Opinion: In truth, 60 is the new 60
By Marc Freedman
By now the story is familiar. A gray wave of aging boomers is crossing into their 60s, hitting retirement age, morphing suddenly into senior citizens, and bringing with them a new era of demographically determined dependency and despair. We’re trading baby strollers for walkers and wheelchairs.
Don’t believe it. The sixty-somethings headed our way will invent an entirely new stage of life — the encore years — between the end of middle adulthood and anything resembling old age and retirement. We brand them the young-old, or the working-retired. Or maybe just the oxymoronic years.
On one hand, these new-stagers are implored to hang on to their fast-fading youth — 60 is the new 40, we’re told. On the other, my pharmacy offers a “senior discount” to anyone over 60. It’s either clinging to lost youth or accepting premature aging.
In truth, 60 is not the new 40 any more than it is the new 90. It’s the new 60. Indeed, the whole 60- to 80-year-old period is simply new territory, and the people in this period constitute a 21st-century phenomenon.
Marc Freedman is author of The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife, to be published by PublicAffairs.
I used to chastise my Mom for taking advantage of senior discounts. I was embarassed-my Mom is not old enough to be a senior. Then I had my 55th birthday and was offered my first discount. Oh, yeah, I’ll take that discount. Now that I am past 60 I am enjoying being considered a ‘senior citizen’. In my mind I am still a kid.
Toby Keith has a song which laments “I ain’t as good as I once was”. How true! But I wouldn’t go back. I am looking forward to every one of my Golden Years. Hopefully I will see many of you there.
I take my card and I stand in line
To make a buck I work overtime
Dear Sir letters keep coming in the mail
I work my back till it’s racked with pain
The boss can’t even recall my name
I show up late and I’m docked
It never fails
I feel like just another
Spoke in a great big wheel
Like a tiny blade of grass
In a great big field
To workers I’m just another drone
To Ma Bell I’m just another phone
I’m just another statistic on a sheet
To teachers I’m just another child
To IRS I’m just another file
I’m just another consensus on the street
Gonna cruise out of this city
Head down to the sea
Gonna shout out at the ocean
Hey it’s me
And I feel like a number
Feel like a number
Feel like a stranger
A stranger in this land
I feel like a number
I’m not a number
I’m not a number
Dammit I’m a man
I said I’m a man
STRANGE how all the Boomers worked their butts off just to see the government wastes all those who will never see their sow become fruit.
They already spend it just like wall street.
Health care sucks,SS sucks,cost of living sucks,and your house that was suppose to be money in the bank in retirement sucks.
SO WHILE ALL THIS SUCKING GOING ON, GET UP OFF THE COUCH,LIVE EVERYDAY LIKE IT’S THE LAST.
BOY, MY GRAVE SITE, BOUGHT, PAID FOR, AND I INTEND ON RASING SOME HELL WHEN I GET THERE.
I TOAST ALL YOU, WHO KNOW HOW TO LIVE IT UP IN THIS LIFE.”CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU”and the next time around I’m doing it the same way!
Loving,living,forgiving.
Age is just a frame of mind, you don’t have to act,think, like dud grand old tree,get out their shake your leafs, feel the Energy!
Lord don’t call me now,I’ve got spend the cash and love 100 more virgins.
Fine article Marc. Having just turned 65 myself, I am reminded by your article to step back and look at who I am now. Cheers…