Pitfalls later but first the upsides and there are quite a few the wave of silver surface spending their disposable income the holds of grey nomads exploring every last corner of the earth aging populations arent necessarily a drain on economies my colleague shock went to talk about it with someone who should know her mother placated. This is me and this is my mother there are nearly forty years between us id like to be like her when i get old an eighty one year old whos full of beans. Sure i could come over here every day and do my gymnastics in the park. People in germany are getting older and as long as their health holds out they continue to be active as they age how old you feel. Oh thats a tough question i usually ask people how old they think i am but how do i feel thats a mid sixtys or so. I would certainly not as old as i really am thank goodness your life motto. In life is to try to not come to a standstill stay active continue to look for and experience new things. And then when you come across something new dont think oh you dont need to try that its not worth it at your age but just give it a go. That makes people like my mother attractive for Many Companies these socalled youthful seniors want to lead independent lives and that means theyre an important part of consumer society. Theyre not averse to modern technology. To see how the colors are changing and that happens a lot on the internet when you swipe over something with the mouse in the color changes then you know you can click on it its like a button you can push. Ok but its not doing anything why isnt it reacting my mother is generally unfazed even when things get complicated. Oh its been finish im pretty persistent once ive started something and feel a need to learn how to do it then i stick with it until i can even if its difficult and i have to swear myself a little i say biggie dont be stupid just keep on trying so brit come out on me said mom i give myself a little pep talk and that usually works but then i would. Buy what i buy if. By theyre my mother taking trips is a way of staying active in old age travel loving seniors have become a lucrative market for tour operators special travel clubs offer package tours for them with my mother is happy to spend her money on bass and make her remaining years pleasant been to him probably no i dont spend much time to eling on the future and who knows what might happen in a week or in six months i try not to think about that too much i dont feel old and i hope thats the way it stays for a while. Living in the here and now i think thats a good attitude to have as any age. But are only a lot everyones that positive and the preconceptions about aging are usually quite negative but talk to Marketing Experts and youll discover quite quickly that the older generation is growing in force it has consume a clout and is increasingly well off. To stereotype older people are less productive and no longer capable of holding down a job. But thats simply not true more and more people are working beyond retirement age in two thousand and five that applied to six point five percent of over sixty fives in germany by two thousand and fourteen that number had climbed to fourteen point five percent putting germany ahead of italy in the u. K. The percentage is even higher and in a stony or greater still. But what about the adage you can teach an old dog new tricks well thats wrong to the roughly thirty four thousand people all giving courses a german universities almost half are over sixty. Its true that cognitive lost does occur as people age but in many seniors these changes are coming later and later. And what about mobility. While in one thousand nine hundred eighty five only one in ten seventy five to seventy nine year olds had a drivers license nowadays up to half of them still get behind the wheel. And seniors are an increasingly important market for the Tourism Industry cultural and educational tours are more popular with over sixty five than beach holiday s. But dont older people have to pinch their pennies. In germany one in six elderly people is currently at risk of poverty and in the future this figure could rise to one in five but the fact is seniors have a higher average disposable income than any other age group. All told their total spending power climbed over the past decade to three hundred seventy five billion euros one in every three spent by a senior. A lot more than you think now. What do you say. Its cooking and its why. Maybe i need to get my is cleaned up or do i need a hearing aid another widespread cliche about the elderly is hearing loss we tend to imagine are people wearing those clunky flesh colored contraptions tucked behind their ears that people patiently but two things about that cliche are wrong first of all the latest technology is given hearing aids a major make over these sleek new devices are so small youd hardly notice them and another thing is that hearing loss is not restricted to seniors. Thats what most people hear when they cycle. But this is how it sounds to have it to entice sick adults rumble in traffic or impairment could mean the difference between life or death returned with a hearing aid its easier for me to hear cars that drive up behind me ok its safer. But never less stereotypes persist hearing aids are just for friday duddies. Thats an outdated image on you in the past hearing aids used to be a lot bigger nowadays theyre much smaller you can hardly see their eyes and most people dont even know i have one. Of these two businessmen sell hearing aids made by Different Companies the devices are often only as big as a bead and cost up to two thousand eight hundred euros. With Life Expectancy growing and then aging demographic in many European Countries hearing aids a big business. You know its pretty rare for one in three people over fifty has hearing problems but only twenty percent of them actually wear hearing aids thats a lot of potential under enough work for decades. Through to carbon out if any started up in two thousand and twelve and already employs three hundred fifty people in berlin alone some asked first of all you need to get your doctor to check your hearing. Loss and they are advising potential customers discussing the various options and whether they might be eligible for a free device its not an easy job many people find it difficult to admit their hearing isnt up to scratch stuff get commission on their sales and even occasionally a gong. On the team award for this week goes to lynns team. Well why benny employs eight hundred staff in Nine Countries profits are being plowed back into the expanding company most people featured on their website a youthful looking the kind of people who wouldnt want anything to do with data devices but would like sleek in conspicuous aids ones that can even be completely concealed in the ear. With all. This is about the holy grail of eternal youth. The generation we encounter of baby boomers who are still very active and often still working. And now theyre confronted with the annoying fact that they can hear so well in some loud environments of those days. This customer also got his hearing if you dont learn. How hes getting the device adjusted by an expert. Toss and mark always wears his hearing aid no matter where years its almost invisible he can also use it like very expensive headphones he regulates the music using an app on a smartphone. He doesnt see it as an accessory for oldies to give you for i doubt it i dont get the feeling that people around me perceive it as a device for old people and if you get your smartphone out and show people you can listen to music with it then everyone immediately thinks that its pretty cool because on ending i was a few others into this thing. When he wants to listen to whats going on around him again he has to reset the device. Thanks to this new technology having impaired hearing is no longer a problem for twenty nine year old thorsten marquardt. Hearing i dont know what some elderly people like but i get the last shock from our earlier report just dont let their age get in the way of anything keeping scene is healthy and active isnt just good for them and their families its also good for the economy so whats the secret to a productive happy life in your Twilight Years lets go back to break it is to find out. My mother retired years ago but shes showing no signs of slowing down she still has a Part Time Job conducting surveys twice a week for now im going to ask you a few questions you just need to respond with either yes or no. Ive kept working i think thats definitely a way to keep the gray cells active youre forced to get moving and get out of the house and work for a few hours. But you stay focused and hands up energy and these are things that keep you from aging. And you know she doesnt need the money she works because she wants to. Is thomas says from god its my heart dare to say it and the more people see it what youre still working but its not they probably think im crazy hardly anybody works at my age stand hides about in the my dob i just mentioned but ive always enjoyed working and im the kind of person who cant just sit around at home. And i always need to have something to do no matter what it is an effect of my i can usually come up with a way to make myself useful when im not is an important factor of course feeling useful. To have a sense that youre doing something worthwhile by as much. As. What else keeps her young enjoying life of course. At eighty one my mother still knows how to do that for her its all about dancing ever since she was a little girl my mother has love to sing the dance floor. Down hasnt changed one this luckily shes got a friend who goes with her. As long as youre still in good health you should enjoy life and that means celebrating too thats what life is about as long as youre well enough and participate because you never know life is short. In time same i love to dance and if i ever stop wanting to go dancing then ill know im truly old i mean i think im still far away from that. I think so too so how old would my mother like to become. Im going for ninety honestly. Ive always said one hundred but that sounds a bit silly thats the way it is no longer the better. And of course i can only agree id like to share as many years with her as possible. Like it is a model of successful aging and while shes made her own luck not everyone has such an easy ride in later life one big issue many elderly people complain about is this criminal nation especially when it comes to accessing the labor market some fifteen percent of germans say theyve experienced ages them we sent two of our reporters out to investigate. As a kid i feel discriminated against because of my age im twenty six and i feel like no one takes me seriously i dont give back to be honest my colleague could be my daughter but i dont feel maybe i will experience age discrimination one day but i havent so far. We both work as t. V. Reporters but today were branching out. To apply for a job to see which of us gets it. We are in a restaurant and frank front there are often openings here is h. A factor in who gets hired. The first job making latvian pancakes. Were going to make but we dont cook or rica. Take some cheese. Slice of. Pie and then you fold it up like a parcel. Of fried egg. It was jumped on but which of us gets high at. My age doesnt matter what matters is having team spirit and working country and just working neatly thats what counts in my book which comes from sticks and what they are still differences between Older Workers and young no ones what are their respective strengths and weaknesses. With the Older Workers experience is definitely a bonus theyre more confident calm practiced younger workers have a lot of energy theyre dynamic and physically stronger. Than the new companies you coughed. And for. Certainly hes got a point making the better is hard work. Im pretty strong but when i get stuck in the kitchen when i ever get promoted. On the young people as capable as older ones. Definitely yes they are there to hear it makes a change to the woman who was in sick more often young or old if you two Older Workers are sick more often thats true. So it makes economic sense to employ younger people who when youre in that respect yes it does but experience makes up for a lot young people have to make up for their lack of experience but if youre going to under the one convince you to the last say yes he would hire either of us but i cant help thinking that if there was only one opening in his restaurant he would offer it to kill because shes younger. But that was the Restaurant Business and other sectors physical stamina doesnt matter as much journalism for instance. Weve come to a demographics congress a Meeting Place for people from Human ResourcesDepartment Researchers and employers from various sectors gearing up for demographic change they know better than anyone what sort of People Companies like to hire. Us and what are the advantages and disadvantages of older and younger people in the workplace. You are going to through should be computers basically weve seen that younger people are probably more innovative. And theyre faster learners more flexible in their thinking and theyre broad minded when it comes to weighing the challenges for human perspective. The older people tend to have more experience they know what works and they can see the Bigger Picture of the ending of a peer speaking of ok im starting to send some age discrimination surely my. Reactions are getting slower i put them to the test which youre rooting for me right sure but i can see that. Im always fair question. But the point is to get green four times its not easy. One out of four pretty good. You. Know what i was aiming for two or four. So i dont feel bad you won thank goodness ive confounded decay shane. Being young has its own challenges. Going to have no one in my generation has a secure job the way you all did its not really fair that is not true thats a broader question of the Younger Generation has some resentment and i get that. Sense of most of our company had to make savings as a younger ones would be the first to go thats just how it is where young we have fewer commitments we dont have long Term Contracts we can lose our jobs pretty quickly for having been to optional but it wouldnt do we have Legal Protection against age related dismissal because its harder for us to find a new job you heard what the restaurant manager said he thinks all the employees are sick more often maybe thats his experience im not sick more than my younger colleagues but thats what people think so it would be harder for me to find a job than for you. Maybe but employers often think young people are clueless he will soon be in the right age for employers and for me h. Discrimination could start being a problem at what age are you old. Or sometimes i think seventy hm mm. It isnt hard no seriously its a matter of perspective how young do you feel how proactive are you and how flexible how fit some people are set in their ways at twenty get them and think ok theyre old minds and a young body and. We both feel we are exactly the right age for our jobs and if it were up to us wed be happy to people working together. I havent made that many t. V. Reports before mario really boosted my confidence not from keil tool maybe a camera technique we were great to. Have we do it again you bet if management pays for two of us thats. Fine by me. Getting traded in for a younger model for many older people in the workplace its a real fear i wonder given the jump in poverty rates among the elderly in the European Union some sixteen percent of women and twelve percent of men are at risk of poverty in old age im surprised the women are more affected given the widespread discrepancy in pay and therefore in pensions take germany for example where male retirees receive eleven hundred fifty euros a month on average women just seven hundred fifty yours all this next advocate for female entrepreneurship says put more men in traditionally womens jobs and youll see pay packets even themselves out a reporter christina met stephanie bashaw. I dont know about you but im not Sleeping Beauty i cant wait a whole century look it up at only that. It would take one hundred seventeen years at the current rate of change for men and women to earn the same and oh you know well thats a lot ian must expect those experts say things are changing we just have to be patient. There are two main reasons why women earn less than men number one they pick a lower paying work bill i wanted a bust. Yet so will and second they interrupt their careers first to take care of their kids and later their parents. How to change this vicious circle this money for stephanie shore may be able to help me shes the president of the association of german women entrepreneurs. Coincident and women here in germany earn twenty one percent less than men on average are only women to blame to some extent if we pick the wrong profession. Think we need a different perspective on this issue and we need to make professions like cag or elementary schoolteacher more attractive to men that would lead to higher pay for such jobs and other good i think theyre being intrusted with our greatest asset our children and that should have a higher status in bed because following that women often reduce their hours or give up working to take care of their children and later their parents shouldnt governments create infrastructure that allows women to focus on their careers the way men do i think and. Of course thats very important we will have a right to daycare all day schooling for our kids but not in. Twenty twenty five were discussing this now and we needed this ten years ago. And i said and i think you do employers rule out a woman whos around thirty years old because she might take parental leave. And of course no one is spared that as an employer to say we have equal opportunity in germany when we start looking at a c. V. From the viewpoint of will this person take leave when they have kids but you must if youre interested in the long term and then ill just see that its a things other than one field and then you can overlook it and really focus on the qualifications and then were where we want to be qualified but we are miles away from that long. Mile but when ive found is that you ok the politicians have to act but so do we. Choose a better paying profession build up your own business name hire that must i dont