A new survey helps people prepare for aging beyond savings : NPR

When it comes to aging, many people focus on saving for retirement. But what about community, care, and purpose when navigating a long life?

Mar Hernández for NPR

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Mar Hernández for NPR

If you’re planning for the future, you’ve probably been advised to track your retirement savings. But Joe Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, says there’s more to the equation than just a long life.

With the number of centenarians expected to quadruple by 2054, Coughlin and colleagues developed a comprehensive method for planning for aging. This is called the Longevity Readiness Index.

“Unlike another survey or index about how much money you’ve saved, we want to look at all those big and small things we take for granted in life,” says Coughlin. “We can expect things to stay the same, but when a big life transition occurs – whether it’s retirement from a profession, death or unexpected illness – many people have unwittingly overlooked some of the decisions that could help us thrive,” he says.

The quiz is free online and lasts approximately 15 minutes. A score is determined by responses in eight areas, including relationships with family, friends and community, health and daily activities.

Awareness is the first step

MIT AgeLab researcher Katie Warren walks financial planner Matt Hudack through the survey at a John Hancock longevity conference, where the tool was introduced in April. John Hancock, a financial services company that offers life insurance, partnered with MIT AgeLab to develop the index and launched an initiative to help its customers live longer, healthier lives.

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Hudack, in his 60s and based in Orange County, California, answers questions about his neighborhood.

“Does my neighborhood have good sidewalks and places to walk? » he reads aloud. “Accept.” He continues: “My neighborhood offers many meeting places and social activities that I would enjoy? All right.

Hudack appears healthy and fit, so it’s hard to imagine a day when he couldn’t drive to a pharmacy or would need help getting around. But the survey includes uncomfortable questions designed to provoke exactly this kind of thinking, such as: If you needed a healthcare provider, do you know who it would be?

“Looking at my 88-year-old father and my 93-year-old father-in-law, it gives you pause,” Hudack says, acknowledging that needs change with age. Keeping people in their homes often means modifying entryways to minimize steps, installing handrails, or moving a bedroom and shower to the main floor. These are changes that can be anticipated in advance.

“It’s better to have your eyes wide open than to stick your head in the sand,” Hudack says. He completed the survey and obtained his score: 89 out of 100. The average is 60.

Brooks Tingle, CEO of John Hancock, says awareness is the first step to change, and taking the quiz himself changed his own thinking.

“People can make decisions about where they’re going to move, quote unquote, retire,” without thinking through some of the core areas, he says. “For me it could be due to the quality of the fishing.”

But the Longevity Index survey helped him realize he should think more holistically as he looked ahead to the decades ahead: What about the quality of health care? Would I have friends if I moved to a new city? “The general lack of preparation struck me,” he says, reflecting on that average score of 60.

Answering questions about life transitions, community, care and home can “help reveal both challenges and opportunities,” says Coughlin.

Savings are still important

Among the toughest challenges: What happens if people can no longer afford to stay at home or need help with daily living but can’t pay for it? Data from the Pew Research Center reveals that most seniors who live at home would prefer to age in place with the support of caregivers, if given the choice. But non-medical care — like meal preparation, housekeeping and assistance with personal hygiene — costs an average of $80,000 a year.

“None of us know how long our savings will last or what our lives, health and abilities will look like,” says Samara Scheckler of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. “The cost of care becomes a big part of the picture when added to housing. We call it the double burden of housing and care,” she says, noting that these are insurmountable costs for many families.

Financial security is a priority for most people entering the post-payroll years.

“We conducted a survey in which we asked people about their aspirations to live to be 100,” says psychologist Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. “The most common responses were: I hope I don’t have dementia and I hope I’m not short of money.”

Practical concerns matter, of course, but Carstensen believes the risk is that they overshadow any ability to see the benefits of a longer life. “If we only take this hardline approach, we will never realize the potential opportunities,” she says.

Planning Ahead Can Help Rethink Aging

Taking steps to anticipate and adapt to the inevitable physical changes that occur as we age can open up space to imagine possibilities.

“We really need to raise the bar and start dreaming about what it means to be 100 years old and really do well,” Carstensen says.

Life expectancy in the United States is 30 years longer than in 1900, at 47 years. And, according to Carstensen, when it comes to maximizing those decades, individual planning is certainly important, but we can’t go it alone. Our communities shape our health outcomes, as do social norms. She and her collaborators created The New Map of Life to reexamine how societal and educational structures can support lifelong learning and flourishing.

“It’s about starting the conversation, then moving to preparation, and then taking action,” says Coughlin. He says that in the longevity space, there is an entire industry of companies and influencers focused on extending lifespans. But what are you going to do with these years? Coughlin says the goal of the Longevity Readiness Index is to help people think about how to conceive these years.

The goal is not just to live longer, but to live better.