Don’t feel depressed after getting your senior card. If you are in good health and optimistic, you can have 20 years of good life left in you. Even aging can be fun. As you are certified old, the secret is to plan your days in full and meaningful ways.

 

The usual plan takes time and money. Time you don’t have much of left, but money, you should have a lot. Never get bored. Boredom is the worst feeling for seniors. Old is okay, but not old and useless.

 

Older people are usually invisible to others. When this happens, I scream and become mean to remind people I’m still very much around.

 

Study your finances, for this is the key to your meaningful plans. I took my grandsons to Disneyland, and the memories will be there long after I am gone. But it takes money, so your finances should be healthy. Investment is the key.

 

To learn how to invest, I took lessons from the masters. I attended the Estate Planning seminar at AIM Conference center under Ruperto Somera, a former director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, a professor-lecturer who has a Ph.D, CBA and DBA after his name. I learned from him and enjoyed his sense of humor. This was followed by another seminar where I learned about stocks from hotshots.

 

I realized that learning how to make your money grow is fun. I enrolled in a Registered Financial Planner (RFP) course to complete my financial literacy. Perhaps I could help my friends in the entertainment industry to invest their money wisely.

 

Financial gurus

 

The RFP course takes six weeks of intense study. You have to pass the exams before you can put RFP after your name. The tutorial costs P28,000. But then you get to study under financial gurus like lawyer Ariel Martinez, Jeff Gonzalez, Ricky So, Efren Cruz and Susan Bigay, a professor-lecturer who makes the study of taxation very interesting.

 

There’s a joke that Rico J. Puno  makes when people ask about me.  “How’s Norma J?” they ask, and he would answer, “Nagbibilang ng pera!”

 

There’s some truth to it. I really enjoy counting money. I realized that when you are old, you can’t afford to be poor!

 

Continue driving. There is nothing that better shows that you are still independent than driving your way around. I still do the short drive to church, the market and to my grandson’s school. But I stop at the idea of driving off to Baguio at the drop of a hat.

 

Drive a smaller car with an automatic transmission. My grandson Norman Joshua is my co-driver.

 

“Look at the side mirror when you turn, Momcy!”

 

“I know, I know. I have been driving for 30 years, long before you were born!”

 

Then he told me that he will drive for me when he turns 16. Thank God it’s a long way off. He is nine and in fourth grade.

 

So, I insist on driving despite the fact that this year, I hit a gate twice when I made a sharp turn.

 

The day before my nth birthday, I decided to take painting lessons under maestro Fernando B. Sena.

 

The maestro is the head of Art Discovery and Learning Foundation, Inc. The foundation is now 12 years old.

 

Sena is indefatigable in teaching art to a lot of people. He has done art workshops for teachers, prisoners and seniors. He is also known as the painting instructor of the late President Cory Aquino. He taught her how to paint all those lovely flowers.

 

The afternoon session was held at the Heart Center of the Philippines. Most of the participants were senior citizens and some nuns. We started sketching by using three straight lines. Then shapes inside the light lines. From sketching we went to drawing and, finally, painting.

 

Sena is an engaging instructor and sees humor in our attempts to be creative. “A little more and you can exhibit. You may even sell some!”

 

‘Duling’

 

My vase was growing out of the light lines. The attending scholars of Sena helped me with the proportions. But I suffered later when sketching a face. Somehow the eyes came out cross-eyed.

 

“Duling!”  The maestro’s assistant helped with some needed erasures. I am now painting in tempera and mixing it like how Sena does it. At least I’m not just cutting paper dolls!

 

Life is good and full. But romantic passion is gone. The men I was passionate about are dead. The rest have turned into grumpy old men. I enjoy free movies, free concerts and discounted dining and medicines.

 

Then there’s nothing like getting together with women friends. But the subject of conversation is different now.

 

Whereas before we used to gossip about men of our affections, now we discuss our aches and pains. Tellie talks about her aching joints and Linda B. about her latest herbal cosmetic.

 

I prescribed turmeric (luyang dilao) to everyone, and where to get it in powder form and capsules. I’m passionate about this, since it helped me control my blood sugar, thanks to Dr. Rima Tan, my lovely diabetes doctor.

 

Even writing a will can be fun, because you can keep changing it. I have a holographic will that I change every two years. I left my one-carat diamond to my favorite niece, only to change my mind when I heard she was enjoying afternoons with a married man. Now she is just getting an opal from Sydney. Jewelry is an intimate thing. You have to leave it to someone who will cherish it and keep it in the family.

 

So I really enjoy aging. Still, I can never tell the truth about my age!