When are you going to die? Sometimes I think it would be nice to know that, other times I just have no interest in knowing - a long time away I hope!!!
But, as a core part of our financial planning, we need to make some assumptions about how long we are going to live. That is so that we can work out how much needs to be saved to provide enough money to live on. The goal of financial planning is to make sure that you have enough money to achieve all your goals.
The last thing we want to happen is to not have enough money left, (this is retirement planning) or to have something happen which means we don't have enough money (this is where insurance comes in.)
Generally, we ask our clients to guess, and use some rules of thumb, like - if you live to be age 65, you will make it to age 85. Women live longer than men - that kind of thing.
But, we have discovered a new calculator, that we thought it would be interesting and fun to share with you. Please share it around with your friends and family, the more information they get, the more useful the tool will be.
When I finished the calculation - I am supposed to live to be 96. Which is all well and interesting, except my husband is only going to live to be 82 (and he is five years older than me...). So I don't know how I feel about that 19 years gap.
I thought the calculator was fun, but wondered why they didn't ask about your personal health - seems a gap to me. If there are any other gaps that you notice, let us know!
I am interested in your feedback - let us know your thoughts by email at kiwisaver@moneyworks.co.nz, or on our facebook page at
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For more blog entries that you might be interested in:
By Carey Church
