List organisations that support the wellbeing of retired people in your community and describe what they do.
Here is some information on Useful Services for Older People, Support Services for Older People, and Eldernet resources to help you.

Identify which of these organisations support elderly people with financial advice.

Interview a grandparent or retired person. Prepare a set of questions about their views on what it means to be healthy, wealthy and wise. Ask how satisfied they are with their level of wellbeing, including their financial wellbeing. You may like to include some of the questions suggested in this article.

View the Grandparent videos under the student activities to hear some inspiring stories. Record your interview.

Explain the impact unexpected financial events can have on elderly people. Refer to your metre ruler outcomes from the section above. Thinklinker #1: the Metre ruler activity.

Explain how community organisations support retired people in your community.

Explain how older people’s financial wellbeing influences their ability to participate in activities.

Using the Future Brief 2045, choose one of the housing options suggested and discuss the impact on hauora this might have for the residents. Use the Hauora template as a guide.

Discuss how starting to save and invest now could impact your future financial wellbeing. See the Sorted KiwiSaver Savings Calculator

Read and analyse this article on economic hardship effects among older people. (You could just read intro paragraph and final paragraph for an easier read.)

Develop an action you could take to promote healthy, wealthy, and wise communities in your own community. See this Healthy Communities infographic for ideas.

Create a guide to being healthy, wealthy and wise in old age based on information you have gathered from your interview of an elderly person and other resources, for example:

• Age Concern NZ
• Sorted.org.nz
• Statistics NZ
• Investment powerpoint
• Investment infographic

Predict challenges that your generation will face if superannuation (NZ Super) is no longer available by the time you are 65. For information, see the Human Rights Commission measures of wellbeing in older people.

Predict what you will need to plan ahead for the lifestyle you want in retirement/whakatā. Use the Sorted Retirement Planner to inform your ideas.

Design a way to support elderly people in your community, for example:

• Network
• Voluntary initiative
• Participation incentive
• Multi-generational activity/club

Promote your design in a creative way.

Create a game or activity that supports the financial wellbeing of older people in your community. For ideas, see:

• Wellbeing bingo
• Mental Health Foundation goal-setting template

Create promotional material for your chosen Future Brief 2045 housing option based on your analysis of the benefits and impacts. For ideas, see Toa Architects Māori modular housing.

Government assistance with housing for elderly

Read the following articles and identify housing issues related to elderly people.

• Retirees forced to sleep in cars
• Retirees turn to flatting
• It’s a very bad outcome for our elderly.

Watch these videos. Identify the values and perspectives that shape how people view retirement/whakatā.

• Pasifika women talking about retirement
• Māori woman thinking about retirement
• Planning for your retirement.

Describe how the elderly  are looked after in other countries. Here are some links to get you started:

• Different cultural approaches to the elderly
• Why some elderly Japanese people want to go to jail
• Millennials and retired people living together

Read this article about an elderly woman buying half a house on the Kapiti coast.

List the advantages and disadvantages of buying half of a house/whare.

Compare the housing options for elderly people in your community. Investigate ways that the local council supports people with housing.

Use the Retirement: looking ahead activity to investigate whether superannuation provides enough money to cover basic living costs. Discuss the benefits of owning your own home instead of renting when you are retired. Use the Sorted retirement planner to see what you might need when preparing for your retirement/whakatā.

Compare the financial support provided to elderly people in New Zealand with the support provided in other countries.

Predict what might happen if NZ Super no longer exists by the time you retire. How would this impact on your living standards?

Choose a country and investigate the ways that elderly people are looked after. Evaluate whether it is better to be a retired person in your chosen country or in New Zealand. Justify your choice and present it to the class.

People who develop retirement villages don’t have to provide options for people who can’t afford a home. Debate whether it should be compulsory for developers to make a proportion of their retirement/whakatā village homes available to people who can’t afford to pay for one. Read this article on affordable housing in retirement developments for ideas.