Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1916 — TEN MOST CRITICAL YEARS [ARTICLE]

TEN MOST CRITICAL YEARS

According to Insurance Expert, They Lie Between :!5 and 1.”,. How old are you? That is a Chinaman's favorite question, but one that is considered quite impertinent in this country. But When you go into an insurance office to take out a policy it is the first thing asked of you. Consequently insurance statistics are the most comprehensive and interesting ones students of longevity can examine. Everybody is more or less interested in facts about the average length of life and the things that establish that average. Therefore the statement the officers of a certain big insurance company that the critical period of man’s life lies between the ages of 35 and 45 is calculated to make us stop and ask the question above. By long and careful watching and calculating this company has ascertained that out of every 100 men who were listed as healthy at 25 years of age, 11 die between the age.-, of 35 and 15, as opposed to five deaths between the ages of 25 and 35, and only four deaths between 45 and 55. Hence they claim that the decade that lies between 35 and 45 is the most critical period of a man's ex- ! it. »r.\ If these statistics are cor-j roborated by those of physicians, I then it behooves tin- man in this period to have a care of himself and take no chance on the supposition that his constitution is “hardened’’ with time. The same insurance company, watching narrowly the business of men as they gather their policies, says that out of every 100 men who start in active business at 25, five will be rich and four will attain to wealth. The company claims that j any reliable court records will show that only three out of every 100 such business men leave estates of

as much as % 10,000. Something like 80 out of 100 leave no interest-bearing estate whatever. There is always the chance of some error in calm lations, but these chances are minimized by the companies whose interests are at stake, and so it is fair to assume that the figures above are as nearly correct as they can be made. It is therefore interesting for a man to think if he stands in the “critical decade” of life, and also to consider tinder which heading of earning capacity his name would fall. —Memphis Commercial Appeal: