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Later life Talkback - 46

 

Talkback is a regular feature in laterlife.com run by journalist and author Helen Franks. 

Welcome to talkback 46

Read Helen’s views and ideas, then add your own by emailing her on helen@laterlife.com. Whatever your opinion on the subject under discussion, Helen wants to hear it. And in due course a selection of replies will feature in talkback.

If you would like to suggest future topics for talkback, please email Helen with the details. And remember you can also start your own forum discussion thread by visiting the laterlife cafe

 


 

 

They’re listening to us (at last) 

Two surveys don’t exactly make a revolution, but they’re a start. First we had news that the over 65s are busy spending the kids’ inheritance (and there’s more on the theme in this month’s feature on Party Pensioners). Then we learned that computer games are big with the laterlife generation.

Why am I so pleased? Because at last the people in market research are wanting to know about the things we like. True, what they really want is to know what we like to spend our money on, but at least they are coming round to the fact that we are here and many of us have spending power as well as the leisure time in which to use it.  It’s nice to be consulted.

Goodness knows if they’re getting it right. The way I’m reading things, we’re either out partying, shoring up the travel industry and buying second homes, or we’re stay-at-homes glued to our computer screens.

Having never played a computer game, I never thought to ask friends if they have developed a special relationship with them, but I know plenty of examples of the  two-or-more annual holiday and the second home syndromes. 

 I also note that a big subject amongst my generation is inheritance tax. And, as I said in a recent Talkback, many people who can afford it, do help their children to get on the property ladder. So much for spending the kids’ inheritance. 

So the researchers may be getting things wrong. So what? 

Sooner or later they will find out what we really really want. I’ll list a few ideas of my own and you can email me with your ideas.

How about, for a start:  

  • restaurants with soft furnishings so the noise levels are reduced  

  • plays, films, novels that reflect the preoccupations and lifestyles of fifty, sixty and seventy-somethings (some of the stuff our counsellor Maggi Stamp writes about could be suitable sources of inspiration)  

  • health clubs and gyms offering more choices of exercise classes to laterlife clients accompanied by the kind of music they like  

  • fashion designers  putting their creative minds to the challenges of thicker waistlines, pot bellies, flabby upper arms, not-so-shapely cleavages  

  • ditto lingerie designers  

  • ditto sportswear designers  

 

Your turn now:  email me on helen@laterlife.com

Oh yes, and have a very happy new year..  

 

Previous talkback topics

Helen would still like to hear your views 

 

    

 Don`t forget to take a look at Helen`s healthwise column too          

               

        
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