ICR048: Staying fit & healthy in later life

This week in episode 48 of the Informed Choice Podcast, Martin talks about the importance of staying fit and healthy in later life.

There’s also a roundup of the latest personal finance and investing news.

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Episode sponsor

This episode of the Informed Choice Podcast is supported by Learn How to Budget, a four week course from Pete Matthew of the Meaningful Money Podcast.

Learn How to Budget gives you everything you need to know and everything you need to do to master the skill of budgeting.

Personal finance news

In the personal finance and investing new roundup this week:

-Interest rates in the UK have been kept on hold at 0.5%, again, following the latest meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee.

-The growth in annual house prices has sped up as a result of ‘improving economic conditions’, according to lender the Halifax.

-HM Revenue and Customs are still failing taxpayers, according to Members of the Public Accounts Committee.

-The Social Market Foundation has warned that those cashing in their pensions early face the risk of running out of money in retirement.

-Two-thirds of people who ask for financially support from their local councils are rejected, according to new figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Main topic

How are you going to stay fit and healthy as you get older?

Age UK have published a new warning that an ageing population, cuts to funding for long-term care and pressures within the NHS are creating a ‘destructive vicious cycle’ for older people.

According to an article about the report in the Telegraph last month, “the chances of elderly people being admitted to hospital for preventable but potentially deadly diseases have more than doubled in a decade.”

As we age, poorer health is inevitable in some sense. It’s quite normal to become more frail as you get older, and be subject to a greater range of age related diseases. Yet we often see examples of older people who manage to stay physically fit and mentally active as they age.