) Roger introduces a practical approach to making more thoughtful longevity assumptions without overcomplicating the process.

SMART SPRINT

(53:10) Use a simple longevity calculator to form a baseline assumption and decide how conservative you want to be in your planning.

ON THE BOOKSHELF

(54:35) Roger shares what the team is reading.

REFERENCES

BOOKS

Note: The opinions expressed are for informational purposes only and should not replace personalized advice from licensed professionals.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In retirement planning, we focus on the probability of running out of money, but rarely on the
0:07.1	probability of running out of life. Consider we'd never accept a retirement plan with a 60% chance
0:14.5	of running out of money by age 90. That would feel very imprudent, not feasible. Yet, for a 60-year-old man in average health, the odds of even reaching 90 are only 36%.
0:29.1	Life is finite.
0:32.0	Finite is existing or enduring for a limited period of time.
0:36.9	So the question we're going to explore today is how do we factor our longevity into our
0:43.6	retirement plans so we can rock retirement?
0:49.4	Hey there, welcome to the show dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement,
0:53.7	but to have the confidence to helping you not just survive retirement, but to have
0:54.2	the confidence to lean in and rock it.
0:58.7	My name is Roger Whitney.
1:00.1	I'm a practicing retirement planner with over 35 years experience, founder of a retirement
1:05.8	planning firm, Retire Agile.
1:08.5	Today on the show, we're going to talk about longevity. And how do we factor this
1:13.9	into our plan? Because there are tradeoffs for assuming that we're going to live way too
1:19.8	long. So we want to be prudent with that assumption. So the way we're going to do this is we're going
1:24.5	to have a chat with Dr. Bobby Du Bois on some of the science around longevity
1:29.4	and have some financial discussion about the tradeoffs that are in assuming you're going to
1:36.1	live to 90 or to 100. There's a real cost to your life in that assumption. And then after that
1:42.3	discussion, I'm going to present a working protocol
1:46.4	to start to factor longevity estimates into your plan with the intent of you rocking retirement.
1:56.7	So that's the plan today. We're also going to have a rocking retirement in the wild story.
	...

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