Planning for Old Age: The Ultimate 7-Point Checklist to Grow Old Peacefully and Gracefully

Defining & Classifying Old Age

Old age has many interpretations, but most dictionaries and encyclopedias define the onset of old age from 60 years. Let’s go one step further and classify the various stages of old age as follows;

Young Old Age 60 – 70 Years
Middle Old Age 70 – 80 Years
Old Old Age 80 Years & Above

This classification is especially relevant as these three different stages of old age have bring different requirements by the elderly for assistance and care that they might require. Let’s quickly take a peek into the daily lives of a typical person in each of these age groups;

Young Old Age

This is the time when most people will stop active professional life. Both the spouses are still alive, children have gone away for studies or early jobs and maybe the eldest is even married. There are a few lifestyle ailments, but nothing crippling as of now. People are generally self-sufficient, both physically and mentally. They can drive, socialize, and generally have large friend circles. Doctor visits are not a problem and finances are also sorted. Intercity travel is still a comfortable possibility.

So, life generally is good, and you are in control. All you need now are friends, entertainment, exercise & occasional healthcare, and regular medicines. This probably is one of the best times of your life as you have all the time in life and the means to do whatever you’ve always wanted to do. This is, however, possible, provided your finances are sorted one way or the other. More about that later.

Middle Old Age

This is the beginning of a time when people often start losing spouses and friends. Children become busier with their own lives, either competing in their careers and/or trying to strike a balance between their personal and professional lives. So, they have lesser time to spend with you, literally and figuratively. Your body also starts slowing down, throwing tantrums often with movement getting restricted to morning and evening walks.

A lot of healthcare, requiring more frequent visits to doctors takes the CenterStage. On the emotional front, loneliness starts to creep in with the loss of friends, spouses and children becoming busier and more independent. This is a stage of melancholy, often leading to old age depression and the loss of desire to live on. Watch out for symptoms of depression and keep yourselves actively engaged.

Old Old Age

As you crossover from late 70s to the early 80s, life now becomes completely dependent upon others. Movement is severely restricted to within the house or maybe occasional slow walks around the house. Driving is long gone due to failing eyesight, lack of motor control and reduced hearing. Doctor visits have become commonplace. You constantly need someone around you to help in getting up and move around. Health is frail and the mind is foggy. Your children have started to step into early old age they have their own physical limitations now. You cannot live by yourself anymore and need constant monitoring and assistance.

Planning to Grow Old Gracefully

Having understood and classified the entire old age clearly, lets now look at how to plan to grow old gracefully and peacefully.

Finance – Make a Retirement Budget

Many people have this question as to how to prepare financially for old age. Undoubtedly, financial security in old age till the last day of your & your spouse’s life should be your priority while planning for the old age. I am not going to get into the details of financial planning or the methods to create and manage wealth. The Internet is replete with posts and applications for managing wealth. The point of emphasis here is that no matter whatever you do, please ensure that you are financially independent till the last breath of your life, preferably with a fixed monthly income, besides the lumpsum corpus that might be there in any form. This will ensure you have access to best of healthcare, entertainment, and assistance you might need in your elderly years and save you from the embarrassment of asking money from others.

Accommodation – Ageing in Place

Estate planning essentials need to be sorted out early while you are still in complete control of your life and limbs. Plan your accommodation in such a way that it is very clear where you are going to stay till you are independent and where will you go once your body and limbs start giving up. Are you going to stay in an independent house in the first two stages and move in with children during the third stage of your old age? Or is it that you want to move to an old age home with critical care in your third stage? Identify, evaluate, and finalize these details well in advance and start executing the plans. Explore senior housing and living arrangements.

Mental Wellbeing

Plan well for what are going to do to keep yourself happy and engaged in your elderly years. Loneliness, loss of spouse, loss of friends and generally not having much to do, can quickly lead to elderly depression and it becomes difficult to manage from there because the will to fight back is greatly diminished at that age. Do you want to engage yourself with reading, writing, gardening, watching movies, traveling, social work or something else? Have a clear plan of action in your mind considering that it is going to be important for your mental wellbeing.

Travel & Logistics

During the first two stages of your old age, how are you going to travel within the city and intercity? Who will bring you groceries and medicines? Have answers to these questions ready so that you can execute them in good time beforehand rather than having to do a fire fight later. If you are going to depend upon technology for taking care of most of your requirements, then start showing interest in technology and get acquainted yourself with the related applications from your early years. Believe me transitioning to being a tech savvy person in the old age is an uphill task and many give up on it. Better create a mutual feeling of acceptance between yourself and technology and keep updated from that point on.

Inheritance & Will

Do not pass on all your wealth and properties too early to your heirs. Keep your wealth under your control and create inheritance documents and handover the copies of these documents to the beneficiaries. Give them clear instructions about how to deal with those matters in case of a sudden demise or otherwise. The beneficiaries can start looking after the properties or the wealth that are going to be passed on to them along with you but still on your behalf and not otherwise.

Healthcare Planning for Seniors

Make a roadmap with respect to your healthcare across your entire old age. Buy necessary medical insurances while they are still available. Tell your dependents where the money is going to come from for your routine and emergency healthcare requirements. Keep your medical records, whether physical or digital, within easy reach with family members having easy access to them. Identify hospitals and doctors that need to be contacted in case of emergencies and keep their contact details handy. Clearly spell out your preferences of hospitals and doctors beforehand.

Critical Care & Final Days

Once you crossover to the 80s i.e., the old old age stage, it is not advisable and sometimes not possible, to continue living alone. In this situation you should have already created an end-of-life planning, according to your desires, whether you want to move in with a child’s family or move to an old age home with facilities for critical care for people in your age group. Most of the cities around the world have real estate projects that are specially designed for this purpose, and you can choose to book a place and depending upon how much you can spend, you can define the levels of luxury, space and the type of care you want. Make sure to specify whom to be notified in case of an emergency and how you would want the emergency to be handled. Some people go one step further to even specify how their funeral is to be conducted and make provisions for that also. By and large, old age homes with critical care are fast catching up and they need not be looked at as the last resort for the unwanted, but a matter of choice for those who want to live with dignity till their last breaths!!

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Concluding Thoughts – Planning for Old Age

This article is a little depressing one, but it talks about the most certain possibility of life and that is growing old and dying. Hence let there not be any doubt about that possibility and one piece of advice though, whatever you do, don’t ignore the planning steps as mentioned above while planning for old age, thinking that your children will take care of you. God bless, they will very lovingly take care of you in your elder years, but do you want to be a dead weight in their lives? You can plan your life well and still be living under their care, make it enjoyable for everyone, you, your children, and the grandchildren. That’s the plan to grow old gracefully.

God Bless, Have a Long, Healthy And A Happy Life, and Grow Old Gracefully!!