Here’s to Your Best Years!

South Africa commemorates Older Persons Week from 26 September to 2 October. International Day of Older Persons is celebrated on 1 October every year. These events are all about celebrating being “older”, raising awareness about issues affecting seniors, and having a meaningful life in your golden years.

The composition of the world population has changed dramatically in recent years and the statistics are quite staggering. Between 1950 and 2010 life expectancy worldwide increased from 46 to 68 years. By the end of the century, the average life expectancy is estimated to increase to approximately 82 years. By 2050 it will be the first time in human history that we will have more people over 60 than children at school.

Over 700 million people are now over the age of 60. By 2050 over two billion people or 20% of the world population will be 60 years or older!

Planning for your retirement is essential, especially when it comes to choosing what might be your final home. In the coming weeks, we will be looking at issues relating to property investments in retirement schemes in our later years. Keep an eye out for a series of blogs about buying your final nest egg to stay, ways for your community to earn an extra income and working towards shared goals.

It is important to know and understand the different options which are available before investing in a retirement scheme.

For example, there are different ownership options like freehold and sectional title, right of occupation or “lesser rights”. The latter can take the form of life rights, share block schemes, long lease agreements and retirement clubs. Lately, you can find a combination of these different rights in a single village.

Retirement is a period during which someone can flourish. Taking the opportunity to start a new business or turn the dream of a family business into reality, can result in your latter years becoming your most successful yet.

However, if you do reside in a retirement village, there are also opportunities to plough back into your community and help the body corporate make money to cover certain expenses or even lower the levies.

Social involvement and taking part in activities such as hydroponic farming will preserve your mental agility and quality of life, no matter how old you become. In an upcoming post, we will be looking at adopting hydroponics in your retirement village. This entails a process of growing vegetables, using only water, nutrients and a growing medium in a greenhouse. It is also an excellent way to stay active and productive.

Hydroponic farming is ideal for a retirement village. It requires little space and not much water to produce a high yield of vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, mushrooms, peppers and broccoli.

These fresh products can either supply the local kitchen or restaurant in your village, or be sold to restaurants or the public. You can also choose to donate some fresh produce to underprivileged communities close to your village.

In future posts we would also like to highlight the importance of staying active and innovative in dealing with life’s challenges and caring for one another as much as we can. Research shows the challenges and losses faced by older people can have a negative impact on their social support networks and sense of well-being. This need not happen, as there is a wealth of knowledge, resilience and experience among older people. We would like to highlight their ability to create and make a difference in our society.