{"id":36439,"date":"2026-04-28T17:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indafunds.com\/?p=36439"},"modified":"2026-04-28T17:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:24:15","slug":"most-americans-get-these-3-longevity-questions-wrong-their-retirement-accounts-are-paying-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indafunds.com\/?p=36439","title":{"rendered":"Most Americans Get These 3 Longevity Questions Wrong. Their Retirement Accounts Are Paying for It."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here\u2019s a quiz: Three multiple-choice questions about how long you\u2019ll live in retirement. Before you scroll ahead to the answers, actually try to answer each one.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the TIAA Institute and Stanford University asked 3,371 Americans the same questions. Only 6% got all three right. Six out of every 100 people.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why that matters \u2014 and following, the quiz.<\/p>\n

Why getting this wrong is a financial disaster<\/h2>\n

Before we get to the questions, understand what the researchers found about the people who answered incorrectly.<\/p>\n

Workers who think they\u2019ll spend fewer than 10 years in retirement save less. A lot less. Only 48% of them save on a regular basis at all, and just 11% save more than 10% of their income.<\/p>\n

Compare that to workers who expect 30 or more years in retirement: 71% save regularly, and 41% save more than 10% of their income.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a small gap. That\u2019s the difference between a retirement that works and one that doesn\u2019t. Take a look at how much people have saved for retirement at every age and you\u2019ll see just how thin the margin already is.<\/p>\n

And it gets worse. Workers who underestimate how long they\u2019ll live are also less likely to calculate how much they\u2019ll need (27% versus 51%), less likely to seek professional advice (12% versus 29%), and more likely to have given little or no thought to how they\u2019ll actually turn their savings into income.<\/p>\n

More than 60% of savers who expect short retirements have given little or no thought to how they\u2019ll live off their money.<\/p>\n

According to the TIAA Institute, the root cause is simple: People who believe they\u2019ll have short retirements act accordingly. The problem is, they\u2019re wrong about how long they\u2019ll live \u2014 and they\u2019re wrong because they don\u2019t understand basic facts about longevity. That\u2019s exactly what these three questions test.<\/p>\n

Question 1: How long does a 65-year-old actually live?<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s the first question the researchers asked. Men were asked about men, women about women:<\/p>\n

On average in the U.S., how long will a 65-year-old man live?<\/em><\/p>\n