Recently Mr. Sunil M Gavaskar celebrated his 60th birthday. Nothing great about it. His parents were around to bless him – this is a new phenomenon. Many people who are celebrating their 60th birthday are celebrating it with their parents around them. Many of these parents are pushing 80 – some are close to 90 rather than 80.

What it means is you really need to be prepared for a long innings. Real long innings. You will live that long – and will need to know who will pay the bill for all your expenses. If you do not want to be dependant on your children or go to a poor house, you will need to save / invest a small amount at least for retirmenent.

Apart from investing you need to develop some other interests in life – music, dance (dance improves the strength of your bones), crossword, sudoko (keeps your brain alert), walking, swimming, painting – get some ageless hobbies which will see you through your ’90s!

Create a nice group of people with similar interest – including people who are 10 years older than you and 10 years younger than you. If you need to live in a place created for senior citizens, so be it. Ensure that you shift when you can (before the age of say 72) rather than when you must (husband has died children do not want you to stay alone kind of stuff). Make the choice of living in a senior citizen home (or village) and do community building.

At least one old age home in Chennai is attached to an orphanage – makes a great combination does it not?

So look at all your options – do some activity. If you do not need the money, do it for free – a busy mind and a busy body is a good route to good health.