When Will You Die?
Written by Paul Siluch
September 27th, 2024
“The only thing I want to know is where I'm going to die so I never go there.”
– Charlie Munger - Warren Buffett’s partner, died at age 99
We’d all like to know when we will die. Think how easy it would be to plan your life:
- You’d know how many books you could read.
- You’d know how many trips you had left.
- And your financial planner could help you spend your last dollar on your last day.
Of course, it is never that easy.
Ancient civilizations were more concerned with a successful trip to the afterlife, as opposed to when the trip started.
It was the god’s will when your time was up.
There were elaborate ceremonies and rituals to prepare for the journey. The Egyptians went so far as to remove the abdominal organs and place them in jars.
The brain was considered a waste of space and discarded. The actions of modern politicians demonstrate why the Egyptians may have been right about this organ.
Knowing your date of death was not important until the last century. Until then, you worked until you dropped. Excess money was only for kings and queens.
After that, one of your ten children cared for you.
Once we began living longer, thanks to better nutrition and fewer children, the concept of a “life of leisure” was born. The U.S. Social Security Act of 1935 enshrined retirement payments to those achieving a certain age and finished with employment. Retirement pensions have since been introduced in every developed nation.
In 1935, managing the money to pay those government pensions was easy. There were few retirees to worry about. In 2024, with close to 20% of the population over 65 (census.gov), pension finances are strained. Accurate longevity calculations matter a great deal.
The Math of Life
Ever since lifespans have been studied, genetics were thought to be the key determinant.
We believed ancestry determined 20-30% of how long you would remain on Earth (ScienceDaily.com). However, a 2018 study done by Ancestry.com scanned 54 million family trees encompassing 406 million people and found this was wrong. Your parental genes only account for about 7% of your lifespan.
This means environment, behaviour, nutrition, and access to health care matter far more than how long mom and dad lived.
In other words, how you live makes the biggest difference in how long you will live.
Here are U.S. life expectancies from Social Security data. Canadian data is slightly better up to age 60 and then is almost exactly the same.
| Age | Male | Female |
| 0 | 74 | 79 |
| 25 | 75 | 80 |
| 50 | 78 | 82 |
| 60 | 80 | 84 |
Outside of environment, there are three primary ways to actively increase your years of life:
- Mind
- Mood
- Metabolism
Pay attention to the actions coloured in green – these lead to more years of life – and red – these subtract from your potential years.
Mind
Dementia and Alzheimer’s are the two big brain diseases of old age.
Like a muscle, your brain needs rest and exercise. These delay brain disfunction:
- Sleep 7 hours a day, if possible. Many seniors take a European nap after lunch.
- De-stress your mind through escapist reading, meditation, or a walk. Scrolling newsfeeds doesn’t count!
- Engage in conversations, do puzzles, or read challenging topics. Keep your mind active.
- Research by the Mayo Clinic suggests you can add up to two years to your life expectancy by getting adequate sleep and keeping your mind challenged.
“We read and think.”
– Charlie Munger
Mood
Depression is very common as we age. Loneliness and isolation are the primary causes.
If you are lonely and depressed, this often leads to unhealthy eating and lack of exercise. Both can increase blood pressure and lead to dementia.
There are three ways to combat loneliness:
- Connect with old friends and family, daily if possible. Join a church. A recent Dutch study showed loneliness is more important to women and can reduce their longevity more than men.
- Get a cat. A purring cat on your lap adds years to your life, and life to your years.
- Find a purpose to get up. Can you help someone else?
“The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.”
- Albert Schweitzer
A Duke University study of people at age 60 who considered themselves lonely lived approximately three years less than those with more social contact.
And the most important part…
Metabolism
Look after your body. There are four important steps here:
- Get a doctor. You take your car in for servicing. How about your body?
- Prostate, breast, and colon cancer are all diseases that are easily caught with early screening.
- Same with high blood pressure.
- Early interventions due to regular testing can add up to two years of lifespan, on average (Statista).
- Your fuel.
If you are obese in your 20’s, subtract six years of years of life expectancy! (International Journal of Obesity, Australia study).
- Packaged snacks and fast foods have way too much sugar, salt, and saturated fats.
- Eat a little less. Okinawans are some of the longest-lived people on Earth. They have a saying “Hara hachi bu” which means “Eat until you are 80% full.”
- Smoking at 20 shortens your lifespan by ten years. But quitting can add substantial years back! Add six life years back to your lifespan if you quit at age 50, and up to nine years added back if you quit at age 30! (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, WHO)
- Drinking four alcoholic drinks a day can shorten your lifespan by five years (Harvard health). But when you hit 65, taking one drink a day cuts your Alzheimer’s risk in half (University of California).
- Start your engines. Most people who live the longest exercise their hearts and cardiovascular systems regularly. Do these at any age.
- Walk, ride a bike, dance.
“People who engage in leisure-time physical activity can extend their lives by as much as four years, compared with similar-weight people who do no such activity.” (Harvard Health)
- Practice balance to stay upright.
- Do even small strength exercises. To build big muscles? No. So you can get out of bed or off the toilet.
Mind, Mood, and Metabolism
Some financial planning questionnaires ask about parent age but almost none quantify years added or subtracted from lifestyle. These are questions we may ask you when preparing financial plans in the future!
In the meantime, even little exercises for your mind, body, and mood can make a big difference.
How we live makes a big difference to how long we live. If the median lifespan at age 60 is 82, here is the potential spectrum from the points above:
| All the worst habits | Median | Optimized Life |
| - 3 lonely | + 2 sleep | |
| - 6 obese |
+ 1 one drink a day after 65 |
|
| - 10 smoking | + 4 physical activity | |
| - 5 drinking heavily |
+ 2 regular medical care/screening |
While we can’t predict the exact date of our departure, we can certainly make the journey more enjoyable. After all, life isn’t just about counting the years, but making the years count.
The downside to living longer is ensuring your money lasts as long as you do. This is why we manage portfolios with a "pension mindset" - steady, conservative income streams and moderate growth.
Our dividend value discipline approach has now been running successfully for almost 25 years, generating reliable returns and income while protecting capital.
Call us and see if it is right for you.
Let's discuss how to align your finances with your longevity goals.
In the meantime, grab that book you’ve been meaning to read, plan that dream trip, and maybe even adopt a purring cat. And remember, it’s never too late to start living your best life—one healthy habit at a time.
