Financial Aging

I found the calculator on financial aging to be an interesting way of thinking about aging. The factors considered by the calculator were far fewer than the aging calculator we did an activity with a few weeks ago. Granted I do understand the difference between guessing how long you're actually going to be alive versus how much money you are going to have. In my opinion, it seems that predicting lifespan or retirement savings are both hard to do based upon how much one does not know looking into the future.

There were a few different things I tried while playing around with the calculator such as salary, slight changes in age, marriage status and the time I would like to retire. The percentage that I needed to save did not seem to vary greatly by more than 1% with any of the varying answers. One thing that would be interesting to add into consideration when creating a calculator like this is the individual's lifestyle. Is this person a saver or a spender? This ties in well to what we talked about in class today with how lifestyle can influence the longevity of retirement savings.

Overall I found this to be an interesting calculator but I am unsure if it is as simple as it sounds to save the suggested amount.

Georgia Centenarian Study

Watching the Georgia Centenarian Study provided an interesting viewpoint for looking at the aspect of living to one hundred years old. I found the documentary to be very worthwhile and thought provoking. Below I have answered some of the question posed in class.

Content:

How does this information related or connect to other information that we've covered or you've read?

The Georgia Centenarian Study found that many individuals contained genes linked to Alzheimer’s yet many of these individuals still contained enough cognitive ability to take part as participants in study. This related to how environment plays a role in aging like we have talked about in the part. These individuals are all genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s yet only a few of the individuals experienced an onset of the disease. Something about the environment where these individuals reside (or have resided) probable influenced the expression of these genes that either enhanced or negated the predisposition present in these individuals. Even in this study, environment and lifestyle played a large role in whether or not individuals were affected by the disease coded in their genes.

Self:

What impact does this information have on you?

Watching the Georgia Centenarian Study provided a different outlook to later life that I have not always pictured. The majority of my elderly family members have been impacted with chronic illness or cancer. I found it very interesting how there actually are people out there that are over one hundred years old that are able to function each day without any large issues. Granted, this reflection corresponds more with Phase I of the study which focused on centenarians with decent levels of cognitive abilities. However, simply seeing these individuals with their outgoing attitude about life was very inspiring.

World:

Who else needs to know this information? What are potential implications?

Caretakers and those with families would benefit from watching this documentary. While caring for a small child requires a lot of effort, there are many readily available resources to help individuals face the challenges of providing this form of care. Caring for the elderly can be much more difficult than caring for newborns due to the lack of innate knowledge that we have regarding caring for older individuals. Drawing the boundaries between aiding the elderly and invalidating their purpose of living (by not allowing them to do anything or overstepping the boundaries of simply assisting with tasks) is something that varies for each individual needing care. Watching in the Georgia Centenarian Study, they noted that grandchildren are even proud of their centenarian relatives. The information regarding individuality from this study could be useful for everyone possibly facing the situation of caring for the elderly at some point in time.

Practice:

How can you use or apply this information?

With how individual each of the study participants were, it may be useful to remember that information when making life choices. While the government has dietary guidelines essentially condemning fried chicken and whole milk, many of the individuals in this study were found to eat those items on a regular basis. This is one thought provoking scenario that can provide support for individuals making dietary choices, possibly not following the dietary guidelines set out by the government religiously will still enable you to live as long as someone who did choose to follow these guidelines.

Is there anything else you want to know?

Did these individuals have any siblings or other family members that experience great longevity?

How are elderly individuals cared for in other cultures around the world?