The 100-Year Club – Want to Join?

Why you'll likely have a very long future ahead of you

Ric Edelman: It's Thursday, January 4th. Coming up on today's show, you just might live to age 100 or beyond. But do you really want to? I'm going to tackle this crucial question for you today. 

Before we begin today's podcast, I want to start off with a follow-up of the interview that I did last week with J.B. Liebstein, the financial advisor from Edelman Financial, who has given up his life here in the US to support the soldiers in Israel in their fight against Hamas. JB has created a nonprofit organization called Shabbat Alone Together, where he is each Friday evening feeding members of the Israeli military. And this is costing $5 per meal. And he is at last count serving 3,000 meals a week to soldiers on the front lines. JB described what he is doing, and we made the offer for you to support his efforts.

Jean and I promised to match all of your contributions up to $100,000, and I wanted to tell you what is now been the result. 313 of you have made donations ranging from $10 all the way up to $5,000. Three donated that much money. Another three listeners gave $3,000 each. One gave $2,500. Four gave $2,000. One gave $1,700, another one gave $1,500. The average donation was $320. The median was $100, which means of those 313 listeners, half gave less than $100 and half gave more than $100. But the grand total of those 313 listeners: $100,261.30.

So Jean and I are very excited that we will be fully matching all of that. And JB is going to end up with $200,000 to provide meals, clothing and other support for the Israeli soldiers who are defending their nation against these terrorists. Thank you so much for your contribution. I am so grateful. I know JB is grateful. I just wanted to say thank you so very much. 

Now let's get back to the podcast. Last week or two, I talked about how the FDA has conditionally approved a new drug that extends the life and health of dogs. This drug can double the life expectancy of big dogs from 7 to 14 years. You think they'll create a drug that does that for humans? You go from living from age 70 to age 140. Do you want to?

So often when I mention the idea of living to 100 or 120, people often tell me that they don't want to. That's because in their heads, they're thinking of Whistler's Mother. She was 62 when Whistler painted her famous portrait. And I agree with you. Who would want to live to age 90 if all that means is you're sitting in a wheelchair staring out a window of your nursing home while drooling. That's not a fun future to contemplate, but hey, that's not going to be your future. That was your future for 50-year-olds 100 years ago, but your future will look a lot more like Charlie Hauser, not Whistler's Mother.

Who's Charlie Hauser? He's 88 years old, and he still competes in slalom races on the ski slopes. Or Klaus Oberhammer. He's 104 and still skiing. And he says that when he was in his 80s, he was skiing better than most people in their 60s. How about Jan Brunvand? He skied 77 days in the year that he turned 77. He's now 90 and he's still skiing. He's a member of the Wild Old Bunch, a group of 100 skiers in ages from 60 to 102. 

You know, the 65 plus crowd isn't just skiing. Even more of them are running. Marcos Masella, he's 81 years old and he's still running marathons this year. He finished one race in the top third, even though almost everybody behind him was 20 years younger. There are half a million Americans over age 65 who run in races, everything from 5K's to marathons.

Remember when Willard Scott used to wish people a happy birthday when they turned 100? My grandmother got a birthday card from the white House when she turned 100 back in 1999. Back then, turning 100 was unusual. So much so, it was worthy of a shout out on TV or a card from the president.

But today, 120,000 Americans are over age 100. I'll bet you know somebody who is, or somebody who lived past that age, and you'll probably live past that age, too. We're living smarter than our elders did. We're drinking less. We're smoking less. We eat better. We exercise better. We focus on stress and getting a good night's sleep. We know that healthy relationships help us live longer. By the time you are 100, you'll be healthier than when you're 65. Thanks to all of that, plus continuing advances in medical technology and innovation. So yeah, get excited about your future because you're going to have a really long one.

Coming up on tomorrow's show: While you're trying to live a long and healthy life, guess what surprising thing is likely to kill you in retirement? I'll give you the answer tomorrow, along with ways you can prevent it from happening. Plus, an unrelated conversation with George Vradenburg of US Against Alzheimer's. Be sure to tune in. See you then. 

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