If I am a 65 years old, … would I still want to work?

I wonder how much I would have in my personal saving as well as in pension?

Would I be able to spend the rest of my life comfortably and in peace?

In other words, would I be able to afford a comfortable and peaceful life?

Who would be around me? My loved ones? Family? Children/grandchildren? Would my friends be still around?

Would I be staying with family or at the nursing home? Would I feel lonely?

Who would take care of me when my body is no longer able and gets weaker?

How would people treat me?

Would they see me as an incapable and outdated? Would they discriminate me? Would they treat me with respect and dignity?

How would I look? What would I eat? Would my diet be restricted?

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Simply trying to put myself in the elderly’s shoes,  I realize so many questions and thoughts have run through my small brain instantaneously.

Why are we concerned with being old or aging? Or should we?

We should because we are aging every moment from each second to hour to day to year and before we realize, we would be already in our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. Assuming we would be lucky enough to live till then, we would face the situations that any elderly face, from health, emotions, money, diet and treatment from surrounding/community/society.

According to the United Nations (UN),

• the actual number of the population aged 60 and over will  more than triple, reaching 2 billion by 2050 
• in most countries, the number of those over 80 is likely to quadruple to  nearly 400 million by then
• currently, 64 percent of all older persons  live in the less developed regions — a number expected to approach 80 percent  by 2050.
• by the year 2050, for the first time in history, seniors older than 60 will outnumber children younger than 15.

According to the studies and reports by UN and other international organizations, many countries still lack a basic social protection floor that provides income, health care and housing for their senior citizens.

Some countries such as Vietnam and Afghanistan still do not have a pension plan for all of its citizens, thus forcing the elderly to continue working. Poverty is often an issue and some elderlies resort to begging as a result. Moreover, establishing a strong economy in itself does not guarantee that a country would be able to provide an adequate support to its aging population. For example, Germany, Europe’s economic power house, lacks affordable quality care for elderly that German elderlies either decide to live at or are sent to nursing homes in Poland — a phenomenon known as “Grandma Export.”

While the governments may take the lead in ensuring that their elderlies would have adequate health and pension support, individuals like you and me who would become the elderlies may also take our own parts in managing our future — to take control of and protect ourselves, our lives and our dignities. In the meantime, we may treat the elderlies with respect and dignity and support the ones in our social circle to our best ability so their remaining days and years are spent experiencing positive and inclusive moments.

Sources: [1] http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/ageing/

[2] http://undesadspd.org/Ageing.aspx

[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/01/aging-population-support-world-elderly_n_4020858.html

[4] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-16/germans-export-grandma-to-poland-as-costs-care-converge.html