Zizi Sparks: Ageing well starts as a young person

How you live now will dictate how you live in the future. Photo / Getty Images

OPINION

When I turned 25 my father cheerily told me I was probably farewelling the first third of my life. He told me the second third would dictate how the last third unfolded.

Research from Massey University's Health and Ageing Research Team shows he is probably right - as fathers often are.

The New Zealand Health, Work and Retirement Longitudinal Study found how well a person ages depends on the type of childhood they had and wealth.

After following a group of Kiwis for a decade, researchers found if you start off with poor circumstances as a child, you're likely to be unhealthy as an older adult.

Your life before age 55 is the greatest predictor of how well you will age.

It is a sad finding and at its core shows how people get stuck in a poverty cycle. But all we can do is try to change that.

In today's edition, Carly Gibbs talks to people living well in their older age.

And despite the study findings, not one of them said having an overflowing bank account was the secret to a long and healthy life.

Although 81-year-old Rob McGregor said while wealth wasn't important, not having to worry about money was.

But he put ageing well down to genetics, diet, a wide range of interests, new challenges so that you can continue learning, and happiness.

Others put it down to a physically healthy lifestyle, social activities of long-lasting interest and hydration, and food.

I'm not exactly qualified to be talking about ageing well - I haven't even hit 30. But another thing I've been told by my father is how glad he is I've started going to the gym, exercising and aiming to eat right.

In hindsight, he can see how important it is and wants to impart that to his children.

I don't want to reach retirement age and have regrets or hindsight about the way I should have lived, and if this story shows us anything it is that we should take charge of the way we age before it catches up with us.

We should take a leaf out of the books of older people living well.

While it is very well to live in the moment, we all need to be thinking long term because old age will creep closer whether you like it or not. Make sure you can make the most of it then by being healthy and smart with money now.

We should not wait until we retire to live a healthy lifestyle, find social activities, drink enough water and eat the right food. We should not wait that long to find new challenges and interests to keep learning.

As 68-year-old Pearl Harper says, "a lot of people want a magic wand, whereas really, it's a lifetime of good practice".

So we better start practising.