Americans Want to Live to 91. How Long Does Retirement Last?

The conversation about aging has shifted. Scientists in a field now backed by billions in private funding are launching the first human safety trials of therapies that aim to rejuvenate aging cells. Gerontologist Ken Dychtwald recently wrote in Fortune that we’re living through a “longevity revolution,” noting that “our systems, products, and mindsets are still built for a short-life world,” even as tens of millions of Americans can now expect to reach their 80s, 90s, and beyond.

The question worth asking, before it becomes urgent, is whether your plan is built for how long your retirement will last.

A Pew Research Center survey of nearly 9,000 U.S. adults found that three-quarters want to reach at least 80, and nearly three in 10 are aiming for 100. Yet four in 10 adults under 65 say they’re not confident their money will last through retirement, or don’t think they’ll be able to retire at all.

The distance between the life people are hoping for and the plan they’re building is where most retirement risk accumulates. Evaluating that distance can feel uncomfortable, but most people who do find they have more options than they expected.

Americans Want to Live to 91. Most Retirement Plans Don’t Account for That.

The average American wants to live to age 91, according to Pew Research. U.S. life expectancy at birth recently reached 79 years, according to the CDC, which means there’s a 12-year spread between the number people tend to hear and the life they’re hoping for.

The average target for men is 93; for women, it’s 88. Black adults have the highest average target age among racial and ethnic groups at 95, while nearly three in 10 Americans want to reach 100.

Group	Average target lifespan (years)
All U.S. adults	91
Men	93
Women	88
Black adults	95
White adults	91
Hispanic adults	89
Asian adults	85

Source: Pew Research Center, “On average, Americans want to live until they’re 91,” based on a September 2025 survey of 8,750 U.S. adults.

Those preferences reflect a shift in how people think about aging. Today, someone who retires at 65 can expect 20 to 30 more years of life, and the science of aging is moving fast enough that those projections may keep shifting upward.

Whether or not the science delivers on its full promise in your lifetime, it’s worth asking: how long will your retirement last?

When You Reach 65, Your Life Expectancy Jumps by Seven Years

A 65-year-old in the U.S. today can expect to live to about 85, according to the CDC, which is roughly 6 to 7 years beyond the life expectancy at birth of 79. That’s because reaching 65 means you’ve already outlived the causes of early death that pull the birth average down: accidents, congenital conditions, and complications that hit younger populations harder.

Milestone	Life expectancy figure (years)	Planning implication
At birth (U.S. population)	79	Baseline number most people hear; averaged over the full population, including early deaths.
At age 65 (current retirees)	About 85	A typical 65‑year‑old should plan for at least a 20‑year retirement.
Desired lifespan (average adult)	91	Many plans should model a 25–30 year window from 65, not just 15–20 years.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, “Mortality in the United States, 2024”; Pew Research Center, “On average, Americans want to live until they’re 91”.

The real planning floor for a retirement starting at 65 isn’t 78. It’s 85. That’s a 20-year retirement before accounting for the fact that the average American is hoping for 26 years. The difference shows up in how much you need, what withdrawal rate holds, and how much buffer you’re building between your plan and its outer edge.

How Long Does Retirement Last? For Most People, 20 to 30 Years.

A retirement starting at 65 typically lasts 20 to 30 years. That’s longer than most planning guidelines assume, and beyond what the life expectancy figure of 79 suggests. A 15-year retirement and a 25-year one aren’t just different in length. Four variables change the math in ways that compound over time:

• Withdrawal rate. A rate that holds for 20 years may not hold for 26. The math gets unforgiving at the far end. Check how your current rate holds at year 25 and year 30, not just year 20, which is where most stress-test scenarios stop.
• Healthcare inflation. Costs that compound over two decades behave differently from costs that compound over three. The planning question is whether your healthcare budget accounts for a 30-year window or a 20-year one.
• Social Security timing. The case for delaying gets stronger the longer your horizon, because there are more years for you to collect higher payments. If you’re hoping to reach 91, run the breakeven calculation against that age rather than the actuarial average.
• Portfolio strategy. How you manage risk at 80 looks different from how you manage it at 70, and a longer retirement requires a plan that accounts for both. A portfolio sized for 20 years may carry less equity exposure than one that needs to last 30.

Most retirement guidelines were built with a 30-year horizon as the ceiling, but people tend to plan toward the middle and assume the longer scenarios won’t apply to them. For anyone hoping to reach 91, the longer scenario is the one to plan around.

You want a plan that holds up whether you live to 85 or to 97.

4 in 10 Americans Under 65 Don’t Think Their Money Will Last in Retirement

Financial worry is the second most common aging concern among adults under 65, behind only health, per Pew Research. Four in 10 say they’re not confident they’ll have enough income and assets to last through retirement, or believe they won’t be able to retire at all. Among adults in their early 60s, roughly a quarter say the same.

The worry goes back to specific things: Social Security’s long-term funding uncertainty, rising healthcare and living costs, and the difficulty of projecting expenses across two-plus decades. None of those concerns are irrational. They respond to planning: clearer projections, adjustments to savings rates and withdrawal strategy, a deliberate approach to Social Security.

Carrying vague financial anxiety is different from having actual numbers to work with. The uncertainty shrinks when you have specific numbers in front of you rather than estimates. The Boldin Planner lets you build that picture from your own situation and accounts.

Upper-Income Adults Are 3x More Confident Their Savings Will Last in Retirement

Older adults with upper incomes are three times more likely to feel confident their savings will last through retirement than those with lower incomes, per Pew Research. Six in 10 upper-income adults ages 65 and older say they’re aging extremely or very well. Among lower-income older adults, 39% say the same.

Outcome category	Lower‑income older adults (65+)	Upper‑income older adults (65+)
Confidence savings will last through retirement	Baseline; substantially less likely to feel highly confident	About 3× more likely to feel highly confident
Rate their overall aging as “extremely” or “very” well	39%	61%
Rate their physical health as excellent or very good	26%	49%
Rate their mental health as excellent or very good	45%	73%

Source: Pew Research Center, “Aging well: How income and health shape the experiences of older Americans” (survey of U.S. adults ages 65 and older, 2025).

The income gap runs deeper than financial confidence. Upper-income older adults are about twice as likely to rate their physical health as excellent or very good (49% vs. 26%), and far more likely to rate their mental health well (73% vs. 45%). They stay more socially active and report less cognitive decline.

Financial security buys options: better healthcare access, less chronic stress, more control over how you spend your days. Those advantages compound across a long retirement. 

The people who understand this best are those who’ve lived it. When Pew asked adults 65 and older what advice they’d give younger people, 37% said save more, invest, and live within your means. That was second only to health-related advice and ahead of everything else on the list. The respondents were speaking to their younger selves, in effect. The message is that financial preparation isn’t a sacrifice. It’s what funds your later life.

Financial Security Is the One Part of Aging You Can Build a Plan Around

Pew Research found that most Americans feel limited control over how they age. Fewer than half believe people have meaningful control over mental sharpness. Only 38% think they can influence how old they look. Physical health gets more credit; 67% say people have some control there, but even that has limits.

Financial preparation is different. The decisions you make about savings rates, withdrawal strategy, Social Security timing, and how you model healthcare costs in your 50s and early 60s shape your options across a 20-to-30-year retirement. 

That’s a long runway. Adjustments you make now carry real consequences later, and the shortfall between where you are and where you want to be is almost always closeable. A useful starting point is checking whether your current plan uses a 20-year horizon or a 30-year one, and then seeing what changes between those two scenarios.

If you want to see what your retirement looks like across different longevity scenarios, the Boldin Planner lets you model your plan against specific ages using your personal income, savings, Social Security timing, and spending assumptions. You can see where your plan holds, where it breaks, and what adjustments strengthen its outlook. 

The goal is to think through the range of futures that are possible and feel grounded in each of them. You can’t predict exactly how long you’ll live, but you can build a plan that holds up in any event.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Longevity and Retirement