Understanding Living Longer

Category Archives: Living Longer

A suitable incentive….

Not everyone referred to EML is ready to face the reality of their changing prospects for later life. While fees are sometimes cited as being the issue, they are nothing more than a convenient excuse along with, ‘I’m too young’, ‘I’m too busy’ etc etc. The real message is ‘I don’t want to acknowledge my […]

Continue reading

Early warning systems

In researching the impact of global longevity EML identified six key areas of life that together, differentiated those who were successful in negotiating later life from those who were less so. There was no silver bullet, no ‘one thing’ that will make all the difference, instead those who were seen by their peers as ‘doing […]

Continue reading

All change

This morning I woke up to a world full of promise. For the last three years I have held public office – a demanding role that kept me busy 24/7 – and I loved it! Yesterday I handed the reigns to my successor, sent out my final emails and closed a chapter. Today new adventures […]

Continue reading

Understanding Health

Optimising health is one of EML’s six corner stones for making the most of living longer. Having identified the importance of knowing your personal health data, I started taking reading roughly twice a month and have been doing so for the last three years. Recently colleagues helped analyse the findings and I was surprised by […]

Continue reading

Changing behaviour – Piggybacking

At any age changing your behaviour can be a challenge. We become accustom to comfortable routines which perpetuate long past their intended purpose. Sometimes its what you do and sometimes its what you don’t. Talk to many octogenarians about taking a taxi and they look at you as if you are mad. One was seriously […]

Continue reading

Gifting the next generation

Talking about death can be a catalyst for unusual discussions – and occasionally inspirational revelations. Some people are great planners putting considerable thought into their own demise while others, like one relative, a top class hoarder, simply shrugged and said ‘well, it won’t be my problem’. There are some that seek to exercise ‘intrusive control’ […]

Continue reading

Normal for you

When it comes to applying the research EML conducts, I like to be the guinea pig. When recommending anything to others there is little more powerful than saying you’ve done it yourself. Multiple visits to A&E with elderly relatives highlighted the need to know, and ideally be able to demonstrate, what was ‘normal’. Looking beyond […]

Continue reading

The reality behind ‘it might be useful’

As a family we are at that ‘transitional’ stage where the older generation are in the process of ‘departing’ (either to long term care or something more permanent) while our adult children are thinking seriously about their first home. As a result, we are looking at unwanted possessions (from all generations) and saying – could […]

Continue reading

The big divide…

Long before I ran the world’s largest survey into changing attitudes towards later life I was already aware of the divide between ‘Old money’ and the rest of us. A good friend worked as a land agent advising ‘old money’ on running their estates and through him I gleaned an insight into a totally different […]

Continue reading