A lack of financial planning predicts increased mortality risk: Evidence from cohort studies in the United Kingdom and United States

Joe J Gladstone and C Sean Hundtofte

PLOS ONE, 2023, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: We investigate whether a lack of planning and future-orientation in financial behavior is associated with a higher mortality risk. Our evidence is based on two nationally representative cohorts of older people living in the United States (n = 11,478) and England (n = 11,298), where we compared individuals’ self-reported planning horizons on spending and saving with government mortality records. Controlling for demographics, participants with a 1 SD shorter planning horizon had a 9% greater hazard of dying in the English sample (evaluated over 10 years), and a 7% greater hazard in the US sample (over 22 years). These differences in mortality risk could not be explained by variation in respondent’s life expectancy, their financial circumstances or a range of other observable covariates. Similar results are found for self-reported health, with the positive association between longer planning horizons and health strongest for those with fewest financial resources.

Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0290506

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290506

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