Five Things That Can Get Better With Age

Planning financially in retirement may help make aging more comfortable

Yes, there are good things about being older, such as increased happiness, less stress, better marriages, and deeper friendships. You seldom hear that: People tend to focus on the negatives of aging.

Unfortunately, though, aging can be expensive. One of the biggest threats to a retirement nest egg, besides the possibility of outliving it, is the high cost of care for increasing health needs.

Things That Can Get Better With Age

An article in Consumer Reports on Health found that some things can get better with age:

1. You can get wiser. This one may seem intuitively obvious, but as a researcher once said, “If you can’t measure something, it doesn’t exist.” Research conducted by the Universities of Texas and Michigan found that significantly more older people ranked in the top 20% in wisdom performance and the group with an average age of 65 consistently outperformed younger participants. Maybe there’s some truth to the joke about parents seeming to get smarter as their kids get older.
2. You may have fewer difficult emotions. A Gallup survey found that people in their 70s and 80s reported less stress, worry, and anger than younger respondents. Curiously, stress peaks at age 25 and steadily declines, dropping rapidly from 60 to 73.
3. You may become happier. A study by Stanford and Tufts University professors said that aging is associated with increased emotional well-being.
4. Your marriage might be stronger. The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships found that older couples experience greater satisfaction and positive experiences with each other. The report also says happily married older people have better health, quality of life, and relationships with their children and friends.
5. Your relationships might get deeper and richer. While younger people have more friends, the quality of older people’s relationships becomes richer. A study done by Case Western Reserve University found that volunteering was the most consistent predictor of cognitive well-being in people over age 72.

Plan Financially

Even with all these positives, getting older isn’t exactly something to be too excited about. Yet it doesn’t mean our golden years will necessarily be overridden with tarnish and rust.

Living a healthy lifestyle and planning financially for retirement can certainly help make aging more comfortable. And clearly, aging is better than the alternative of not being around to grow old.

Contact us to help with your retirement planning.