Your Sunset Years Look More Like a Solar Eclipse on Your Bank Account
A “third-age crisis” is what happens when you’re 65-70 years old, staring down the barrel of another 20-30 years of life, and realising your retirement savings won’t last through a long weekend at Target, let alone three decades. It’s the uncomfortable awakening that the golden years might require you to keep mining for actual gold. But here’s the real question: What if this crisis isn’t a dead end, but a detour toward the most meaningful chapter of your life?
“Every year should teach you something valuable; whether you get the lesson is up to you. Every year brings you closer to expressing your whole and healed self.” ~Oprah Winfrey
What is a Third-Age Crisis?
A third-age crisis—often experienced in the years following retirement or during significant life transitions later in adulthood—can bring feelings of uncertainty, loss of purpose, or anxiety about the future. However, there are practical, evidence-based strategies to help you navigate and grow through this period. Unlike the midlife crisis, which often centres on lost opportunities or unfulfilled ambitions, a third-age crisis is more about the loss of relevance and coping with major life changes associated with ageing, such as retirement, bereavement, declining health, or changes in social roles.
Common triggers for a third-age crisis include:
- The death of a loved one
- Serious illness or disability
- Retirement or the end of a career
- Financial difficulties
- Social isolation or loneliness
- Loss of physical vitality or independence
The crisis may manifest as depression, anxiety, or a pervasive sense of being “invisible” or irrelevant in society. It is not gender-specific and can affect both men and women equally.
There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” ~Sophia Loren
While a third-age crisis can be deeply unsettling, it is often temporary and can lead to personal growth and a new sense of purpose if addressed constructively. Recognising the signs and seeking support can help you navigate this challenging stage.
The Tell-Tale Signs: Are You in a Third-Age Crisis?
Unlike a midlife crisis, which announces itself with sports cars and questionable haircuts, a third-age crisis tends to creep in quietly, wearing sensible shoes and carrying a calculator. Here’s how to recognise if you’re in the thick of one:
The Financial Fear Spiral You’ve become best friends with your retirement calculator, and it’s not a healthy relationship. You find yourself running “what if I live to 95?” scenarios at 3 AM, and the numbers always make you want to hide under the covers. You’ve started viewing every purchase through the lens of “Will this bankrupt me in 2047?” Even buying name-brand cereal feels like a financial gamble.
The Relevance Panic You catch yourself thinking, “Does anyone actually need me anymore?” Technology moves faster than you can keep up, your adult children solve their own problems, and you feel like you’re becoming invisible in real-time. You wonder if your decades of experience have suddenly become as obsolete as your flip phone.
The Identity Vacuum For decades, you were “Sarah the accountant” or “Bob the manager.” Now you’re just… Sarah. Or Bob. Without the professional identity that defined you, you’re not sure who you are anymore. You introduce yourself at parties and then awkwardly trail off after saying your name.
The Time Abundance Paradox You have more free time than you’ve had since childhood, but instead of feeling liberated, you feel lost. The days stretch endlessly, filled with activities that feel more like time-killing than time-living. You binge-watch Netflix not because you love it, but because it makes the hours pass.
The Energy-Purpose Mismatch You feel perfectly capable of doing meaningful work, but society keeps handing you crossword puzzles and suggesting you “take it easy.” You have the energy of someone who wants to contribute but the schedule of someone who’s been put out to pasture.
The “Is This It?” Existential Dread You look at your remaining years and think, “Really? This is how the story ends?” You’re not ready for the rocking chair, but you’re not sure what the alternative looks like. You feel caught between “too old” and “not done yet.”
The Comparison Trap You obsessively compare your situation to others your age. Janet seems to have endless retirement funds, while Bob is travelling the world. Meanwhile, you’re clipping coupons and wondering where you went wrong. Social media becomes a highlight reel of everyone else’s successful ageing.
The Skills Anxiety You worry that everything you know is outdated, that your expertise has expired like milk. You feel like you’re speaking a different language than younger generations, and you’re not sure if it’s worth learning theirs.
The good news? Recognising these signs means you’re not sleepwalking through your third-age crisis. You’re awake, aware, and ready to rewrite the script. Because a late life crisis isn’t a dead end—it’s a detour toward something better.
Remember when 65 was the magic number? Clock out, collect your pension, buy a rocking chair, and wave goodbye to the working world? Well, plot twist: nobody told our bank accounts that we’d be living until 85, 90, or even 100.
Today’s “golden years” look more like “golden handcuffs”, where the only thing retiring is the fantasy that we actually get to retire. Welcome to the late life crisis—the midlife crisis’s older, wiser, and significantly more financially stressed sibling.
But before you start panic-buying lottery tickets or googling “how to become a TikTok influencer at 68,” let me tell you about Freya May. Her story will change everything you think you know about getting older, staying relevant, and finding purpose when everyone expects you to be winding down.