Thursday, February 23, 2012 - 5:18 AM

Living To 100? That Will Be $3.5 Million

I'm not sure how this SmartMoney article came up with this number, but that is what it claims. It breaks down expenses by decade starting with the 60's, but the numbers don't seem to add up to $3.5 million.

The average American who lives to the ripe old age of 100 will spend $3.5 million in his or her lifetime, according to an analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

KenBDG5,144 posts since
Nov 29, 2009
Rep Points: 117,018

1. Thursday, February 23, 2012 - 9:11 AM

Ken: That post is very misleading. When I first read it, I misunderstood it to mean we needed to have 3.5 million saved for retirement if we unfortunately live to 100. If we are spending 3.5 million during our lifetime "before" retirement, I sure hope we are making a fortune at our jobs! I think the majority of folks reading these posts is "not" spending that much money. He/she is the wise person who is busy "saving" for their retirement years and being very prudent with their spending. They also won't need 3.5 mil "after" retirement even if they live until 100 "if" they continue to live a frugal life,imo. Now if they get hit with tremendous medical bills or have to support adult jobless children etc. it could eat up a lot of their savings but the average person should be able to wing it as long as they stay frugal, imo.

Apache43 posts since
Dec 5, 2011
Rep Points: 563