Delaying a life milestone by just one year lowers your risk of dying by 11%

You may want to hold off on stopping the daily grind.Recognizing and celebrating life milestones, like getting married, buying a home and retiring from the workforce, can benefit our health and well-being.However, one study shows that delaying a big life marker could actually have a big impact on how long you live.While more people are trending towards early retirement — Gen Z and millennials are even taking “mini-retirements” — there may be unexpected benefits to a prolonged working life.As of June, 42% of sitting CEOs were age 60 or older, and research from 2019 shows they may have the right idea about when to retire.Despite several studies on the health impacts of retirement, few have looked at how it affects longevity and the risk of dying.Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, a study of 2,956 older adults found that delaying retirement by one year decreased the risk of death from any cause by 11%, despite lifestyle, health or social and demographic characteristics.The researchers used data collected between 1992 and 2010 from the Health and Retirement Study, a study between the National Institute on Aging and the University of Michigan to “describe changes in life patterns through the retirement transition,” according to the study.The information collected included health conditions, family network, social relations, financial situation and employment status.The participants were then split into two groups — healthy and unhealthy — based on their answers to the question, “Was poor health very important, moderately important, somewhat important, or not important at all for retirement?” People who answered “not important at all” were considered healthy retirees, while those who picked any of the other three answers were considered unhealthy retirees.The healthy retirees ranked health status as “not important at all” and didn’t take it into account when considering their retirement age.Healthy retirees were mo...