I am freaking scared.
A few months back, I tuned into an episode of the podcast called The Seen and The Unseen. In this particular episode, they discussed about how and why the Indian government brought in certain pension reforms, primarily moving from a defined benefits scheme to a defined contributions one. Apart from being eye-opening, it made my mind wander into a rabbit hole.
I often listen to podcasts to sleep to; this one however drove away any semblance of incoming sleep.
In this episode, they discussed how life expectancy is expected to go up so much that living up to the age of 120 is not going to be that rare anymore. Even if the norm becomes 100, and not 120, how am I supposed to plan for that future? For context, a person living up to 100 but working up to 60, spends as much time living ‘retired’ (here meaning not making a living) as they would spend working. Nightmare number one.
There is a second nightmarish thought too.
All of us, at some point or the other, have come across people, old, not-so-old, very old, who have had to live for a while in a condition where their body, or their mind, or both, becomes a pale shadow of its younger self. Forgetting things, small and meaningful. Not able to take care of your own body on your self. Relying on other people to just live your life. It’s my nightmare for me, and I am sure, for many of us.
There is a third thing as well. Loneliness.
As much as I have learned to live on my own, when I have my best moments, I crave sharing it with my loved ones. If I lived a very long life, can my loved ones also live a similarly long life? Death and loss are inevitable, and we are all going to have to live with it, but surely a shorter drab life is better than a too-long-a-drab life?
On a slightly more positive note, I see the coming few years as an opportunity to try and tackle all these fears. I cannot solve or anticipate all of them, but I’ll try my best to prepare. After moving to a different country in 2021, and crippled by the beast that is purchasing power parity, I have spent three years now building some sort of a footing in the beautiful city that is London. I think I have found a reasonable footing, geographically, personally, and professionally; and like many, I am cramming up my 2024 New Year’s resolutions with action goals to get a little more peace of mind. (Action goals you say? Here’s how I think of them.)
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