Your sense of well-being as a senior depends on how you think, feel, and act. Fortunately, there are many ways to engage in a full life, and they’re right at your fingertips.
Let’s take a quick look at a variety of practical ways that you can implement today, with very little effort or research involved.
Sidestep Scams
The FBI estimates that the elderly population in the U.S. loses over $3 billion each year to unscrupulous scammers. One popular type of scam perpetrated against seniors is phishing.
Phishing is a form of digital communication, such as an email or a phone text message, used to get sensitive information from you, such as your username and password or your credit card number.
Since phishing scams are common and often hard to detect, it’s important to get anti-phishing training to educate yourself on the large variety of cons used to rip off unsuspecting consumers.
Older consumers are often targeted by scammers because they’re more likely to fall for fraudulent schemes. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), seniors are more likely to report larger financial losses than their younger counterparts.
Seniors often fall for the following types of cons:
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Tech support
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Prize
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Sweepstakes
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Lottery
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Family or friend impersonators
These scams often occur via phone or email, and con artists like to use gift cards and wire transfers as their payment of choice.
If you fall for a scam, the best thing you can do is to share your story with the FTC. This will alert the agency to investigate the incident and publish a public warning about it.
This serves to help others who are unaware.
Discover a New Sense of Purpose
Well-being starts with having a sense of purpose. It’s important for you, as a senior, to be fully engaged in the business of living.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is as important for seniors as it is for people in the working world raising a family. Long after you’ve met your basic physiological, safety, and belonging needs, you still have to fulfill your self-esteem and self-actualization needs.
You can meet your need for meaning by engaging in life in a way you consider significant.
There are many ways you can still continue to feel as if you are an important part of society.
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Develop a fascinating hobby
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Create an online side hustle
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Volunteer at an animal shelter
It doesn’t matter what you choose to do. What matters is that you find a purpose that fills you with passion.
Besides finding meaning and purpose in life, here are some other practical tips that you can do to ensure a high quality of life.
Join a Senior Living Community
If you decide that a senior living community will serve your needs, then it’s important to consider ways that you can earn enough money from side gigs available on the Internet, such as selling on eBay.
Also, consult with financial advisors and family members into ways that you can budget for a senior living community. Here, you’ll find a variety of activities that put you in the thick of action with like-minded folks.
Practice Healthy Living
Practicing healthy living is a discipline. Consult with a nutritionist to develop a healthy eating diet. Healthy foods include leafy green vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Eat broccoli, kale, and avocados. Enjoy blueberries and apples. Consume walnuts, pistachios, almonds, and pecans.
Simple things like avoiding excess sugar, salt, which is often used in packaged foods to improve taste, will make a huge difference to your health and well-being.
A good sign that you’re eating properly is your ability to maintain a healthy body weight. If you have extra pounds, you might be at an increased risk of developing high blood pressure, or risking diabetes or heart disease.
Also practice moderate exercises, such as gentle stretching, Tai Chi, or yoga. It’s easy to learn these by watching a DVD and following along. There might also be a fitness studio in your area where you can sign up for classes.
Besides eating right and exercising regularly, maintain regular checkups, particularly for hearing, vision, and dental health.
Remember to put yourself first, because it’s that important.