YOUR Money: Golden YEAR ; THERE's NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO BE GREY

By JOHN HUSBAND

THE Swinging Sixties generation have become today's Golden Oldies.

They're the richest and fittest older generation ever - and they can look forward to living longer. Half of all 60-year olds and two thirds of the over 65s own their homes outright.

At that age, your most important asset is your pension and the longer you put off spending it the bigger it becomes.

A pounds 100,000 pension pot produces pounds 121 a week at 60, pounds 140 a week if you delay touching it to 65 and pounds 165 a week if you wait until 70 .

And it will be worth a good deal more if you carried on contributing in the meantime.

You also get more state pension if you defer drawing it.

You get 10.4 per cent extra for each year you delay. Or you can take an equivalent cash lump sum.

Car insurance gets cheaper too.

The average premium for comp cover for a best-selling Ford Focus is pounds 464.

Tearaway 17-year-old lads pay pounds 3,262 while it falls as low as pounds 178 at 60 when you'll be driving less and mostly when roads are quieter. Older householders are also charged up to ten per cent less for home insurance. Ian Crowder of AA Insurance explains: "Older people make fewer claims. They look after their property and are at home much of the time."

Many savings providers also offer better deals to oldies. The Coventry Building Society's instant access Sixty Plus account, pays six per cent - 0.2 per cent more than the best rates around for the under-60s.

On the downside, life insurance inevitably gets more expensive as you age. You'd pay about pounds 82 a month for a 25-year pounds 100,000 term assurance policy at 55 compared with pounds 8 at 25.

Health insurance naturally gets dearer too so you're probably better off relying on the NHS. One big bugbear is travel insurance which gets outrageously expensive just when you have the time and money to see the world.

Premiums often double at 66 and DOUBLE again at 71. An annual policy covering trips to Europe typically costs around pounds 50 in your 50s and nearer pounds 200 in your early 70s.

But if you're in good health, Saga charges just pounds 88 for an annual travel policy at 66 and pounds 98 at 71.

(c) 2007 Daily Mirror. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.