Are you a "Denture Venturer" ? Do you want to "SKI" (Spend the Kids Inheritance)?

What are the "over 50's" up to? According to the Independent (thank you 50-Plus Marketing), they are trekking across the globe, digging wells in African villages, and changing careers. One thing they are not doing is laying "down like an extra on the Antiques Roadshow and waiting for geriatric rot to set in." Nope. According to the Independent, sex and travel are top of the agenda.

What's going on?

An online survey published last October asked 1,500 people over 65 whether they had regrets. The results were surprising. Rather than dreaming back to a lost golden era, it found that many older people envy the lifestyles of the young. Seventy per cent wished they had had more sex, 57 per cent would have liked to have traveled more, and 45 per cent wished they had quit their jobs and changed profession.

Wealthy and adventurous, the baby boom generation that fueled the sixties (as well as the work-until-you-drop eighties) are at the peak of their earning power and often sitting on sizable nest eggs. The over-45s are responsible for an estimated 80 per cent of all financial wealth, but they are bored and not ready to act like their parents or their parents' parents. Most importantly, they appear to not be afraid to "SKI" ("Spend the Kids' Inheritance").

Another term (in the UK at least) for these aging intrepid travelers is "golden gappers". Some attribute this trend to a changing work culture over the past several decades. The "job for life" that the baby boomers started out long gone. "Employees in their fifties feel little obligation to keep working and are more inclined to explore other avenues while they still can."

The full article contains humorous examples of denture ventures, skiing, and golden gappers.