Many Australians are so fit and willing to adapt to a changing world by still going after 70 years of age! As Tina Turner belted out: What’s age got to do with it?

Benjamin Franklin, one of the brightest minds in history, once counselled us with: “Change is the only constant in life. One’s ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.”

Many older Australians are adapting to a changing world by still going after 70 years of age!

A KPMG survey highlighted by Michelle Bowes of the AFR provides an interesting fact to underline how older Australians have changed. “Twenty years ago, one in 10 men were working at age 70.

Today, it’s one in four...even for men in their late 70s, almost one in 10 remains in the labour force.”

Rawnsley’s take on why older Australians keep working was captured in a KPMG survey of Australian labour force data. It comes at a time when many high achievers are still treading the boards over the age of 70 worldwide. Afterall, the leader of the free world Donald Trump is 79. And his predecessor Joe Biden was 78 when he took office. Meanwhile, actor Denzel Washington is 71 and is planning to produce Equalizer 4 (what a great movie that is!) soon and Meryl Streep, who next year will be seen in The Devil Wears Prada 2, is 76!

Locally, company director David Gonski is still waving his corporate nous at age 72 and former NSW Premier, Nick Greiner is doing the same at 78.

So, what are the reasons for this trend for everyday Australians? Try these:

1. The retirement age for a pension has been lifted to 67.
2. The acceptance of the work-from-home trend.
3. According to retirement adviser and author Bec Wilson, health is better with 70 years-olds now as they have the cognitive ability of 53- to 55-year-olds of the 1990s.
4. Boredom with retirement and even golf!
5. Financial needs in a more expensive world.
6. Many now operate the Bank of Mum and Dad, which has morphed into Granny Bank.
7. New age retirees want overseas and other luxuries cruises and their super permits them to do that, but work helps keep their super balances from shrinking too fast.
8. And because they’re living longer, they fear they might outlive their super, so working as long as they can is seen as a big help.
9. Some are starting or sustaining existing businesses.
10. Some love work because they’re partly or totally defined by their job, career or business.

Bowes points out that life expectancy for men is now 81.1 and women 85.1 years. And what we’re seeing is also happening overseas where people in their 70s in South Korea and Japan have long kept on working.

To be fair on previous generations, while the explosion of white collar jobs over more physically stressful blue collar jobs has made working longer easier, a big driver of working longer is the fact that Australians have changed. They’re more educated. They’re more aspirational and have heeded the advice of Benjamin Franklin that success is a good thing to want, even if it’s a quality part-retirement with work on the side.

John F. Kennedy got it totally right when he told us: “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

Not all Australians are working past 70 but I bet a lot more will as time goes by. What’s age got to do with it anyway?