The question of how one will fare in old age as a pensioner may concern almost everyone, but not many think deeply about it until they reach the point where they are old and must deal with pensions. How I will fare as a pensioner naturally depends a lot on how my country organizes its society regarding pension contributions, for instance public vs. private, and similar structures. But how one will fare as a pensioner and how one will live their life also depends a great deal on how one prepares for old age. I can struggle against thinking that it is not good to grow old; it is just a precursor to death, or I can think that growing old is a phase of life where one can step back a bit, slow down a little, and think that one is doing well here in this country as long as there is no war and serious illness and such unfortunate things that happen to me. Some years ago, when my family and I visited America, we were a bit surprised to see old people walking around parking lots collecting shopping carts outside of Walmart, and the people we visited in Minnesota explained to us that it was necessary because of what had happened to the pension system, so different from my country, Norway. In the US many elderly have to work because society is made the way it is. I have thought a lot about the elderly who walk around collecting shopping carts outside shopping centers or other small jobs to get by in life, and I have thought a lot about what poverty does to people. It is sad, and some of it may not be so easy to avoid, but as individuals and as society, we can do something to create a good old aging period for everyone.