IT was 20 years ago today that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play, and 50 years ago yesterday that the Rolling Stones had their first gig.

In a year that has hardly wanted for lavish celebrations, the Stones' golden jubilee has been marked with a photo exhibition, a documentary, and a book. There has even been a suggestion that the band might tour again.

"There are things in the works," said Keith Richards. "It's definitely happening."

As prospects go, that's about as appealing as a Nick Clegg premiership or a greatest hits album from Keith Harris and Orville. Gimme shelter from all this backslapping of rock multimillionaires who should have retired aeons ago, and gimme peace from yet more musings on what a splendid example the Stones set when it comes to age not mattering. Fifty years on, say their fans, the Stones are still going strong, giving hope to the rest of us who would rather not be pensioned off either.

In some ways, granted, the Stones' longevity is a thing to be admired. When they played that first gig at the Marquee in London in 1962, most bands had the life span of a pit canary. It was the dawn of mass market pop, and beat combos were put together every day, every hour, to separate teenagers from their pocket money. Some folk did extremely well in this gold rush, but the bands, a lot of them made up of working-class kids just grateful for the break, were usually not among the financially fortunate.

Jagger, from Kent, was never destined to be one of those innocents. His dad was a teacher, the family was aspirational. Jagger left grammar school not in a blaze of rock and roll disgrace but with three A-Levels. He studied business at the London School of Economics for a time and made good use of what he learned. Any youngster who wants to be in a band should follow his example. Learn how to play guitar, but learn how to read a bank statement and the financial pages as well. It is Jagger's business acumen, and his tendency to keep an eye on every cent and penny, that has made the Stones one of the richest bands in the world. His personal wealth, reportedly, is £190 million.

In another example of how to make the rock and roll lifestyle work, Jagger always knew when to call a halt. He had the wild times, the drug arrests, the women, but it didn't ruin him the way it would so many others in the same business, his bandmate Brian Jones among them. Jagger took that old line from the film Knock On Any Door, "Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse", and exposed it for the horrible con it is.

If one can admire Jagger's business smarts and self-preservation instincts, there are other aspects of him, and his band, that are not so laudable. For a start, his acceptance of a knighthood in 2003, a move Richards branded ludicrous. It sent out the wrong message, said Keef. "It's not what the Stones is about, is it?"

The old Stones, perhaps not, but it is exactly what the Stones of today are about. The Stones of the Noughties are about staying on past your sell-by date and staging world tours in the biggest stadia you can find. They are about flogging T-shirts, programmes, tour jackets, mugs and anything else a logo will fit on.

Being at a Rolling Stones concert is like being in a rock opera version of A Christmas Carol. Want it or not, one is offered a glimpse of how ghastly life would be if one did not put away youthful things such as jeans and the desire to dance in public past a certain age.

How to grow old, disgracefully or otherwise, is a subject on many minds as people get older and live longer. For too many there is no option but to make the best of it – the poverty, the being patronised half to death, living in a society that sees you as a burden not an asset.

It will get worse, too. There are 10 million people in the UK over the age of 65. By 2050 there will be 19 million, eight million of whom will be over 80. A Commons Library briefing has estimated that, for every one million people over working age, an extra £10 billion would have to be spent on benefits and pensions.

The consequences are clear: from now on we will all be Rolling Stones, working into our late 60s and 70s. But without their pay packets, of course. To see what this might mean in practice, the BBC sent The Apprentice's Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford to make a documentary called The Town that Never Retired. (Mountford, you will recall, was replaced on The Apprentice by the younger Karren Brady.)

Hewer and Mountford followed a number of retired people as they re-entered the workforce for a two-week experiment.

From working on a building site as plumbers and electricians to serving in a restaurant or packing chocolates in a factory, the volunteers gave it their all. As a peek at the future, it was more chilling than a night locked in a freezer. While some found the experience rewarding, others were exhausted and stressed by the whole business.

Working past 65, never mind 70, won't be many people's idea of a good time. There is a universe of difference between choosing to stay on because you find work fulfilling, and soldiering on because you have to, because there would be no food in the fridge, no heating in the house, without it.

Would that we could all choose the Rolling Stones, or Bob Diamond, route into retirement. The former Barclays chief executive skipped into the sunset this week clutching a £2 million payoff. Mr Diamond is 60. Whatever he turns up doing next, one does not expect it to be stacking the "reduced for quick sale" shelf at Tesco.

Though it would be a sight as grisly as a Tony Blair comeback (it was Blair the wannabe guitar hero, of course, who gave Jagger his knighthood), I would be all for Keith Richards making good on his threat to go on tour again.

Just one condition, boys – give the profits to Help the Aged. Those of us who are not rock millionaires or Bob Diamond are going to need all the help we can get.