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Let your next career move come to you.

Getting old - how do you see this shaking out for you?

The idea of getting old in the UK seems so fooking grim so am wondering about trying to do it somewhere sunny. The healthcare will presumably be less but I don't mind a clean kill. Circling the drain in the drizzle nah man.

Wot octo said.

It will all be rather marvellous I think.

More theatre going, grandchildren hopefully, having time to give more back to society, pints on Saturdays with my friends and then on to the rugby. Isn’t it though?

Its pretty sunny in the south of UK. The South Coast is great. I would find it hard to live in North permanently. I am planning quite a few trips to sunny Europe. I am a bit over law and the constant petty or not so petty divisive politics in our media. I enjoy seasons. Most of my healthcare I manage myself from Google. Emergency stuff like broken leg, heart is still pretty good imo. 

Pottering about in the countryside and the odd trip somewhere sunny to deliver a boat.  Carefully taking active steps to remain active so I don't end up like my old man who struggles to get up a flight of stairs so that when the prostate comes it will be so slow that old age will kill me first.

We all get old and die clergs, but there’s no point in perma-moping about it for the many decades before it happens.

Or were you just after the attention? Again.

"oh it's fine I'll just go to the theatre" is a bit tragilol when you can't wipe your own arse

which is exactly why I think it is good to retire early when you are still healthy enough to enjoy it, even if it means having to off yourself with dignity/in style when the money runs out so you don't need to starve and be homeless.

Healthy life expectancy in the UK stands in the mid sixties I believe.

If that’s the age your parents are right now (or younger) then you dont yet have a good view of what proper old age looks like.

Ill health from seventies onwards will be the norm for most of us; I intend to live it somewhere I speak the language. Death does not bother me one bit. Illness does.

Where do you get the “healthy life expectancy” stats from?

Actual life expectancy is I think about 79 for men and 89 for women.

I also read somewhere that if women get to 75, they’re quite likely to push on to 90

There is a nursing home round the corner from my house which literally has my name on it.  Bizarre.  Not like my surname is especially unusual, but it freaks me out that the nursing home round the corner is named after me.

So yeah, I have nightmares that I'll stay where I am until I can no longer manage the stairs, then move around the corner until I die of an infected bedsore or the creepy overnight nurse on duty smothers me with a pillow and it's just another routine death at Royal Freemasons Coffee Lodge.

I have no intention of getting to the condition my father did.  

My doctor is very aware that I will not be taking any medications to prolong my life into a dementia state.  Nature shall take its course.

Clergs - obviously bad luck (cancer, car crash etc) can happen to anyone, but it’s perfectly possible to live well and be healthy and active (and wipe your own arse) well into your 80s and beyond, provided you start living healthy and get fit now and maintain it, the decline curve will be gentle and allow you to maintain daily activities and independence, and then there will be a short, sharp illness/decline and death. Versus the long and depressing illness and pain and being unable to care for yourself etc. 

 

Of course you can’t guarantee the former but you can massively improve the odds of that - but it certainly won’t happen if you assume you’re going to be immobile and wheelchair bound at 70 and need 24/7 home care or whatever. 

 

There’s a famous woman who runs Ironman triathlons in her 80s. I personally met a woman on my gap year (20 years ago so must be long dead now) in her late 80s who was able to come snorkelling with us in Asia. My wife’s uncle lives alone at 88 and still drives himself to the bird sanctuary in to do bird watching (although he’s starting to hit that period of accelerated decline and probably won’t be able to for much longer). A friend’s granddad was playing tennis (lightly) in his 90s. I just saw a 92 year old on YouTube in a powerlifting competition, deadlifting 107 kgs. 

 

But you need to be in good health, good fitness, stay active, and most importantly stop thinking of old age as a curse that is coming for you in a couple of decades or whatever. 

Stru it's possible but it's entirely down to luck and most people die in hospital

I think I'll aim for 60 then charcoal brick time. The though of being vulnerable in this world is terror.

Clergs that’s my point - you can massively improve the odds of having healthy life expectancy at 70 and 80. Not guarantee it because of course there is a luck factor, but improve it dramatically. That’s basically what the Peter Attia book is about - he calls it “healthspan” instead of “lifespan”

My dad still enjoys life despite a diet of pills and mobility problems but the latter are largely his own fault and he is at least finally doing something about it two decades too late.  He now has an aerobics step and when I walked in yesterday was stepping up and down on it which I think is related to the embarrassment of struggling with a single step at a friend's house on New Years Day.

I find it hard to imagine at this stage what it will be like to be a grandparent and how enthusiastically I’m going to want to lean into that.

 

At this stage I’m all for fooking off to the Caribbean once the youngest is 18 though, ngl. 
 

it's not  mostly about luck, it's mostly about eating well and staying active 

the day you start thinking to yourself oh I'm too old to [run/cycle/walk to the shops/climb the stairs/swim/carry the shopping] is the beginning of the end 

Heffalump

Almost everyone gets arteriosclerosis

Almost every woman gets osteoporosis

There are things you can do to improve your situation if you have the time and money but these won't prevent you from either of those fates

It's like how Victorians justified their social policy based on the concept of deserving and undeserving poor

Rham he's not vulnerable he just has no strength in his legs because he has spent most days since his late 50's sitting in an armchair all day doing nothing that even resembles activity or exercise.  His muscles have simply wasted away through lack of use.  We even had a dog who refused to go walking with him as his idea of a dog walk was 150 yards to the tree in the field and back whereas I'm a few years younger and take the dog at least 1.5km at a time and at weekends we go a load further.  What's more frustrating is that he talks about the good physio did after my mum's kneed and hip replacements but when he broke his ankle a few years ago said the physio told him he didn't need to do anything which is why he also now has one leg weaker than the other.  If he'd started with his current trainer even five years ago he'd have not fallen as many times.

What country is it where they make everyone do PT every morning in a big square. China? Good idea. Workhouses weren't cheap to run though. You've got to consider the cost.   

Well who knows but am proceeding on the basis as if I will exactly follow the actuarial tables. for a non-smoker of my year of birth, country of birth, and gender. 

If so, I'll be healthy and happy and mobile until 70, then same but with ebbing stamina until 75, 76 or 77, and after that fall off the perch at 83. All of that is fine except for managing that last bit. Fine if I am happy in an armchair, reading thrillers, looking out at the changing seasons and waxing and waning moon. Not fine if not. I have no genius plan for the latter but think about it from time to time. 

My plan involves a bag of Werthers originals. A bit of charity work. The armchair needs a pocket to put your glasses and magazines in. Savile almost got it right.  

Retire at 60, 10 years of travel and fun then 10 years of tailing off into no more than daily walks and pottering around.  My uncle is 80 this year and his life is definitely still worth living.  Keeping active and keeping bvggering on with a smile on your face is key I think. 

Clergs, I’m in my 60s

I can still run a sub-23min 5k and routinely run 1/2 marathons for the pleasure of the physical movement, I bang like diesel-driven donkey (without chemical assistance) and understand most of what is going on around me (though I have to have subtitles on when I watch Top Boy).

I am sure I will be doing this for many years to come (pray for poor Mrs P…).

 

Jeez, you lot. Healthy life expectNcy is how long you can expect to live IN GOOD HEALTH as opposed to in dire health. Which is why it is important, you might ge t to 70 with no problems bit after that you will have something wrong. Which i when you need English speaking healthcare.

I do not personally believe that all roffers are going to somehow escape this statistic.

And yet people aways believe they will escape the norm.

Any sec someone will come along and tell us about their granny chopping wood and playing chess at 90.

 

Faod - this would be an extremely rare exception 

This story about the vascular dementia patient has solidified my conviction that a firm exist plan is required before one starts to get vague. The horror of being non-verbal and unable to tell anyone about your abuse (for YEARS) is not outweighed by the tolerable years shortly beforehand.

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