What do you fear most about old age?

I love being alone, never at a loss for creative amusements, but…I fear being poverty stricken. At almost 54 I will NEVER recoup my losses from this financial crisis and my energy and stamina is already fading. I no longer feel “ambitious” I just want peace and serenity but without financing that is not so easy to come by.
Living on Top Raman and not being able to afford a decent quality of living is very scary.

Personally I will check out if it comes to that. I am too much of a life lover and believe in quality over quantity.

(a) Losing my body by inches while my mind still works enough to be aware.
(b) Losing my mind while my body still works.
(c) Running out of money and resources.
(d) Unbearable pain.

I didn’t enjoy answering this question, but there it is.

Such sad and scary replies. —not a great question, sorry—

Deteriorating health, losing my independence and having to rely on others for basic care needs.

You asked a very scary question, @Headhurts. Maybe you can balance it with one about what you look, or looked, forward to about being older (older than a certain age or just older than you are).

I, for instance, looked forward to retirement, and I’m truly enjoying it more than I thought I would. Mostly.

Not having lived.

Getting to the point where I have to constantly avoid stepping and sitting on my own balls.

Illnesses, death of loved ones, not having enough money.

@talljasperman He recently had surgery to fix that.

I don’t want to end up in a nursing home.

What Jeruba said. I’m hoping to check out before it gets too bad.

Lingering illness.

In addition to the various forms of deterioration mentioned, confronting all the things I wanted to accomplish but never got around to.

I’m afraid I will run out of money.

Not being able to rely on myself for all my needs. My generation (30 somethings) is basically screwed financially, most of us just don’t know it yet.

I am afraid I will not be able to earn a living and I won’t have enough saved up. Then I’ll need to go into a Medicaid facility and I’ll lose my home and all my assets (they take them from you) and there will be nothing for my daughter to inherit and she’ll go broke trying to keep me comfortable.

I worry about having medical problems that either can’t be comfortable controlled/treated or that I won’t be able to afford treatment. I worry about being broke. Living when you’re older costs more money…you NEED that medical insurance, you NEED those prescriptions, you NEED a reliable form of transportation.

I’ve been thinking about old age since I was in “young age” and one of the many reasons why I decided that I didn’t want to have children was because of the old age issue. I’d rather dump my money into savings and retirement than put it toward raising children. I started a 401k when I started working and the place I currently work at has a pension program after you work X amount of years, so I will probably return to that place once I finish grad school.

I am on my way and no longer worry about anything. Having been a good long-range planner and always fiscally prudent., I am financially, domicilically and emotionally comfortable. Right this minute, (or second), everything is fine.

When it happens, it will happen. To fret about any of it seems to be a waste of this lovely minute I am enjoying right now. If and when I have to suffer, tighten my belt, move, I will. It seems silly to do it twice, once in my imagination.

I am having a total knee replacement in two weeks. Time enough then to be uncomfortable.

Medical issues, long-lingering illness, dependency on others, being alone, and worst, not having enough money to buy cat food.

Why worry about what one cannot predict?

Be here now.

The loss of eyesight and especially the loss of interindependence.

@Hawaii_Jake, I agree that being here now is important, but worrying about inevitable old age is normal as we get older and can be useful in preparing for it.

Loosing my teeth, and not finishing my university.

Stroke. The idea living in a state of being unable to move or speak. I’ve signed do not resuscitate forms, but people don’t always follow them. My children know what I want and I think they’ll take care of it. I hope.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room I guess I see worry as unnecessary. Preparations are necessary, though, but worry? It seems futile. Age will come, and it will undoubtedly bring problems. However, it seems like such a waste of a perfectly good day today to worry or fear tomorrow, which we can’t control.

Okay, @Hawaii_Jake, I give. You call it potato, I’ll call it potata and substitute the word “anticipate” for “worry.” In any case, planning for tomorrow, I’ve discovered as I’ve gotten older, ain’t a waste of time.

Losing my mind and dying alone of a painful, lingering illness.

For whatever reason, my mother really wasn’t prepared. Maybe she was busy living her life one day at a time, but other people paid the price for that. I don’t want to do that to anyone.

I am afraid of the time that I will not be able to care for myself.

I’m terrified of being helpless and incapable. I’m watching my own Mom’s rapid trip through Alzheimer’s Disease, and I don’t want the same thing to happen to me.

Blindness.

There’s a chance that I could lose my vision. All of my great passions are visual. If I had to live unable to care for myself, unable to read or create art… ding, check please.

Not being able to get around and care for myself. My independence is huge with me.

Missing my mom and dying alone. Though I still want my privacy.

There are so many and such varied and awful things that can happen to any one of us at any time that it simply doesn’t pay to worry about them. If there are some real threats that you can prepare for or guard against, then it’s good to make those preparations or mount that guard, but otherwise… ?

To those ends I’ve saved and invested for most of my adult life, with varying degrees of success and care, hoping not to outlive a “livable income” that I can provide for myself, without depending on Social Security or any other form of welfare. That would have bothered me. I’ve pretty much gotten to the point where if the economy doesn’t go all to hell, then I may be able to provide for myself (as long as I can live independently) for enough years to live out a natural life. And as for “guarding”, I have decent locks on the doors and windows and live in a more-or-less safe neighborhood. I try to eliminate obvious hazards around the house and yard, and I drive a well-maintained car safely.

So I guess my biggest fear, if it came to that, would be a loss of independence: a crippling illness or historic economic wipeout that could impoverish me as I become less able to earn an income, or which prevents me from even finding or making a job (though I can hardly imagine that scenario, it’s out there).

I think the biggest thing that I would have to worry about aside from that, though, would be “loss of desire” ... to live, to laugh, to love, to want to participate, whether I did (or could) or not. If I didn’t “want to” live, then… I probably wouldn’t.

Over the last few months, I’ve been doing an on call job with a company that specializes in moving seniors (i.e. their stuff) into assisted living or retirement apartments. The aesthetics of those places are either dreadfully dreary or sickeningly ornate and stuffy and are usually brimming with patriotic decor and references to WWII. I don’t want to get stuck living in one of those places.

@serenade Don’t you think ours will be decorated with pictures of hippies and bra burners?

Not of being alone… I’m awesome and I can deal with me. I’m afraid of being forgotten.

Charles Burnside.

You know that King’s releasing a followup to The Shining. Dr. Sleep. Danny is all grown up.

@Mama_Cakes Whaaa??? Oh I gotta see that!

In book form. :)

@Mama_Cakes What do I care, I’m a nerd! Bring it on!

@Mama_Cakes . . . yeah. keep checking for, uh, ‘copies’ of it on various sites.

@janbb, uh… yours might. ;-) Mine will probably be glam rock and Reagan.

Looking old, and not being able to do active things…....I hope I die before I get old though.

Living and yet not being able to do as I please.

Being abused in a seniors home.

Being in a position where I can’t make decisions for myself and yet not aware that others are making them for me and probably talking behind my back about me (and my inability to make decisions). Having people decide on my behalf that I should move to a new place, etc.