We’re living longer: here’s what to consider

Published on 3rd September, 2025 at 02:13 pm

Is it time to reinvent the way we work and retire? Let’s rethink your career, your health, and your finances.

Reading time: 3 minutes

In this article you’ll learn:

• How you should start relooking your financial planning.
• How you should start relooking your career.
• How you should start relooking your health.

The authors, Andrew J Scott and Lynda Gratton’s The New Long Life is a follow-up their 2016’s The 100-Year-Life. In it, they turn our traditional concept of the ‘three-stage life’ on its head. Instead, we’re looking at longer lives thanks to advances in healthcare, and numerous shifts in our careers.

Consider your career

Hone your ‘human’ skills

“As machines become more advanced, the jobs that will grow in number will place an emphasis on human skills. This puts a premium on more complex emotional skills (such as empathy) as well as more cognitive skills (such as judgement and decision-making),” suggest Scott and Gratton.

Plan to upskill yourself into your 60s

“The combination of longer lives and greater technological disruption will mean that in your career you will experience repeated transitions and shifts. At times this will mean that you will need to upskill to safeguard your role, whilst at other times you will need to reskill – to move into a completely different type of work, perhaps shifting from full-time to contractor or freelancer.”

School is no longer just for kids

If you’re expected to stay relevant in the working world into your 70s, you’re going to have to be open to adult education throughout your 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Instead of seeing education as something for your teens and 20s, save and plan for embarking on courses and going back to school throughout your career.

Consider your health

Prioritise your body and mind early

“Through our actions, our environment, public health and medical progress, we’ve discovered that age is malleable,” explain Scott and Gratton. “It means that the choices you make throughout your whole life course are cumulative. Ageing isn’t something that starts to happen when you get old.”

As our lives become longer, how we treat our bodies and minds becomes even more important. “Diet and exercise are important, but it’s about acting with purpose, seeking engagement and renewal, and finding ways to connect and form meaningful relationships,” add Scott and Gratton. “You have a chance to reinvent how you live – to do that you need to be healthy and imaginative.”

Consider your relationships

Get better at mixing more widely

With everything around you changing more frequently, solid, consistent relationships become an important stabiliser. On top of that, as you work for longer and encounter a wider mix of generations socially and professionally, you’re going to have to work harder at building bridges to an increasingly diverse range of people.

People will be a bigger part of your identity

“As your career goes through more frequent shifts, you’ll need to work harder at maintaining lifelong friends and investing in community relationships. Your job and employer will define you less and less and, as a consequence, more responsibilities about your future career will be transferred to you. It will be increasingly important to continually invest and renegotiate with your partners as you traverse more changes and consider more options.”

Consider your finances

What does living longer mean for your finances? Esta Theron, business development manager at Glacier by Sanlam, explains.

In the face of a longer life expectancy, how should we be adapting your financial planning?

You need to start planning for a longer retirement. A decade or so ago, you could save for 40 years and then live off these savings for 15 years. Now, people are saving less (due to job changes) and living longer.

What should people be focusing on in their financial planning?

Since we’re living longer, risk planning becomes even more important. Life cover needs to be taken out as soon as possible after you start your working career, as it is normally cheaper when you are younger and healthier.

How should you buffer changes like career transitions financially?

People tend to cash in their pension money in their employer’s retirement fund when they change from one job to another. This is the one thing to try to avoid at all costs. Never use pension money to buy a business – if the business fails, it could set your retirement plan back by many years.