We used to joke with our senior family member who said they were getting old.

  "You will live to be 100," every-one would laugh.

   Today this is no joke.  The good news is that people are living long-er. Actuaries say that amore people will live to the ripe old age of 100.

   Anna Rappaport, actuary with

William Mercer, of Chicago, says that the number of people who are at least 85 years old should more than triple -- to 14.3 million by 2040 from 4.3 million in 2002.

   The bad news is that more than 60 percent of those who live beyond 85 are expected to develop some chronic disability

   What does this mean for you and your family financially?

   It means that you need to be preparing now for, hopefully, a long .and prosperous life.  You need to make absolutely certain that your money will last for even longer than you might think.  better figures you will need income for another 20 years-plus if you retire at age 65.

   Fortunately, thanks to some new wrinkles on insurance, it's possible to fill in the gaps.

   The first step is to start now sav-ing as much as possible in your company pension, individual re-tirement

   Get a fix on how much you will receive in Social Security.  You can do that by checking with the Social Security Administration -- www.ssa.gov.

   As a rule of thumb, you should need about 70 percent of your current income, including Social Security, to maintain your standard of living.

   A number of Web sites offer cal-culators to help with this task.  Try Fidelity. com, T.  RowePrice.com and Vanguard.com

   Consider checking with your in-surance agent to see whether you can get an extension on the matur-ity of your life insurance policy.  At age 100, the cash value built up in your policy over the years equals the death benefit your loved ones stand to receive. Unless you get an extension, taxes are due on the policy earnings.  Today , many in-surance companies will extend your life insurance overage if you reach age 100.

   You also might consider pur-chasing a nursing-home rider with your life insurance policy.  But ex-pect to pay extra for it.  This way, though, if you go into a nursing home, you can tap your death ben-fits for long-term care. Annuities also may come with nursing-home protection.

   Also, consider annuities, which can guarantee you monthly income

for life. An annuity is a contact with a life insurance company that lets you invest tax-deferred.  You can set up your annuity so that if you die, the checks keep comi+ng to your beneficiary for a specific period of time.

   Today, you also can invest in mutual funds within a "variable annuity."  Insurance companies have other guarantees.

   Many now guarantee that no matter how your underlying mutual funds perform in a universal life insurance policy, you will not lose your coverage.

   Variable annuities today come with death benefit guarantees.  The insurance company will guarantee that your heirs will receive the principal or the market value of the investments, whichever is higher.

   Some insurers, for an added an-annual fee, even will guarantee your principal will grow at 3 percent to 5 percent annually up to twice the amount you've socked into the an-nuity.

   Other Offerings:

   ■ Living benefits guarantee that you will have a specific amount of money in your annuity when you begin receiving income for life.  For example, say you put $100,000 into an annuity.  The insurer guarantees that if you own that annuity for at least 15 years, you will have a base amount of $200,000 when you

annuitize. Depending on how the in-surance company annuitizes, this could mean you have enough money in the contract to get $2,000 month-ly for as long as you live.

   ■ A fistful of insurance companies will guarantee your principal is protected no matter how your mutual funds perform.  Say you in-vest $100,000 in a variable annuity stock fund.  After 10 years, it's worth just $90,000.  The insurance company will  kick in an extra $10,000 to bring it back to $100,000.