To live to 100 you'll need to change your behaviour

The news that children born in the year 2000 will have an average life expectancy of 100 is exciting news….particularly if you’re one of those children! It does, however, raise the question, how will the younger generation support this ageing generation? – The answer is that we are going to have to change our behaviour.

For most men and women today the retirement age is set 65 at which stage they are traditionally pensioners. Of course, there are the minority that choose to continue to work like Buster at Pimlico Plumbers who is still going strong at over 100!

Already we are beginning to see that this system is becoming outdated. There are now thousands of people retiring at this age who are fit and healthy and many whom would like to continue to work, if only in a part-time capacity, but are unable to find work and at best are somewhat bored, at worst, depressed.

The fundamental point here is that this situation is a perfect example that change happens whether we like it or not and those who succeed are those who embrace change and in many cases are ahead of the curve, anticipate it coming and adapt their behaviour accordingly.

In order to accommodate the number of people who will be able and want to work in the future, the Danish author of the report Professor Kaare Christensen at the ageing research centre of University of Southern Denmark suggests that one solution could be young and old work fewer hours over a week. ‘In a lifetime we would spend the same amount of time at work as we do now, but spread out over the years’ he says.

Whatever the solution, both young and old are going to have to change their behaviours to adapt. Children born knowing that their life expectancy is 100, will surely want to pay keen interest to their work life/balance and may want to change their career 2 or 3 times, employers will need to be open-minded about the skills and capabilities of older people, young and old people will need to work together and learn from each other, the list goes on – what an interesting world it’s going to be!


Katharine Tipper
Katharine@twpartnership.co.uk