Has it ever occurred to you that you could live to be 100 years old? Advances in modern medicine make that possible. Recent census data estimates that there are roughly 101,000 people living in the United States who are age 100 years old or older. It is estimated that there will be more than 422,000 people who will reach this milestone by 2054…

There is a strange thing about retirement decisions: we often make some of the biggest ones when we have the least experience with the life we are choosing. You may have spent 30 or 40 years working, raising a family, paying a mortgage, building routines, and organizing your life around a calendar that was largely decided for you. Then retirement arrives and suddenly you have choices…

For centuries, people have searched for the fountain of youth – some miraculous food, pill, treatment, or discovery that might slow aging and keep us young. I have spent much of my life studying aging and longevity. I earned a master’s degree in gerontology, have written about longevity, and, perhaps most importantly, have had the opportunity to experience aging firsthand.

In my last article for Sixty and Me, I admitted that I rather enjoy reading hotel reviews. Yes, I know, I need to get out more. Well, I also find myself reading the questions people ask on forums about retiring overseas, and perhaps even more interestingly, the answers they receive. There is no shortage of enthusiasm…

A few months ago, I was feeling lethargic about my life. It seemed smaller, rather flat and far too predictable. I wondered whether this was simply what happened at 72. Perhaps life naturally slowed down, and I needed to accept it. But I didn’t want to accept it. Just because I may be three quarters of the way through my life does not mean I need to stop fully living it…

I know it’s a bit odd, but I actually enjoy reading hotel reviews. Whenever I book somewhere for a holiday, I do the usual research beforehand. But even after the hotel is booked, I often find myself going back to read the latest reviews before I travel. Partly it’s anticipation, but mostly it’s curiosity…

When I was 60, I thought I was getting old. Now that I am 90, I find that rather amusing. At 60, I had already lived a substantial life. I had worked, learned, made mistakes, enjoyed successes, worried about things that never happened, and survived problems that once seemed enormous. But looking back over the 30 years since then, I can see several things much more clearly…

The other morning, as I sat down to breakfast – a fresh cup of coffee, an almond cranberry scone topped with yogurt and homemade peach preserves – I realized that this simple pleasure had not happened by accident. The word that came to mind was discipline. I hadn’t particularly wanted to bake scones the evening before, nor had I been eager…

A friend once told me she spent nearly six months deciding whether to move. She made lists. She talked with her children. She visited neighborhoods. She changed her mind more than once. Then one afternoon she laughed and said, “I finally realized I wasn’t trying to find the perfect decision. I was trying to become comfortable with whichever decision I made.”

Every woman of a certain age has known a Big Shot. Maybe it was a husband. A boss. A father. A brother who needed every room to revolve around him. Billy Joel’s 1978 hit was famously about someone trying too hard to be impressive – chasing status, dropping names, performing a kind of bravado that didn’t hold up under its own weight…