Coming to terms with the fact that we’re getting older is one of the hardest things we have to deal with in life. Why is it so difficult? You’ll find 18 reasons why people find getting older so hard in this article.
We miss the fast pace
One of the reasons why people find it so difficult to get used to getting older is because they miss the fast pace of life. While they were still working, they had to juggle family responsibilities with the house and work. Now it seems like life has slowed down to a stop.
We fear identity theft
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “In 2021, about 23.9 million people (9% of U.S. residents age 16 or older) had been victims of identity theft during the prior 12 months.” Many older people are afraid of becoming victims of identity theft, as they are usually the number one targets of this kind of crime.
We miss work drama
Although work drama can seem unpleasant at the time, it does keep life exciting. When you enter retirement and are no longer working, you’ll miss the work squabbles you used to get involved in, even though they were pointless and irritating to you at the time.
We want to fit in
While we’re young, it’s so much easier to fit in and keep up with the latest trends. But fitting in when we’re older becomes very difficult and can even be frowned upon. No matter how trendy we are when we’re older, we never seem to fit in.
Fashion becomes uncomfortable
When we were younger, we would wear the latest fashionable clothing, even when it was uncomfortable to do so. But wearing uncomfortable clothing is not an option anymore now that we’re older. Our clothes and current fashion style make us feel old and frumpy.
We lose confidence in driving
As we get older, we lose some of our confidence when driving. Our reaction times get slower and it seems like people are always driving faster on the roads. All of this can make us feel nervous and driving can become a tricky task rather than a fun pastime.
We miss networking
When we were younger, we used to spend so much of our time and resources networking and trying to build up a rapport for our business. But now that we’ve retired, networking is no longer necessary and we miss that part of life. We miss being in contact with lots of different people.
We fear getting lonely
According to the NHS, “Older people are especially vulnerable to loneliness and social isolation – and it can have a serious effect on health.” Getting older is difficult because you can fear becoming lonely since you’re not in contact with people as much as you used to be when you were working.
We miss our career
Retirement does grant us a lot of freedom, and we can use our time to do anything we like, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t miss our careers. We miss the line of work that we did for decades, and we hate the thought of our career advancing and leaving us behind.
We need overtime payments
Back in the day, when we needed extra money, we could work some overtime and that would give us some extra funds. But now that we’ve retired, we only have a retirement fund to lean on, and this might not be as much as we thought it would be.
City life stresses us
When we were in our teenage years and when we were older and had a family, living in the city was ideal. But recently, we feel like city life is too fast-paced and we want to retire somewhere a little bit quieter and calmer. But the thought of moving is very daunting.
We miss our financial freedom
Back when we were working, we could afford to buy extra material things, because we had a regular income. Nowadays, we’re having to count every dollar we spend because we’re on a limited retirement budget. This can make us miss our old financial freedom.
We have a smaller friendship group
Psych Central says that “there’s no ‘right’ number of friends you should have, but research says most people have between 3 and 5 close friends.” Some people fear getting older because their friendship groups are getting smaller since a lot of the people they used to hang out with are still working.
We want to impress others
When we were younger, we did whatever we could to impress others. This meant buying things and going to places and doing things that we wouldn’t usually do just to keep up an appearance. But nowadays, even when we do these things, people still aren’t impressed with us.
We want to keep up with celebrities
Keeping up with celebrities used to be very exciting for us when we were younger. But now that we’ve gotten older, our favorite celebrities aren’t acting anymore, and some have even died. This can make us feel very morbid and make us miss old entertainment.
We can’t keep up with society
“Over 21 million older adults aged 65+ are economically insecure, with incomes below 200% poverty,” says the National Council on Aging. Many of us are afraid of getting older because we can’t keep up with society and its image of how much money we should have and what we should have done by the time we retire.
We miss the vacation rush
Back when we were working, we would have to take our vacation at the same time as everyone else and our vacation time was during the holiday rush. Now that we’ve retired, we can take our vacations whenever we want to, but we miss the vacation rush.
We want to save
While we were still working, we were able to save money each month. We don’t have that luxury now that we’ve retired. We can no longer save up for the things that we want to do; rather, we have to spend our money wisely and make sure we stay within budget.
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