The Personal Cost of Aging

So a recent RAND study puts the cost of Dementia in this country upwards to $215 billion dollars each year.  The study goes on to outline the tremendous economic costs of caring for people suffering from diseases like Alzheimer’s and early-onset dementia. There are the human costs,  slowly losing a loved one as they walk with us in a park each Saturday morning, or sit blankly with the family for Sunday dinner. But the obvious question, of course, is really about me.

Indeed, I haven’t been officially diagnosed with any such medical condition, but there is no shortage of friends and acquaintances (I can’t recall if I have any family) who are willing to line up and testify that I’m usually running a quart low these days; that I’m often  ‘out to lunch’ long  before I’ve had my morning coffee.  Yes, I’ll have to admit that maybe not every single synapse is firing in the right direction; if any are still firing at all. Still, I’m pretty sure that the $215 billion dollars that Rand study refers to doesn’t include the cost of the seventh can of WD-40 that I bought the other day because I have forgotten about the other six, which are apparently hiding around my home like colored eggs left abandoned during an Easter egg hunt.

I sat down yesterday afternoon to calculate just how much my personal aging is costing me and it was quite startling. The fact of the matter is, I’m saving money like never before! I no longer remember anyone’s birthday, so big bucks are saved on celebratory dinners and expensive gifts. I don’t spend any more money going to the movies because I’ve been told that I’m usually asleep before the previews have concluded.  I no longer pay for any auto maintenance, like oil changes or insurance premiums not because I don’t remember where I last left my car, but because I can’t remember if I still own it.