When I'm 64

Marketers are helping senior citizens open their purse strings by offering curated travel itineraries, special insurance packages and aided living spaces among other goods and services

- Naina Gautam

A callow 20-something Paul McCartney thought that the 60s were a time for knitting "a sweater by the fireside" and "doing the garden, digging the weeds" ("When I'm 64", Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band). Ironically at 82, McCartney is doing just the opposite. Instead of staying at home and playing with grandchildren, he is busy touring to packed auditoriums.

McCartney is not alone in leading an active life even after becoming a senior citizen. Gone are the days when turning 60 meant renouncing worldly pleasures and withdrawing into a shell. Take the example of Subhasree Tagore. The 76-year-old former professor and an avid traveller has been to Kunnur, the Stans and even to faraway New Zealand in the past few months.

“I love travelling. As a retired professor I now have the time and money to indulge myself. A lot of places now have provisions for elderly people. That’s a bonus,” she says.

Beyond pursuing leisure activities, many senior citizens continue to work. Delhi-based VP Gupta retired as registrar from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 2012 when he turned 60. The very next day he joined a private university. At 72, he is still working; in fact, he earned a PhD when he was 65.

“My grandchildren are now on the verge of joining the workforce, but I don’t want to retire,” Gupta told Outlook Money, our sister publication.

Never Too Old

Most senior citizens after retirement either receive pension or have a sizeable nest egg in place, says Tagore. That plus enough free time and fewer commitments are catalysts for travel or pursuing their passions.

A 2024 paper Senior Care Reforms in India: Reimagining the Senior Care Paradigm by NITI Aayog notes that “by 2050 one in every four Indians will be a senior citizen, it will be equal to the population of the US for the industry in the form of a ‘silver economy’.”