Guests: Maddy Dychtwald, recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 50 female futurists globally. In 1986 Maddy co-founded Age Wave, the world’s leading think tank and corporate adviser on the far-reaching and profound impacts of our global aging population. Maddy is also an author whose latest book is Ageless Aging: A Woman’s Guide to Increasing Healthspan, Brainspan, and Lifespan.

In a Nutshell: They say that “Age is just a number.”  But what if that number could be extended by years, or even decades, while maintaining our health, vitality, and sense of purpose?

On today’s show, Maddy Dychtwald shares insights from her interviews with over 100 of the world’s top longevity experts and reveals how women are leading the way in the longevity revolution.

.Maddy Dychtwald and I discuss:

  • The challenges married women can face later in life due to their longer lifespans but lower healthspans compared to men.
  • Holistic strategies for bringing healthspan and lifespan closer together.
  • Closing the “knowing-doing gap” between ourselves and better health.
  • Setting healthy limits and building responsible habits that allow us to enjoy life longer.
  • The role purpose plays in healthspan, lifespan, and retirement planning.
  • How today’s seniors are staying active in retirement and engaging with their former careers.
  • Helping younger clients strike the right balance between enjoying today and planning for tomorrow.
  • How the “three-stage” life model is giving way to a “palette of life” model.
  • Financial planning considerations and misconceptions that women and their advisors should pay special attention to.
  • What Maddy hopes women will take away from reading her book and what writing it taught Maddy about aging, work, retirement, and herself.

.Maddy Dychtwald Quotes:

Women Get Sicker Than Men:

“Women have really won the longevity lottery. We live on average six years longer than men. So that’s on average, it can obviously be different on an individual basis, but that gives women a lot of opportunities, but also there is a dark side to that. Just thinking about it in terms of health, while women live longer than men, even if you correct for the fact that they live longer than men, women still get sicker than men in the last years of their lives.”

Plan to 100:

“We’re already seeing more and more people living to 100. So, when it comes to financial planning and health planning, I think your listeners need to own the fact that they should think about the idea of living that 100 year life path. That’s what they should plan for.”

Healthspan = Lifespan:

“My perspective is why don’t we focus on increasing our health span. Let’s have it match our lifespan so that in the last few days of our lives, we pass away or die or whatever language you want to use around it, feeling pretty well. We literally die of old age and wouldn’t that be a great thing to be able to bring joy and health and vitality and energy through 99. 9 percent of our lifespan.”

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