On getting older

 There is a saying: "70 is the new 40" which is true if you grew up in the 1950s like I did. So many people were dead by 50 then so by the time people were 40 to 45 they looked a lot like 70 year olds do now and acted like they were 100 years old already.

So, even my mother at 80 was like she was 100 years old compared to me now at 78. Compared to the 1950s I'm more like a 30 ro 40 year old the way I still think and act.

for example, Paul McCartney is 83 years old and still reminds me of a 30 year old during the 1950s. And Ringo Starr is 85 years old and happy and going strong and married to a lovely actress still.

So, if you are happy enough and have enough money to survive now your chances to be 100 years old are growing and growing. I won't be surprised if both Ringo and Paul live to be 100 while still playing music.

I have a friend who is 75 for example, and performs still as a profession several times a week with his girlfriend who has a masters degree in music from the Eugene Campus of Oregon University I believe.

So, the point is that people are living incredibly longer to the point where it seems to me that lifespans in some ways have doubled (the upper end of how old you can live to) because of diet and exercise and medical care being what it is especially if you can afford to have a decent life after retirement.

The biggest obstacle I see actually is surviving from 40 to 65 paying for your own health insurance. At age 64 for example I was paying 1800 a month for full health insurance to keep me alive.

How many people today can afford that?

So, financially surviving health problems from 50 to 64 might be one of the biggest problems people face now in the U.S.

So, good luck everyone from 50 to 64! 

Later: 

If you are a citizen or possibly a green card holder under the right circumstances you can get medicare at age 65 and this will take you to 100 or beyond. Luckily I was already 65 when I had to have a burst appendix Laparoscopic emergency surgery (after they misdiagnosed my burst appendix with gastritis for a week and I almost died) (like many people with less of an immune system than me would have died).

So, this expensive operation was paid for by Medicare as well as a hospital stay so we could more easily afford this. Then other times in the hospital or my emergency room stay of several days when I almost died around January 4th in the emergency room was also paid for mostly by medicare. Also, my robotic Hernia surgery was also paid for by Medicare.

So, that all combined might have cost me about 200,000 dollars had I had to pay for this out of pocket. Something to think about! 

How many of you have an extra 200,000 dollars to pay for thing like this just lying around?

So, this is why medical insurance between 50 and 64 often is life or death and Medicare after 65 is life or death too for almost everyone in the U.S.