---
title: How many active years are you planning for? | Las Colinas Nordic
description: Across Northern Europe, a 65-year-old can expect about 8 to 14 years in good health. How many active years are you planning for, and where?
---

[Blog | Las Colinas Nordic, on buying property in Spain](https://lascolinas.no/en/lcn-blogg)

# [How many active years are you planning for? | Las Colinas Nordic](https://lascolinas.no/en/lcn-blogg/how-many-active-years-are-you-planning-for)

 Written by [John R. Uppard](https://lascolinas.no/en/lcn-blogg/author/john-r-uppard) | Nov 5, 2026, 10:25:18 AM

It is a January afternoon and the light has already gone. You are at the kitchen table with the diary open, planning the spring. There is a family weekend, a few commitments you agreed to months ago, a week that is already full. And there is the trip you have talked about for years, pencilled in for next year, just as it was the year before.

The summer holiday is the part of the year you look forward to, and the weeks around it are the ones you work towards. Spring arrives late, the evenings are still short, and by February you are ready for some light. You know the feeling. The question is what you do with it.

You have spent years building a solid financial position. That took discipline, and probably a few sacrifices along the way. This is about what it is for.

## The question behind the diary

Building wealth for your heirs and your standing is good. But at what price?

It is a question a full diary can easily push aside. Work, family and responsibilities set the pace, and the best intentions move to next year. Then the winter comes round again, long and dark, and you are at the same kitchen table.

You may have heard a friend say "when I retire" so often that it has become a figure of speech. Perhaps you have said it yourself. Or you have caught yourself saying "once things calm down", and then watched the next busy season arrive. What is worth a second look is the timing.

The days you picture for later are active days: a walk before breakfast, a game with friends, a long dinner with people you like. They are days worth putting in the diary while you are looking forward to them.

Evening on the estate

## The active years, in numbers

I know this can sound a little morbid. It is not meant to scare. It is simply a fact: we do not live forever, and we are not spring chickens anymore. A few figures put the question in proportion. Across Northern Europe, a 65-year-old today can expect on average around 18 to 22 more years, and somewhere between about 8 and 14 of them in good health, depending on the country. The EU average is about 10 years in good health.

The range is wide because the countries differ, so your own years are the ones to look at. If you, for example, are 60 this year, it is worth thinking about how many good years are ahead.

It helps to put it plainly. Somewhere between about 8 and 14 years in good health at 65 is a long stretch. These are averages across a population. You can lay them beside the diary and see what is in it.

Those are years for a round of golf in the morning, padel in the afternoon and a long dinner in the evening.

> Those are years for a round of golf in the morning, padel in the afternoon and a long dinner in the evening.
> 
> Evening light on the course

At 60, this year is potentially the best physical year you have. Next year, a little less. To me it is an invitation to spend the years you have while they are at their best.

## Use it without moving here

Key point

A home here is something you own and something you use. It does not mean you have to live here.

It is there when you want it: longer stays, a few weeks of work from here, and a warm, bright place through the northern winter. If you plan long stays, your tax advisor can tell you how the number of days affects your position.

Picture the same January again, with a different diary. A few weeks in it are set aside, and they are spent somewhere warm and bright. Some of that time is work, some of it is golf, and some of it is simply a long breakfast outside.

## Inside the estate

A championship golf course, tennis, padel and pickleball, a fitness centre with spa and three restaurants, inside a gated estate with its own security service.

Lunch on the clubhouse terrace

That matters when the aim is to spend your time enjoying a home. The course in the morning, the courts in the afternoon and dinner in the evening are all part of the same estate, and the days arrange themselves around what you enjoy. The gates and the security service are part of what makes it easy to leave the home and come back to it.

Think of the difference between a holiday that has to be organised and a home that is ready when you are. The first uses up some of the time it is meant to give you. The second gives more of it back.

## One life

You have worked hard, built something and made sacrifices along the way. There is one life, and how you live the active years of it is your choice.

> There is one life, and how you live the active years of it is your choice.

So the question is a simple one to ask, and a considered one to answer.

How many active years are you planning for, and where would you like to spend them?

If you recognise the kitchen table, the diary and the trip pencilled in for next year, you are welcome to talk it through with me. I am happy to think it over with you, at your pace, and there is no decision to bring.

Sources: Eurostat, healthy life years (hlth\_hlye) and life expectancy (demo\_mlexpec) at age 65, 2024, for Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany (Iceland: life expectancy only). EU figures from the same tables. This article is general information, not financial advice.

**Read on:** [The estate](https://lascolinas.no/en/estate?hsLang=en), [The properties](https://lascolinas.no/en/properties?hsLang=en).

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