The three-stage life – learn, earn, retire – seems outdated, but what model should we replace it with?
When my mother died and my own “mortality alarm” went off, I found myself thinking deeply about ageing and the best approach to engage with it. My mum was nearly 100 when she died and my dad is alive and well in his 90s. With a bit of luck and if I stay fit and look after my health, I have a good chance of surviving into my 90s too. But is long life, as increasing numbers of us are experiencing, a blessing or a curse? I’d happily accept just 25 more years which would take me to 85. But I don’t just want a long life, I want to be productive to society. In fact, I’m committing to using my remaining 13 million minutes to age as productively as possible.
But in 2023 and following the disruption of the pandemic, what does productivity mean? Is retirement, in the traditional sense of taking a step back, still an aspiration? As a self-described Juvenile Geriatric – someone who’s begun their ageing journey but isn’t officially “old” (in Australia an ‘older adult’ is 65+) – I was brought up in the culture of a three-stage life: learn, earn and retire. But for many of us, that model feels like an outdated version. So what does the new model look like?
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