8,000 Days of Retirement / 5 part series - Part 1 of 5: Overview
Do you know how you’ll spend your time this week? Next month? How about the next 8,000 days?
Thanks to advances in healthcare, 8,000 days – roughly 22 years – is the length of today’s retirement for nearly half of Americans, according to the MIT AgeLab, which strives to improve people’s quality of life via innovation and technology. Its research has inspired longevity planning efforts at Raymond James.
“Now that we have achieved what humankind has tried to achieve since it has walked – living longer – we really don’t have a good idea of what to do with all that additional time,” says MIT AgeLab Director, senior advisor at Next360 Partners, LLC, and developer of the 8,000 Days concept, Joe Coughlin, Ph.D.
From honeymoon to solo journey
To help with the challenge of planning for a longer retirement, the AgeLab and Hartford Funds have broken it down into four phases in the 8,000 Days white paper: The Honeymoon Phase, The Big Decision Phase, The Navigating Longevity Phase and The Solo Journey Phase.
We’ve seen this 8,000-day story play out in the lives of our clients, many of whom are navigating uncharted territory when it comes to this newfound longevity – launching encore careers, taking college courses and generally leaving the rocking chair to collect dust. That’s why we’re encouraging you via this five-part series to think proactively about modern retirement and how you’ll navigate it.
Time to let go of outdated views
MIT AgeLab has been doing the same for years in an ongoing study, asking hundreds of people how they envision life after retirement. Many in the study said they would fill their time with part-time work, leisure activities, visiting with family and volunteering. Such responses “may indicate an overly generalized vision of what could be decades of changes in work, health, finances, housing, marital status, and countless other activities,” MIT researchers say.
It’s time to leave behind the idea of retirement as a brief period of relaxation and embrace the idea of a whole new stage of life – 8,000 days’ worth of possibilities. Through this series, we will explore this new way of thinking and the options for finding purpose, aging in place and more.
Resources to help you envision the future
Planning for 8,000 days can be daunting – but you don’t have to do it alone, I’m available to help! When you’re ready, I encourage you to read the 8,000 Days workbook. Review and answer the retirement questions that address the issues you’re facing, then give me a call to schedule some time to talk through your vision for retirement and how we can help you pursue it.
Direct: 803-576-4932
Sincerely,
AMANDA SIMCONIS GUNN, CDFA®, AAMS®
Financial Advisor
Material prepared by Raymond James for use by its financial advisors
Source: 8,000 Days, the MIT AgeLab, Next360 Partners, LLC, and Hartford Funds, 2018
© 2020 Raymond James & Associates, Inc., member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC. Raymond James® is a registered trademark of Raymond James Financial, Inc.
Raymond James is not affiliated with and does not endorse the opinions or services of MIT AgeLab or Hartford Funds.
