Dear LPG, 

I know that by many people’s standards at the age of 68 I am just beginning to learn about the pros and cons of being a pensioner even though I have not been classed as a worker of the world for at least seven years now.  I have had this conversation with many people who are older than me and who tell me that I have yet to learn about all the things that are likely to change as the next few years go by.

They tell me that during the first ten or so years of post-employment, life can be a bit like having a very long holiday and many of us get a bit lazy when it comes to the things that we promised that we would do once we no longer had to spend so much of each day working so that we can afford to pay our bills.

Many of us sort of fall into another routine which, if we are not careful leaves us just as busy and with just as little time to fulfil our pre-retirement dreams.  I have found a new circle of older friends where I find myself as one of the younger ones while many of my family regard me as the go to person if they need someone to wait in for a package or for a repair man now that they think that I have so much extra time on my hands. 

But at 68, not too much has started to go awry so far.  My older friends tell me that it won’t be long before the aches and pains of older life will kick in and slow me up and that I am lucky not to have started experiencing too much of that already.

Many of them have projects that they always promised they would either start or get back to once they had retired and that after more than ten years of work freedom they have still not got around to starting. When I ask why, they give the one answer that I hope, in a couple of years’ time, I will not be offering any new and slightly younger friends I make.

 
I just want to pass on a little bit of advice to my fellow pensioners.  I know that it has been said before but I am of the opinion that it cannot be said too many times.  

Many things will stop you from doing things exactly the way that you want to but please never let the answer to any question about why you haven’t started something you always wanted to do be ‘…because I am too old now’.   

It might well be that we have to sometimes answer, ‘because my health won’t let me’, ‘because it would be too dangerous’, ‘because I have a better idea’, or even ‘because I couldn’t afford to’, but no matter how old I get, I hope that I never have to use my age as the only reason for not achieving a goal.

LA, Abbey Wood