Both ragtime pianist Eubie Blake and baseball great Mickey Mantle are credited with the saying, "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself."
But when a group of 500 retired octogenarians was surveyed about what constitutes an average successful retirement, their focus was on taking care of the money, even more than their bodies.
The New York Life/Ipsos study asked retired octogenarians, among other questions, the most important factors in their decision to retire.
Recommended For You
Money outweighed health, with 68 percent citing financial well-being and only 53 percent saying health.
Surprisingly, age finished third, with just 42 percent saying that was the most important factor.
In addition, 54 percent said they were not expecting to live as long as they have when they were planning for retirement; and 88 percent said they'd advise younger people to recreate pension-like income for their own retirements.
The majority—52 percent—said that sources of retirement income that are on autopilot have given them greater peace of mind than accounts they have to manage themselves.
Interestingly, although it's popularly believed that their generation relies chiefly on pensions and Social Security to pay their retirement expenses, the octogenarians in fact had numerous sources of income streams—and wish they had others.
While 90 percent relied on Social Security for some of their income, just 55 percent had traditional pensions.
Savings accounts provided funds for 57 percent, while permanent life insurance (46 percent), managed investment accounts (34 percent) and annuities (income annuities, 29 percent; investment annuities, 28 percent) also helped pay their expenses.
Mortgages (23 percent) and 401(k)/403(b) accounts (22 percent) also figured into the equation.
Forty-five percent of respondents said they wished they had a traditional pension, while 36 percent expressed a desire for income annuities, 35 percent would have liked 401(k)/403(b) accounts, 35 percent mentioned investment accounts, 34 percent wished for investment annuities, 33 percent savings accounts, and 30 percent permanent life insurance.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
