Why live past age 50?

Someone asked me on Quora 

What's the point of living past the age of 50?  After 50, unless you have a family and / or amassed some assets, what’s the whole point of living? How do people in their 50s feel about their lives, generally?

I replied: Anyone aged 50 now stands a good chance of living for double that time. Why quit on life when it’s only half way through?

There are amazing breakthroughs in nutrition and exercise and healing which mean that the ailments my grandparents suffered from, I will never suffer from. Ever.

There are amazing new people to meet, new challenges every day, amazing things being said on Quora.

Over 50 you really don’t care any more about what people think. If you are lucky you have family and friends who care for you and you can spend time with them. If you see someone you like the look of, you can step up to them and say hello.

You don’t have to be a wage slave, if you want to start a business online you can. There are even businesses teaching older people how to develop their businesses into viable going concerns, doing what they love. Yes, Doing What They Love. 

Kaya Singer encourages older people to build their businesses

There’s our planet to explore on foot, by boat, by plane and in thought or on YouTube.

My husband says: “Every ten years, life seems to go through a change. By age 40 you were supposed to hit the ‘wall’ but next year I will be 60 and I know that I haven’t reached the top of the hill yet. I’m going to build a hotrod, build another motorcycle and ride it, there wasn’t time to do all these projects before the age of 50. 

Also I have good reasons to believe I have plenty of time left to tick off my bucket list. Two of my extended family lied about their age, my grandmother Sara at the age, we thought, of 87 was travelling the world on cruise ships. When she died her birth certificate showed that she was in fact 96! Aunt Clara died at 102 but we discovered that she was actually 112 years old.”

People who have suffered traumas or chemical contamination and never gotten over them will likely be disabled and dying by the age of 50, perhaps, but there’s no reason for a person of average health to anticipate death so early.

There are plenty of fun things for older people to do from starting a new business, becoming involved in sport, getting married to someone new and wonderful, travelling the world, becoming a musician and so on, the options are endless. 

My aunt is 70 and just hurt her shoulder taking a tumble off her bicycle as she cycled on her usual 10 km route.

For me I have too many books I aim to write, blog posts to write, great food to cook and new people to meet, plus enjoy helping my grand kids grow up. What could be better?

Additionally we old people have a better, more fun, stress-free, pregnancy free, interesting sex life than anyone in their 20–30s, you betcha.