Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.

Later life does not begin on a particular birthday. A good part of what it holds is built over decades: friendships tended, curiosity kept working, some care for the body where the body allows it. Much of the rest comes down to health, luck and circumstances nobody chooses, so the part worth your attention is the part that does answer to effort.

Whichever decade you are in, starting still counts, and a small amount begun late does more than none. Pick whichever of those has been neglected longest. Ring the friend you have not called, or take up the question you have been meaning to look into, and keep it going this week.