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It's official - old age is a myth.

Okay, maybe not a myth, but definitely an ill-defined and misunderstood facet of modern living.

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, based in Austria, said this week that a 65-year-old person should no longer be considered old, and that the burden on society of an ageing population is overestimated.

The reason, simply, is that we are much fitter and healthier going into retirement age than we were a few decades ago.

The scientists have developed a new range of definitions, criteria and measurements of ageing, and their findings could kickstart a reassessment of government health and age policies.

The full story is here: news.com.au

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: 60s, Changes, Retirement

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What is the best retirement age?

April 11th 2010 01:19

The logical retirement age has been a matter of much debate and varied opinion. Traditionally, it is in the early to late 60s, and many countries have legislation, such as laws governing employment and pension entitlements, to that effect.

For many, retirement can't come soon enough, a sentiment embedded in the culture of societies which are intolerant of older people in the workplace, and which place emphasis on financial planning for the "golden years".

Others, however, question what is so golden about retirement. For those who have built careers which have sustained them intellectually as well as financially, reaching a retirement age determined by some faceless bureaucratic dictate can be a negative.

No matter what age we are, we need something to occupy our minds. Just as a house is usually the largest financial commitment most people make in their lives, a career is usually the largest intellectual commitment. Being told to turn that off the day you turn 65 can be seriously unsettling.

Many people want to continue working until they, rather than bureaucracy, decide they are ready to retire. Many argue that governments should do more to facilitate that choice and that freedom.

Someone who would no doubt agree is John Paul Stevens, the leader of the liberal bloc on the United States Supreme Court. Justice Stevens announced this week his intention to retire when the court finishes its work for the summer, in June or July. At that point, Justice Stevens will be 90.

We hope he is planning a second career writing learned tomes and mentoring bright young legal minds.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: 60s, Life questions, Retirement

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Don't hold your breath waiting for a mid-life crisis

February 2nd 2010 10:40

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

- Samuel Ullman

What is, for most of us, the happiest period of our lives? When we are young and carefree? When we are old and wise? Surely not somewhere in the middle, in the roiling waters infested by that terror of the psyche — the mid-life crisis.

Yes. Just that.

According to research by Tel Aviv University psychologist Carlo Strenger, not only are our middle years our happiest but their nemesis, the mid-life crisis, is actually a myth.

Strenger and his team got into the heads of about 1,500 people before coming to this conclusion. "Most of them actually say that they are better off and happier and more balanced than they were when they were 20 years younger," he found.

The psychologist Elliot Jacques coined the term “mid-life crisis” around 1970. He had started with the fact that the average human lifespan was 70 years, and he surmised that the average person’s quality of life started going down after age 35. If that was the case, thought Jacques, it was natural to expect some extreme reactions as one contemplated mortality.

"Shiver with anticipation," as Frank sibilated in the Rocky Horror Show.

The surprise responses to Strenger's survey attracted the attention of a another psychologist, Peter S. Kanaris, of Long Island in the US. And he decided they had a point.

The 40s and 50s, Kanaris said, can be viewed as times of contentment. “People in mid-life have reached a time where they are a little more settled and established. Prior to mid-life, people are building families, paying mortgages, developing in their careers at a time when there is much more uncertainty than usual. This creates a great deal of stress.”

By the time we are middle-aged, he concludes, we typically have substantially lessened the financial strains on our lives.

So must we let go of the potential of a mid-life crisis? I mean, let's face it, the word potential there could be replaced by allure. Promise. Attraction, even already. We are talking about, y'know, young women and sports cars and revisitations of youth.

B.J. Gallagher, author of a book entitled It’s Never too Late To Be What You Might Have Been, pours cold water on all that, and agrees with Strenger and Kanaris. "A so-called mid-life crisis these days is really more of a mid-life transition," she says.

It's nice that such revolutionary and revelatory scientific endeavour brings us ever deeper understanding of life.

But what about my Ferrari?

New York Daily News

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: 50s, 60s, Life questions, Mid-life crisis

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Too old to write fiction?

April 17th 2009 04:28

Dame Margaret Drabble

Respected English writer Dame Margaret Drabble has announced that she will not add to her list of 17 novels because she has developed a fear of repeating herself.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: 60s, Forgetfulness

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Don't go into retirement cold turkey

March 31st 2009 00:01

"I am now 67 and am having the time of my life," writes Joe Collier on the BMJ (British medical journal) web site.

Collier's argument for an immediately satisfying life in the early years of retirement is to prepare early, cutting down working hours and involvement in the two or three years before retirement

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: 60s, Retirement

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What would I know?

March 4th 2009 22:10

competency training certificate IV work career older old

The processes and requirements of job applications have become sophisticated and streamlined. But is something getting lost along the way?

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: 50s, 60s, 70s, Jobs, Red tape

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