BUFFALO, N.Y. — One New Year’s resolution is to get healthy, and that could lead to living longer. In fact, the life expectancy for the U.S. population in 2023 was 78.4, according to the CDC. But are you financially prepared to live longer?
Lily Vittayarukskul is the founder and CEO of Waterlily. It’s new platform that utilizes AI to predict long-term health care needs decades before they happen.
Vittayarukskul says when most people think of retirement, they think, “I’m going to be healthy. I have enough money to just spend it however I want.” But in reality, every single household, on average, is going to go through a serious form of long-term care event.
Just how much do we need to save?
Vittayarukskul says health care inflation is “mind-blowing.” She adds, “If you had a long-term care event today, it would cost a little over a quarter of a million dollars. However, most households don’t save past $150,000. And health care inflation can easily grow that cost. If you’re in your 60s, trying to prepare for long-term care, it easily reaches the high six figures, low seven figures. So that’s where you saw $1.2 million in the future. So by planning today or by waiting, it has compounding effects associated with it.”
So when do we need to start?
“The moment you think about retirement planning,” Vittayarukskul said. “Also think about the risks in retirement, including long-term care, which is the most prevalent risk in this case. So a lot of folks think about retirement planning. Often in their late 30s, early 40s and 50s. You have an up, you have the ability to save yourself millions of dollars, or at least if you’re even in your 60s, hundreds of thousands of dollars by planning today.”
How can Waterlily help?
“We have tools that actually estimate a project,” Vittayarukskul said. “How much would your money grow if you set it aside in certain types of accounts? So when we spoke to someone who was in their early 30s, they didn’t realize if you set aside $40,000 in your brokerage account that’s growing at, let’s just say 7% and 20% tax rate on that, that can grow to just over $9 million by the time they’re projected to have long-term care needs.”…