New research from the Challenger Institute for Lifetime Income has recognised longevity risk could become more severe as it revealed a growing gap between the time Australians leave the workforce and the remaining years of their lives, meaning they are likely to spend a longer time in retirement.

“[From the study], if we look at what’s the probability when you’re 65 that you’re going to live to be 95, if you’re a male, that comes out as being 21 per cent, and if you’re a female, it comes out to be 28 per cent,” Challenger chief economist Dr Jonathan Kearns noted at a media roundtable held today.

“However, if you’re a couple, both aged 65, the probability at least one of you reaches the age of 95 is, and because it can be one or the other, it ends up being a higher probability. We’re then talking about 43 per cent.

“So that radically changes the thought of how long do my retirement savings need to last for.”

The analysis coincides with hosting lead scholars from the Stanford Center on Longevity to discuss its “New Map of Life” research suggesting traditional expectations around education, career and retirement needs to be revised.

“The 100-year life is here, but we’re still following a script written for a much shorter one,” Stanford Center on Longevity associate director and senior research scholar (emerita) Martha Deevy said.

“For generations, we’ve organised our lives around three distinct stages: education, work and retirement. But longer lives mean that model is no longer fit for purpose, with more time to learn, change careers, care for family and contribute to our communities.

“The ‘New Map of Life’ recognises that life is rarely linear. It brings unexpected opportunities and challenges, and having the flexibility and confidence to navigate these changes is an important part of living a happy and fulfilling life.”

According to Deevy, the age diversity of a country’s given population is one area requiring a change in attitude to accommodate the longer life spans of individuals.

“Historically we have talked about the aging population – we have more people and [more] old people. The grey tsunami. The old people are taking jobs from young people. The old people are taking money from younger people,” she noted.

“[But] we think that there is an opportunity since we’re aging differently, we’re living longer and living differently, [where] we can actually optimise and use age diversity differently than we did before.

“We know that for many reasons, both economic and social, age diverse workplaces are more productive than single-generation or cohort-oriented workforces.”

Further, she cited Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development studies that have shown high productivity, greater employee satisfaction and lower staff turnover from multi-generational workforces.

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