Katharine Esty, Phd being really old is always better than the alternative people in their 70s are happier than people in their 60s and people in their 80s are happier than people in their 70s Will the happiness I have written so much about continue for me as I age Living at a retirement community over these last 10 years I have observed dozens of people in their 90s But I have never asked them point blank how happy they were One is in a wheelchair and has full-time care Four of them have significant hearing loss and use hearing aids and one of them has vision issues All of them are articulate and answered my questions with ease Disability is more common for nonagenarians, according to the U.S. Census Bureau study the proportion of people aged 90 to 94 having disabilities is more than 13 percentage points higher than that of 85- to 89-year-olds The most common types of disabilities reported to the Census Bureau included difficulty doing errands alone and performing general mobility-related activities like walking or climbing stairs When I asked them about what brings them joy and pleasure nowadays four of the five said being with family was their greatest pleasure It turns out family at 90 can mean our blood relatives or chosen family They also said that being with family was what gives purpose and meaning to their life now Two of them reported they get together each week for a Zoom meeting with their children and some of their grandchildren Four of those I spoke with have members of their families who frequently visit The fifth person said her family doesn’t come that often One person said her purpose was “spreading love around.” Another said meaning came from a belief in Jesus and in eternal life. All five are active have dinner with friends and acquaintances One of the five recently flew across the country to visit an even older sibling They do support causes they believe in financially They are far less engaged in community organizations and churches and they avoid positions of responsibility four of them said that living with the loss of a beloved spouse or the loss of a partner is the hardest part of their current life They talked about how difficult it is to be on their own Not being able to drive anymore was another big challenge for the four who can’t drive any longer All of them talked about health issues but none of them said that health is their biggest challenge And they all expressed feeling lucky just to be alive They all said that they have fewer challenges than most people their age then they mentioned having three or four very serious conditions like macular degeneration they are very concerned about the uncertain future of our country and the world “The world is coming apart at the seams.” But they are content to have stepped off center stage It is now up to the younger generations to fix the world’s problems None of those I spoke with expressed any worry about death or dying “How happy have you been in general during the last year Using a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being ‘not at all happy,’ 6 being ‘sometimes happy,’ 8 being ‘usually happy’ and 10 ‘always happy,’ how would you rate your happiness?” Four out of 5 said they were 8 ‘usually happy’ and one person responded 10 To be in your nineties is different and more challenging than being in your eighties The loss of so many of their beloved spouses and friends makes the nineties more difficult than in earlier decades live with several major health issues as well there are huge differences among those in the same age group What most of us get wrong about being really old is that we continue to assume that people in their 90s must be unhappy because of their losses and health issues From my interviews and years of observation many if not most people in their nineties are happy It seems people in their nineties have realized at long last that it is relationships that matter most as the few people that have made it into their 90s they know it is a waste of time to mull over regrets in the past or to worry about what may happen in the years ahead I heard this quote online during my meditation this week and it seems a good place to end this blog.We only have this moment sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake Eightysomethings — A Practical Guide to Letting Go Looking for more from Dr. Katharine Esty? Sign up on her website for her monthly newsletters. #aging #happiness #eightysomethings #family #health Expert on Aging Well & Family Dynamics Eightysomethings - A Practical Guide to Letting Go This project aims at studying the effects of pension reforms in EU Member States and fiscal sustainability effects in the medium- to long-term The main tool is the EDGE-M3 overlapping generations (OLG) model The model is designed to study the impact of fiscal reforms It accounts for individual behavioural responses and simulates both the macroeconomic and distributional effects of reforms The model is well-suited to conduct welfare analyses of alternative public policy proposals The EDGE-M3 model has a number of key strengths for this area of analysis there is a detailed and accurate modelling of the national old-age pension systems including the accumulation of pension claims there is rich heterogeneity in labour market prospects across the population This allows for consistent analyses of the impact of simulated reforms across EU Member States and population subgroups Explore EDGE - M3