Lisa Mensah of the Aspen Institute on preparing for a financially healthy life. (VIDEO)

How to Prepare for a Financially Healthy Long Life

How to Prepare for a Financially Healthy Long Life

The citizen’s guide to the future.
Nov. 7 2013 4:29 PM
FROM SLATE, NEW AMERICA, AND ASU

Make Your Dollars Last

How you—and the economy—can prepare for a long life that’s financially healthy.

It costs a lot to live a long time.

If Americans start regularly living to 120 or more, we need to start preparing our economy, and individuals, now. At a recent Future Tense event on what longevity would mean for America, Lisa Mensah, who is the executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Initiative on Financial Security, discussed what that would mean: revamping Social Security, rethinking retirement, and much more.

Also in Future Tense’s special series on longevity:

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Why Is Everyone So Negative About Living to 120? Science fiction about longevity tends toward the dystopian.” A video interview with Sonia Arrison.

How to Make Social Security Last: If we’re going to live longer, we’ll need it more than ever,” by Matthew Yglesias.

The Jetson Fallacy: Much longer lifespans could explode the nuclear family,” by Liza Mundy.

In Sickness and in Health: Marriage may extend your life, but it also contributes to obesity,” by Briam Palmer.

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Why No One Actually Wants to Live Forever: It would be really, really dull,” by Gemma Malley.

Talking ’Bout My Generation: The Real Walking Dead: The problem with longevity? Old people,” by Brad Allenby.

Can Older Women ‘Have It All,’ Too? How longer lives will affect sexism,” by Amanda Hess.

Childhood’s End? What living longer might mean for kids and teens,” by Katy Waldman.