Your advice to 40-year-olds: #7 Here comes the fun
May hobbies, learning and enjoyable work fill your days.
In the 2025 National Seniors Social Survey we asked you what advice you’d give to people in their 40s to prepare for a possible time when they can no longer live independently.
This series of Connect articles showcases the top 8 pieces of advice from our 2965 survey respondents.
This week we showcase the seventh theme in our series, formed from the comments of 116 people.
If we had to summarise the advice in two words, it would be ‘stay active’.
Many of these 116 advice contributors used the word ‘active’. This was quite apart from those who used it to mean physically active, which we instead categorised as health advice (previously reported in our third article in the series).
‘Active’ is a word often used in comments about ageing well. In this context it seemed to mean a few different things to the commenters.
One meaning of ‘active’ is the notion of staying engaged with life – to not “give in to lethargy” as one person put it.
Another meaning is ensuring the brain is always busy and the mind stays sharp. This was important to a lot of you.
Some of you also hinted at the need to avoid boredom or meaninglessness later in life when the regular activities we are used to, like paid work or parenting, conventionally come to an end. You suggested that staying active in new ways is the solution to this.
The simple recommendation to engage in activities because they’re fun made an appearance in this theme too.
Beyond survey respondents’ general references to being active, doing activities, and keeping the mind active, the theme’s advice can be explored through three subheadings: work, learning, and hobbies.
Work
Around 40 people mentioned work in one way or another.
When thinking about a time in which a person can no longer live independently, we might not imagine them working.
Yet ‘keep working’ or ‘work hard’ was the advice some of you gave to people in their 40s to prepare for such a time.
Most of you likely meant ‘keep working for a while yet, to earn enough money to support you later on in life’.
Comments of that sort included:
“Find a job or form of employment that you love, and keep working for as many years as possible to help fund a comfortable retirement.”
“don't retire until you have no debt.”
But a few of you indicated that your advice is simply to never stop working, because to work is to be active and engaged. For example:
“work until after 70 if possible”
“Suggest do NOT retire until you need to - keep active & working for as long as possible - keeping body & mind well engaged in meaningful activity.”
In a similar vein, doing unpaid work in the form of volunteering was recommended by seven people.
…or don’t work so much
Not everyone agreed with the advice to keep working though.
Approximately 10 of you advised maintaining a good work/life balance or cautioned against working too long or too hard.
There were several motivations for these sentiments, but a common one was the risks of working in dangerous industries:
“be careful of working conditions, physical work. I worked in the grain industry for 34 years and wrecked my back”
“To begin with - tell those who work in labouring jobs, and who have been continually advised by their boss to - 'Put your back into it!' ..... to take a jump! These 'bosses' are never around when your back is done at 60 - and you can't move anywhere without a walker!”
“Your wellness is way more important than your work”
We might then conclude that your advice is for people to keep working later on if their job remains enjoyable and to consider the potential health impacts of work now if they have a choice of which job to do.
Learning
Around 20 of you advised people in their 40s to continue learning throughout life.
A few linked this to work, advising people to add to their qualifications to get better employment, for example, “Be well-qualified”, and “Education to allow a longer working life”.
But most wrote about learning or studying or exercising curiosity as an important end in itself. These comments included:
“Invest in lifelong learning”
“Do night classes to keep your brain active”
“Stay curious, involved, study, take up an instrument.”
Hobbies
More broadly, maintaining all kinds of hobbies and interests in later life was recommended by around 45 respondents.
This was seen to be important to “help you keep interested in life”, “transition to retirement”, or avoid “getting bored”.
Quite a few of you mentioned specific hobbies or interests you would recommend, such as travel, book clubs, gardening, sport, art, craft, theatre, music, games, reading, dancing, and more. Example comments included:
“Join your local Library and play card and board games, attend Talks by Library e.g. ART SERIES - Artist attend and speak about how they create their works. Also done on Authors, Historians etc. Take Day Bus Tours to get out into local and regional areas for new experiences.”
“Take up an interest now, sport, painting, woodwork, etc”
Some advised people in their 40s to develop their hobbies or interests sooner rather than later so that they can sustain them throughout their life. One person’s sage advice was:
“Find something you really like and are good at and - plan to do more of it!”
Next month’s advice: have fun now.
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National Seniors Australia Ltd ABN 89 050 523 003, AR 282736 is an authorised representative of nib Travel Services (Australia) Pty Ltd (nib), ABN 81 115 932 173, AFSL 308461 and act as nib's agent and not as your agent. This is general advice only. Before you buy, you should consider your needs, the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), Financial Services Guide (FSG) and Target Market Determination (TMD) available from us. This insurance is underwritten by Pacific International Insurance Pty Ltd, ABN 83 169 311 193.
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National Seniors Australia Ltd ABN 89 050 523 003, AR 282736, is an authorised representative of AWP Australia Pty Ltd, ABN 52 097 227 177, AFSL 245631, trading as Allianz Global Assistance (AGA), and acts as AGA's agent and not as your agent. nib Travel Services (Australia) Pty Ltd (nib), ABN 81 115 932 173, AFSL 308461 acts as third party administrator on behalf of AGA, managing claims, complaints, enquiries and sales. This is general advice only. Before you buy, you should consider whether the product is appropriate for you, the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), Financial Services Guide (FSG) and Target Market Determination (TMD) is available from us. This insurance is underwritten by Pacific International Insurance Pty Ltd, ABN 83 169 311 193, AFSL 523921.
