According to Geraldine...........

Well, that's it exactly gracesmum. Those rich people have someone to do all the menial stuff for them. Just couldn't see the point in mentioning them in the same article as the majority of ordinary older people.

What does Alex Ferguson do anyway ? I could sit on a touchline and shout abuse at football players - easy! There will always be people who are able to work at a punishing pace at an advanced age (The Queen??) They are fortunate in their genes and to love what they do (I assume she does) But try to find or stay in paid employment and that is a different matter. I saw that lovely Pakistani man who worked at Kings Cross station on a TV prog earlier in the week. He wept at retiring - I'll bet he was obliged to retire. Mental ageing may well be held at bay by staying mentally and professionally active, but even then - look at people like Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan who had no control over their own forms of dementia. We all age - but not always in the same way and not always in a steady decline -if you are like me, I ticked along feeling too young to retire for 2 years beyond retirement age and then over a period of about 3 months realised that actually I was not coping as well as I had done before. Or you find an illness, even flu, knocks you back and you don't "bounce back" like you would have done 10 years earlier.
Or, you find yourself going on and on and on at length....................

I totally agree with jings. My body started to tell me to ease-up when I hit 65-ish. It now tells me to tick-over, find time to relax, enjoy a wee spin on the exercise bike and cope with a multitude of niggles [some of which make me want to weep]...then my mind takes over, and I come on to GN for understanding and support from people who know what they're talking about...

Yes. Exactly.

I guess I am talking about the majority.

People vary so much in what they are physically or mentally capable of at all ages jo8 Hard to generalise.

But in the article you seem to be talking about people over the age of sixtyfive, not fifty. You say, "All the research on healthy longer lives shows that the more engaged and involved we feel, the better we age, physically and mentally"

No. Ageing doesn't really work like that. Just wishful thinking. Doesn't make any difference how "involved" you feel. When your body starts to age it does just that. And there's nothing you can do to stop it.

It's just not realistic to think that people of Alex Ferguson's, or any of the other's age, could hold down jobs in the real world. I suppose if the job was completely cerebral, sitting in front of a keyboard all day, then yes, possibly. But how many jobs are really like that?

But I know it's just an article to pad out a newspaper. So never mind.

I have sat next to a female manager and talked her round to the idea that a woman of 58 is a perfectly good person to hire, if she happens to be the best candidate. She was looking for reasons not to. e.g maybe she wont stay long.
Even though she is neither a bad person, nor would she think herself prejudiced. Unconscious discrimination is rife.

I'm glad you agree with me - I felt I was being a voice in the wilderness. Although I am retired now I "got in" by the skin of my teeth so to speak.
We are stuck between a rock and a hard place - one group say we all have to work longer, blah blah blah and the others say we are over the hill at 40! Can't win!
Also glad to bump this thread up as it seemed to have disappeared while its lookey likey is up there near the top!

Actually, gracesmum, that's a very important point. For many people in their 50s and 60s who want to work, the opportunity isn't offering. And people in that age group are often pushed out because they are more expensive to employ.

...and Rory gonnaballs would agree...if he could!

Bollocks...

Just tell that to Phoenix and smoluski (and others I may not know about) who are trying their socks off to get jobs and are facing a hidden agenda of age discrimination

Yes. All very 'ordinary' people Rosey. And doing such worthwhile jobs.

There've been a lot of articles, tweets, etc re the Pope resigning, but this one plumbs the depths! IMO

Worked since leaving college in 1970. Went to part time at 60 {such a good idea} then finished at 62. Had enough of the classroom. I did enough and loved the job most of the time.

In retirement have a lot of time with GC- they have lived with us for nearly 4 years. When and why would I work? I do not know how teachers are going to work with little children until 67 {without throttling the little dears.} I am sure it must be the same for nurses. Enough is enough thank you........ back to the virtual party.

Thank you for that jo8 I read it and thought that it would e good to copy and paste the best bit for all to see and encourage.

Alex Ferguson is dominating the Premier League at the age of 71

Warren Buffett is outsmarting the stock markets, wisecracking as he goes at 82.

Mary Berry is enthusing the nation's bakers and despatching our soggy bottoms at 77

81-year-old Rupert Murdoch's tweets are obsessively parsed for clues to his corporate strategy.

The Queen topped the Woman's Hour Power List at 86.

I am off out for a long walk now (I am still trying!) and I wouldn't have time for that if I was sitting at a supermarket checkout all day. Noble as that would be, I'm sure.

In my younger days we were made to feel guilty about being SAHMs (stay at home mums) by stupid magazine/newspaper articles. Now it seems it's going to follow us into our old age.

"Bring on those second acts" she says

That is, if you're not knackered after 40 years on the first!

Fluff is right.

I agree with jo8 about exercise not warding off old-age. I know any number of people who were very fit and health-conscious, now crippled with arthritis, bad back and other ailments.

Those of us who can retire need to remember how fortunate they are - our children's generation will not be so fortunate.

And don't think because you exercise (go to the gym regularly?) will do anything to keep you out of trouble when this ageing thing cuts in - it won't!

I have walked/cycled miles in the course of my lifetime, and rarely found time to sit down for long, but that did nothing to stop the muscles in my back deciding to pack up on me now, leaving me breathless with the effort of walking upright.

Just you wait madam. It's all in front of you.

I feel I have always had 2 careers, teaching, for which I was paid, and being a wife and mother*... or is that 3 careers?
Then there's voluntary work, does that make 4? [Hmm]
Counselling family, friends, school children and their parents (5)
* which also involves catering (6) cleaning (7) taxi-driving (8).......
Come on GNs there must be more

And actually the writer of the article hasn't got a clue about what it can feel like, physically, in later life, or how things can suddenly start to deteriorate quite out of the blue!

Write it again in another twenty years missus! hmm

And don't give the buggers any more ideas about our pensions.

The other thing to consider is the job market for young people.
In my profession newly qualified graduates now struggle to find jobs, so I feel no compunction about having retired.
I worked hard for my pension and now I'm enjoying being able to do all the things I never had time for, when I was working.
I'm also putting money back into the economy, going out for lunch, taking classes, taking public transport etc.
the most important thing though is having the freedom to visit my grandchildren whenever I want to - this would be very restricted if I was working as they all live a long way from me.