How do you live a long life? Research keeps pointing to the same short list. Don’t smoke. Move most days, fill your plate with plants, and keep alcohol low. Sleep seven to eight hours, and stay close to people and a sense of purpose.
The payoff can be big. A Harvard study of more than 120,000 adults tracked five low-risk habits. Keeping all five added 14 years of life expectancy at age 50 for women and 12.2 years for men, the American Heart Association reported.
Healthy aging has a money side, too. Every year you add is a year your savings, Social Security, and health coverage need to carry. The habits below give you a better shot at those years, and a plan helps you pay for them.
How Long Can You Expect to Live Today?
U.S. life expectancy at birth reached 79 years in 2024, up 0.6 year from 2023, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. People who reach 65 can expect about 19.7 more years on average. For women it’s 20.8 years, and for men it’s 18.4.
An average is a midpoint, so plenty of people live well past it. Your health, habits, and family history all shift the odds. Life expectancy calculators can turn those factors into a personal estimate you can plan around.
Which Habits Add the Most Years to Your Life?
Five habits stood out in one of the longest-running U.S. health studies: not smoking, regular exercise, a healthy weight, a good diet, and moderate drinking. Harvard researchers tracked adults in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study for up to 34 years. The more of these five habits people kept, the longer they lived.
| Habit | What counted as low risk |
|---|---|
| Smoking | Never smoked |
| Exercise | 30 minutes or more a day of moderate or vigorous activity, such as brisk walking |
| Weight | Body mass index in the normal range |
| Diet | Diet rated as healthy |
| Alcohol | Up to one drink a day for women and two for men |
Source: Li et al., Circulation, April 2018, as reported by the American Heart Association.
At 50, women who kept all five could expect to reach 93.1 on average, and men 87.6. That’s 14 and 12.2 years longer than people who kept none of them.
12 Habits of Healthy Aging Backed by Research
These 12 habits pair the big five with the social, mental, and financial habits that research ties to longer lives. You don’t need all of them at once. Small changes you keep up count for more than big ones you drop.
1. Don’t smoke, and quit if you do
Quitting smoking can add as much as 10 years to life expectancy, according to the CDC. The benefits start at any age, and they grow the sooner you quit. Smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
2. Move most days, and add strength and balance
Adults 65 and older need 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, the CDC recommends. That’s about 30 minutes, five days a week. The CDC also recommends muscle-strengthening work at least two days a week, plus activities that improve balance.
Brisk walking counts. So do gardening, dancing, and swimming. If you can’t hit the target yet, start smaller. Some activity beats none.
3. Eat a Mediterranean-style diet
A Mediterranean-style diet leans on vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, fish, and olive oil, with little red meat or processed food. In a study of 25,315 women followed for about 25 years, those who ate closest to that pattern had a 23% lower risk of dying from any cause.
Long-lived communities tend to eat this way, heavy on plants and light on meat. Okinawan elders add a habit called hara hachi bu: they stop eating when they’re about 80% full.
4. Keep alcohol low, or skip it
The Harvard study counted up to one drink a day for women and two for men as low risk. Newer guidance goes further. The Surgeon General’s advisory on alcohol and cancer risk links drinking to at least seven types of cancer, and the risk climbs as drinking increases. For a long life, less is better.
5. Sleep seven to eight hours
The CDC recommends 7 to 9 hours of sleep for adults 61 to 64 and 7 to 8 hours for adults 65 and older. Too little and too much both carry risk.
A review of 16 studies with more than 1.3 million people found a 12% higher risk of death among short sleepers. People who slept nine hours or more had a 30% higher risk. A steady bedtime, a dark room, and less screen time at night can help.
6. Stay close to friends, family, and community
Social connection may matter as much to longevity as diet and exercise. The World Health Organization estimates that loneliness is linked to more than 871,000 deaths a year worldwide. Up to one in three older adults is socially isolated.
Loneliness in retirement can creep in fast, since work supplies so much daily contact. Build new routines before you leave your job: a class, a volunteer shift, or a weekly walk with friends.
7. Keep learning new skills
Learning something new keeps an aging brain flexible. In a UC Riverside study, adults ages 58 to 86 took three to five classes at once for three months. Their cognitive scores rose to levels typical of people 30 years younger. A comparison group that took no classes showed no change.
The classes were ordinary ones: Spanish, photography, drawing, music composition, and using an iPad. Learning is one of several habits that help you stay mentally sharp as you age. Researchers who study super agers, people over 80 with the memory of someone decades younger, are still working out what sets them apart.
8. Find a sense of purpose
People with a strong sense of purpose tend to live longer. A study of nearly 7,000 adults over 50 tracked deaths over four years. People with the lowest purpose scores were more than twice as likely to die as those with the highest.
Okinawans call it ikigai, a reason to get up in the morning. Many retirees find meaning and purpose in volunteering, part-time work, mentoring, or a project they put off for decades.
9. Manage stress, including money stress
Chronic stress wears on your heart, your sleep, and your mood. Exercise, time with friends, meditation, and hobbies all help bring it down. Retirement brings its own stresses, so the first years after you stop working are a good time to watch your heart health.
Money worries are a common source of stress at any age. A written financial plan can ease them. In Schwab’s 2025 Modern Wealth Survey, 39% of people with a financial plan said they already feel financially comfortable. Among all Americans surveyed, 20% said the same.
10. Spend time outdoors
Time in nature lowers stress and gets you moving. A study of nearly 20,000 adults in England looked at weekly time in nature. People who spent at least 120 minutes a week outdoors in natural settings were more likely to report good health and well-being. The link held across ages, and the time could come in one long visit or several short ones.
11. Make room for play and joy
Adults need play, too. UC Berkeley’s Big Joy Project asked people to try one small act of joy a day for a week. More than 17,000 participants reported more positive emotions and less stress by the end of it.
Games, music, sports, and silly moments with grandkids all count. Play matters at any age, and retirement gives you more time for it.
12. Keep up with checkups and screenings
Preventive care catches problems while they’re easier to treat. Medicare Part B covers a yearly wellness visit, and you pay nothing if your provider accepts assignment. The visit builds a personal prevention plan and a checklist of recommended screenings.
Original Medicare doesn’t cover most routine dental care, eyeglasses, or hearing aids. Those gaps matter, because untreated vision and hearing problems can affect your safety and your social life. Budget for them as part of your health care costs in retirement.
Does a Positive Attitude Toward Aging Help You Live Longer?
How you think about getting older may shape how long you live. Yale researcher Becca Levy followed 660 adults for up to 23 years. Those with positive views of aging lived about 7.5 years longer than those with negative views.
The gap held after accounting for age, sex, socioeconomic status, loneliness, and health. The study appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2002. Your outlook is one more habit you can work on.
How Does a Longer Life Change Your Retirement Plan?
A longer life means a longer retirement, and your money has to cover every year of it. If you retire at 65 and live to 90, your savings need to last 25 years. For most people, retirement lasts 20 to 30 years.
Planning to an average age leaves you short if you outlive it. Pick a planning age past your expected lifespan, such as 95, and adjust as your health and finances change. If your parents lived into their late 90s, it’s worth checking how much you’d need to live to 100.
A longer life raises three costs in particular:
- Running out of money. Income that lasts for life helps here. Delaying Social Security raises your monthly benefit for the rest of your life. Of all the Social Security strategies, it pays off most when you live a long time.
- Health care. Fidelity estimates a single 65-year-old will spend $185,500 on health care in retirement. Each extra year adds premiums, copays, and prescriptions.
- Long-term care. About 70% of people turning 65 will need some long-term care, according to HHS. Planning for long-term care early gives you more ways to pay for it.
Cognitive decline is part of the longevity picture, too. Name powers of attorney and organize your accounts while you’re healthy. These financial planning steps for dementia protect you and the people who may help you later.
How Can You Plan for a Longer Life?
The Boldin Planner lets you set your own longevity age and see whether your money lasts that long. A few scenarios worth running:
- Set your longevity age to 95, then 100, and compare your projected savings.
- Add long-term care costs in your 80s.
- Compare claiming Social Security at 62, 67, and 70.
- Raise your health care costs and see how your plan holds up.
Healthy habits give you a better shot at a long life. A plan gives those years a financial footing. Start with one habit this week and one scenario in your plan.
FAQs About Living a Long, Healthy Life
Is it too late to build healthy habits after 60?
It's not too late to build healthy habits after 60. Quitting smoking helps at any age, and older adults who start exercising gain strength, balance, and stamina. Adults in their 60s, 70s, and 80s can also sharpen memory and thinking by learning new skills. Start with one change you can keep, then add another.
What's the difference between lifespan and healthspan?
Lifespan is the total number of years you live. Healthspan is the number of those years you spend in good health, free of serious disease or disability. Many longevity habits extend both. For retirement planning, healthspan matters because active years tend to cost more in travel and hobbies, while later years cost more in care.
What age should you plan to live to in retirement?
Most retirement plans work better with a planning age past your expected lifespan, such as 95 or 100. An average age is a midpoint, so planning to it leaves a real chance of outliving your money. Use your health, habits, and family history to choose an age, then revisit it every few years.
How can you estimate your own life expectancy?
Online life expectancy calculators estimate your lifespan from your age, sex, health, habits, and family history. Try two or three and compare the results, since each one uses different data. Your doctor can add context about your health risks. Treat the result as a planning input you update over time.
How does living longer affect your retirement costs?
Living longer stretches every retirement cost over more years. You'll need more savings to cover living expenses, and health care costs rise with age. The odds of needing long-term care climb in your 80s and 90s. Lifetime income, such as Social Security or a pension, helps because it keeps paying as long as you live.
