Guest opinion: Is 60 the new 40? Guest opinion: Is 60 the new 40? (January 11, 2006)

By Susan Ayers Walker

Editor:

For weeks prior to New Year's Day we were hearing the dreaded prediction over and over: "Starting in 2006, Boomers Turning 60." Yowee! It is already January 2006 and Boomers are galloping towards 60 at the rate of one every 19 seconds.

Well, I am one of those lucky to be born in 1946. But do not feel sorry for me. I do not feel old -- I feel every bit as alive and vital as I was when I was 40. Maybe when I am 80-plus something, if some unexpected medical event does not slow me down first, I might start to feel my age. So by that calculation I have another 20 years of "growing up." Will 80 be the new 60 I wonder?

Is there time to prepare for the aging and future elderly? No way. We are all subject to the whim of nature and our genes so aging and old age will be a different process for all of us. However the analysts are correct: given a choice we would prefer to stay out of managed care as long as possible and will look seriously at technology to help us maintain that independence, our health, mobility and quality of life.

Time is of the essence. We need to start upgrading the health, government regulation and insurance systems for the aging as they exist today.

For instance, as I am writing this letter, I am looking over at a home blood pressure monitor on my desk and wondering where to find the USB connector to upload my data into a chart that shows me where I am today -- too high, too low, or not to worry.

More importantly fix the healthcare system and my doctor's reimbursements so I can email my blood pressure data or my blood sugar data to the doctor's office and he will get paid for giving me feedback via email or an instant message as to how to manage my health level and not to make it worse.

And while we are on this topic -- wake up insurance companies -- and give me a coupon to reduce the price of this device so it is more attractive for me to purchase the monitor plus keep my insurance rate low if I use this monitor on a regular basis to help maintain my health level.

Aging. This is a huge topic and I could rant on in many directions, but my day is busy. I have a start-up company that needs my attention. So I will end this by saying as I turn 60 I am really the new 40.

One more thing. I do not know anyone my age or younger who knows how to play shuffleboard, and just because I will turn 60 this year don't expect me to learn how. Don't build anymore shuffleboard courts. In fact, give me more tennis courts or a nice nine-hole, par 3 golf course for a quick game after work, or let me go to the gym and jump on thetreadmill at noon because I am not retiring anytime soon.

Susan Ayers Walker is managing director of SmartSilvers Alliance, www.smartsilvers.com She lives in Atherton

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