The aging of the aged: it's the two-edged sword of our time. I'm thrilled that I'm a baby boomer whose folks are still healthy enough to travel, walk, and even ride ocean waves on their boogie boards. They will likely be around to meet some great-grandchildren. We all pray for healthy senior years for ourselves and loved ones, but as more and more Americans live longer and longer we need to examine how to age well.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health recently completed a study for the Census Bureau on the eldest U.S. population. The report, called "90+ in the United States: 2006-2008," details the demographic, health and economic status of America's oldest adults.

"Previous seminal work on demography designated age 85 as the cutoff for what we termed the oldest-old," explains Richard Suzman, Ph.D., director of NIA's Division of Behavioral and Social Research. "With a rapidly growing percentage of the older population projected to be 90 and above in 2050, this report provides data for the consideration of moving that yardstick up to 90. Can 90 be the new 85?"

The results were not unexpected but still surprising in magnitude. In 1980, 720,000 Americans listed their age as 90 and older. This number rose to 1.9 million in 2010; by 2050, this group may number 9 million. From another angle, this means that an average person who has lived to 90 years of age has a life expectancy today of 4.6 more years (versus 3.2 years in 1929-1931), while those who pass the century mark are projected to live another 2.3 years.

By the averages, the prototypical 90+-year-old is a widowed white female with high school education living alone or in a nursing home. She relies on Social Security for almost half her personal income, uses Medicare or Medicaid, and suffers one or more types of disability. The quarter of over-90s who are male have an annual income of $20,133, while females' average annual income is $13,580.

"People are living longer for a variety of reasons -- with better and more available medical care and improved nutrition topping the list. Those improvements prompted the new look at the elderly," writes Michael Muskal of the Los Angeles Times in a recent article about the report.

Dr. Suzman notes that because of increasing numbers of older people and increases in life expectancy at older ages, the oldest segments of the older population are growing the fastest. "A key issue for this population will be whether disability rates can be reduced. This depends on what their health issues are when they arrive at old age."

Educational institutions are adjusting to the new reality. Professor Christine Milner, of Westmont College in Santa Barbara California, warns that the average person spends the last 11 years of her life dealing with lifestyle-related diseases, thus reducing the quality of the later years. "Many of our Kinesiology graduates move into careers in physical and occupational therapy," she says. "They leave our program with a desire to help older adults 'compress their morbidity': reduce the number of years spent dealing with disease and disability. Lifestyle choices such as diet and exercise matter - a lot!"

Another component of senior lifestyle is the degree to which they are freed from financial predators who can destroy their nest eggs. According to a 2010 study by the Investor Protection Trust, one in five older Americans has been sold an inappropriate investment, paid excessive fees for a financial product or service, or been a victim of fraud. Their collective losses were $2.9 billion.

David Massey, president of North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), writes, "Seniors remain our most vulnerable investors," making up almost half of investor complaints nationwide. They are more often targets partly because that's where the money is, and partly because their ability to deal with complex financial decisions wanes. Moreover, they tend to have more time to take phone calls, so they are more open to sales pitches.

There you have it. Most of us are going to be here for a long while yet. Our best chance at living a happy and healthy senior-hood is to eat right, stay active, and incorporate trusted others in the process. Family and fee-only financial advisors can help with this, but we've also got to get off the couch. In the 1873 words of British statesman Edward Stanley, "Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness."

Karen Telleen-Lawton, CFP®, is the principal of Decisive Path Fee-Only Financial Advisory
(www.DecisivePath.com) as well as an environmental and economics author and writer (www.CanyonVoices.com). She can be reached at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .