Age 55 is often considered the start of "senior" status due to marketing, lifestyle changes (like 55+ communities), early retirement account access, and the availability of senior discounts, even though official programs like Medicare often start at 65, making it a transitional phase where individuals gain some benefits but don't fully align with traditional retirement age benchmarks.
“Senior citizen” is defined differently by governments, discounts, and health systems, but typically refers to a person who is at least 55 years old. Biological age matters more than chronological age because your cells determine how you truly feel and function.
Other Age Pension benefits
Pension supplement - A regular extra payment to help with utility, phone, internet and medicine costs. Rent assistance – A regular extra amount to help you cover the cost of your accommodation costs. Utilities allowance - A quarterly payment to help with household bills .
From the age of 55, muscle loss increases and the body changes its ratio of muscle to fat. The ageing process begins to show in the calcification of the blood vessels, causing blood pressure to rise.
Signs you're aging well include physical vitality (easy movement, good balance, strength for daily tasks), sharp cognitive function (curiosity, learning new skills, remembering details), and strong emotional/social health (staying connected, finding purpose, managing stress). It's about maintaining independence, a positive mindset, and actively engaging in activities you enjoy, not just looking younger, though good skin/hair can be indicators too.
Baby Boomers—born 1946 to 1964. Generation X—born 1965 to 1980. Millennials—born 1981 to 2000. Generation Z—born 2001 to 2020.
Excess body fat and changes in body shape can affect your balance. These body changes can make falls more likely. Changes in total body weight vary for men and women. Men often gain weight until about age 55, and then begin to lose weight later in life.
We age in spurts at 44 and 60 years old. Ageing isn't one long, slow decline — it happens in bursts at approximately 44 years and 60 years old.
Ross Stores: Customers age 55+ get 10% off in-store purchses every Tuesday. JOANN: On Senior Discount Day, adults age 55+ save 20%. Pep Boys: Customers age 55+ get 10% off their in-store purchase. Valvoline Instant Oil Change: AARP members get 15% off their oil change.
You can start accessing some of your super while you're still working, once you've reached your 'preservation age', in the form of an income stream. However, in order to withdraw your super as a cash lump sum, you need to also meet a condition of release.
The $1,000 a month rule for retirement is a simple guideline stating you need about $240,000 saved for every $1,000 of monthly income you want from your investments, based on a 5% annual withdrawal rate (e.g., $240,000 x 0.05 = $12,000/year or $1,000/month). Popularized by CFP Wes Moss, it helps estimate savings goals but ignores inflation, taxes, and other income like Social Security, so it's best used as a starting point for broader retirement planning.
A person between 50 and 59 is called a quinquagenarian. A person between 60 and 69 is called a sexagenarian. A person between 70 and 79 is called a septuagenarian.
The Mid-Life Stage encompasses the 35 to 55 (or up to 65) years.
some degree of hearing loss. wrinkling and sagging skin. whitening or graying of hair. weight loss, after age 55 in men and after age 65 in women, in part due to loss of muscle tissue.
Here are the 3 body parts that show signs of ageing much before others and what you can do to delay this from happening.
They also found that happiness across lifespan exists on a spectrum of valleys and peaks over time: Satisfaction with life declines between ages nine and 16, rises to reach its peak at age 70, then declines again until age 96 (the oldest age recorded in the study).
Most people begin to notice a shift in the appearance of their face around their 40's and 50's, with some also noticing a change in their 30's. But with these physical changes brought on by aging also comes a change in the appearance of our face - Luckily, there is treatment available.
The observed age pattern for daily stress was remarkably strong: stress was relatively high from age 20 through 50, followed by a precipitous decline through age 70 and beyond.
Mental Health
Nearly 95% of people who are 50 or older say they're “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their lives. But in women, the hormone shift of menopause can cause changes in mood. And illness and heavy alcohol use can make you more likely to be depressed.
It's natural to lose about 10% to 15% of your muscle mass and strength over your lifetime. This steady decline starts around age 30 and speeds up after you hit 60. Muscle loss happens for a mix of reasons, including lower levels of muscle-building hormones and changes to your muscle fibers.
There's no single "toughest" generation, as each faces unique struggles, but Generation X (born 1965-1980) is often cited as the most stressed due to balancing work, family, and finances while facing economic uncertainty, yet they also show high resilience, while younger generations like Gen Z grapple with unprecedented housing costs and climate anxiety, making the definition of "tough" subjective and dependent on the specific challenges faced.
The breakdown by age looks like this: Baby Boomers: Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. They're currently between 61 and 79 years old (approximately 73 million in the U.S.) Gen X: Gen X was born between 1965 and 1979/80 and is currently between 45 and 60 years old (approximately 65 million people in the U.S.)
Donald Trump, born in June 1946, falls squarely into the Baby Boomer generation (typically 1946-1964) as one of the first individuals in that cohort, while President Joe Biden, born in 1942, is a member of the preceding Silent Generation (roughly 1928-1946). Trump's birth year places him at the very beginning of the Baby Boom era, making him a Boomer, not Silent Generation.