TY - JOUR T1 - Health State and the Savings Required for a Sustainable Retirement JF - The Journal of Retirement SP - 25 LP - 38 DO - 10.3905/jor.2017.4.4.025 VL - 4 IS - 4 AU - W.V. Harlow AU - Keith C. Brown Y1 - 2017/04/30 UR - https://pm-research.com/content/4/4/25.abstract N2 - Life expectancy varies greatly with health conditions, but very rarely is this relationship incorporated into retirement investment planning. This is surprising given that the vast majority of older households have one or more adverse health conditions. The authors show that the savings required to fund a successful retirement for someone with one of several diseases whose impact on life expectancy has been estimated can be reduced by as much as 26% for females and 33% for males relative to the savings required for a healthy individual. Similarly, the savings required to fund healthcare expenses in retirement can be reduced by 29% to 39%. The interaction of projected health costs and the effect of disease on life expectancy have counterintuitive effects on retirement planning. For example, the higher retiree healthcare expenses associated with conditions such as diabetes and tobacco use are offset by reduced life expectancies. The net effect is that, in certain health states, less savings are required for healthcare than would be necessary for a healthy individual.TOPICS: Retirement, wealth management ER -