Retiring at 65 Might Be Too Late (Here’s Why)

Most retirement plans focus on money alone, but the equation is incomplete without factoring in healthspan. Lifespan is how long someone lives, but healthspan is the number of years spent in good physical and cognitive health. The gap is significant. The average American lives to 77, but healthspan often ends around 66.

This creates a retirement paradox. Many professionals work into their mid-60s to maximize Social Security and retirement accounts, only to discover declining health limits the freedom they saved for. The financial benefits of working longer are measurable, but the hidden costs are just as real: strained relationships, stress-related health problems, and missed life experiences.

True retirement planning goes beyond asking “Can I afford to retire?” The real question is “What is the cost of not retiring?” For those financially secure, continuing in a stressful job can shorten healthspan and diminish quality of life.

The hardest retirement stories are not about running out of money. They are about running out of health before enjoying the freedom that was earned. A strong plan considers both financial security and healthspan, ensuring not just wealth in later years, but the ability to create memories when they matter most.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What if retiring at 65 means you only get five good
years of retirement before yourbody starts saying no?
What I'm referring to here isthe difference between lifespan
and healthspan, and that's why Iwant to show you in today's
video how waiting until fullretirement age might cost you
more than just time.
It might cost you some of thebest years of your life.
So to illustrate that, let'sclearly define both these terms

(00:21):
I'm talking about.
I'm talking about lifespan, I'mtalking about healthspan.
Your lifespan is how much moretime do you have until you pass
away?
That is a number that so manyof us think about.
I'm going to retire in my 60s.
I'm going to live until my 80sor 90s.
That's your lifespan, but yourhealthspan is very different.
Your healthspan is the numberof years lived in good physical
and cognitive condition.

(00:41):
Now here's a stat to keep inmind the average American lives
until age 77, but they only havea health span until age 66.
Now, obviously, we're talkingabout averages here, and
averages are going to bedifferent for everybody, but
these are very important thingsto understand because they are
going to relate in very specificways to each of your individual
retirements.
So, as we start to look at ourhealth span, health span defined

(01:04):
as the period of life spent ingood health, free from chronic
disease and disabilities ofaging.
Sure, the average American'slifespan is 77, but the health
span is 66.
Why is that relevant toretirement?
Retirement's all about moneyand planning and preparing.
Yes, what are we planning andpreparing for, though?
We're preparing for the abilityto have a healthy, a productive

(01:25):
, a fulfilling, a purposefulretirement.
It's very difficult to do thatwhen you no longer have your
health, and one more point toconsider to really drive this
home is when I talk about a lifeexpectancy of age 77, that is
what it is for the US, butthat's from birth, meaning the
day you're born your averagelife expectancy is 77.
If you have already reached theage of 60, then your life

(01:47):
expectancy is actually 84.
Specifically, if you're a womanand you reach the age of 60,
your life expectancy is 85.
And if you're a man, your lifeexpectancy is 82.
So, beyond that 77 average thatwe're looking at, here's how
this ties into your retirementplan.
If you've run a financialprojection before, either on
your own or with a financialadvisor, you've probably seen

(02:07):
something that looks just likethis.
Well, this is showing you isevery single year from today
until the age at which you'reprojected to pass.
Here's your portfolio balanceand ideally, that portfolio
balance lasts all the way and iscontinuing to grow, even
throughout your retirement, allthe way up until you're passing.
So we look at this and what wefocus on, if you look at this
again, is this far right-handside.
What I want to see is do I havemoney that's met my income

(02:28):
needs throughout retirement andat the end, do I still have
something in case I keep livinglonger, in case there's a
terrible market, in case I wantto pass money on to children or
grandchildren, whatever it is?
That's the point that we'refocused on, but that's the wrong
focus in a lot of ways.
Yes, we want to make sure wehave money left for the rest of
our life, but this is where wereally should be focused.
How do we make sure that we'reputting our portfolio, that

(02:48):
we're looking at our financialplan, in the proper context,
which is your portfolio'sability to support you is going
to look very different in theearly years of retirement
assuming you have your healthand your vitality and your
energy than it is in the latteryears of retirement.
It's not saying in one case youneed portfolio and in one case
you don't.
You absolutely need it.
But if all we're looking at ismaximizing the terminal value,

(03:11):
what are we sacrificing today todo that?
What are the costs ofcontinuing to work, continuing
to have that toll taken on ourbodies, if it's sacrificing the
best years of our retirement inorder to build up more money for
the latter years of ourretirement?
Where order to build up moremoney for the latter years of
our retirement where we're notable to do that much anyways?
I've had clients who keptworking until their mid to late
60s, even though they could haveretired much earlier, and they

(03:32):
say you know what I'm doing this?
Because when I do retire I'mgoing to be able to take the
best trips in the world, I'mable to do whatever I want, join
the nicest country clubs.
But by age 70, the kneereplacement, the chronic illness
, the lack of energy preventedthem from actually doing some of
these things.
They sacrificed their earlieryears of retirement to make more
money, but they couldn'tactually use the extra money and

(03:53):
translated it into any higherquality of life.
The best years of theirretirement passed them by
because they didn't prioritizethe things that mattered when
they mattered and they onlyfocused on one aspect of their
retirement plan.
So my question to you is what'sthe cost of a delayed
retirement?
Is it missed time with kids andgrandkids while you still have
the ability to be active?
Is it missed trips that you andyour spouse could have taken

(04:14):
but you might not get theopportunity to take in the
future?
Is it the missed time that youcould have taken care of your
body and your health that you'renever going to be able to get
back?
When we think about compounding,we think about it from a
financial standpoint.
What's the compounding thesedecisions are going to have when
it comes to my portfolio valuein the future?
Apply that same framework toyour health, to your

(04:35):
relationships, to your hobbiesthe things that you're going to
do that are actually going toprovide purpose and meaning and
joy in your retirement.
Going to do that are actuallygoing to provide purpose and
meaning and joy in yourretirement.
If we're so focused on thefinancial side, we cannot invest
in the other things, the thingsthat truly matter in our
retirement years.
The hard part about all this isthere's a very tangible reward
for continuing to save andcontinuing to invest.
I see the impact of more moneygoing to my 401k of more equity

(04:58):
vesting, with my stockcompensation of one more bonus
coming through.
That's a very clear scorecardthat I can track.
What I can't see is a scorecardfor relationships, for health,
for purpose, for contentment.
Those are some things that areinvisible but far more
meaningful.
Now to take a big step back,obviously you need money to make
this all work.
If you have not saved a dime,this conversation is probably

(05:20):
irrelevant.
You need to make sure thatyou're at that place where you
are financially independent.
But once you are there, askyourself what's the cost of
continuing to do this?
If you love work, if you getenergized from work, if you have
relationships, if there'spurpose, if there's structure,
keep working.
But if you're in a job that'sstressing you out, burning you
out, pulling you away from thethings that actually matter, and

(05:41):
you have that financialindependence, what is it costing
you to continuing to work?
What's it costing you tocontinue to accrue that social
security benefit that's gettinghigher and higher?
That feels good, but don'tthink that it's coming at zero
cost.
What's the cost to yourrelationships, your health, your
ability to use this finite time?
We have here this finite timethat's even more finite when we

(06:03):
consider our health span and notjust our lifespan.
So, as we're having thisconversation, this isn't
designed to be a fear-basedconversation.
You're missing something.
What it is designed to be iscalled action.
Can we be intentional with theway we plan for our retirement?
Yes, more money is better if itis serving something, if it is
serving our ability to do whatwe want to do.
But more money is not better.
More money is better if it isserving something, if it is

(06:24):
serving our ability to do whatwe want to do.
But more money is not better.
More money is actually worse ifit means that to get more money
, we must sacrifice more moretime, more energy, more things
we could have been doing inother areas of our life.
That's where it's starting tocost us.
So what can you do?
Well, number one create afinancial plan.
Work with a financial advisor.
If you haven't done this on yourown, understand what do you
need to do.
How long do you need to work,how much do you need to have

(06:46):
saved to live the life you wantto live?
So understand what thatfinancial independence number
looks like and where you are inrelation to it.
If you're not already there,how can you get there in a way
that allows you ideally toprioritize the things that
matter today while also buildingthe financial resources to be
in a position to retire in thefuture?
If you are already there, whydo you keep working?

(07:08):
Work, as I mentioned, can bewonderful.
If you love work, if workprovides more than just a
financial benefit, by all meanskeep doing it.
But what I see time and time andtime again is that individual
who's maybe in their early tomid 60s they're earning more
money than they've ever earnedthey don't love their job.
It's taken a tremendous toll onthem in terms of their stress

(07:30):
levels, in terms of their health, in terms of their ability to
be present for their loved onesand do other things.
How can you turn away thehighest salary you've ever had
in your life?
How can you turn away one morebonus?
How can you turn away maxingout your retirement plans again?
How can you turn away accruingmore income that's going to
maximize your social securitybenefit and that's correct?

(07:50):
If the only lens we're lookingthrough is a financial one, why
would you turn that away?
Maximize this, ride this,optimize this, but that's only
one lens, that's only one thingthat we need to be looking
through, and I've seen far toomany clients.
I've seen far too many peoplewho have sacrificed the things
that actually matter just formore money.
They didn't have the health,they didn't have the

(08:11):
relationships and, in somereally tragic cases, they didn't
even have their own life leftto enjoy some of these things
when it was all said and done.
So I want you to redefine whatwealth looks like for you.
Yes, it's finances, but it'salso time, it's also
relationship, it's also purpose,it's also hobbies, it's your
ability to do all the thingsthat lead to a meaningful life.
How do you take all thesethings into account?

(08:32):
So, when you look at yourfinancial plan, it's leading to
a better life, not just a morewell-optimized financial
strategy.
So, in closing, ask yourselfwould you rather have more money
in your 80s or more memories inyour 60s?
Only you can decide that answer.
But the challenge here, theopportunity here, is to say how
can you start driving yourfinancial strategy?

(08:53):
How can you create a financialplan that supports the life you
want to live?
Do that on your own, do thatwith a friend, do it with a
financial advisor, but howeveryou do it, do it, make sure that
you do these things so that youlive a life of intention, a
life of purpose, a life thatsupports what you actually want
to be doing, as opposed todrifting aimlessly and getting
stuck in this trap of thinkingthat continuing to work forever,

(09:15):
continuing to maximize thefinancial side of things forever
, is somehow magically going toget you to where you want to go.