*This post was written in collaboration with Older Dating

If you are a little bit older, and you are single, people tend to make a lot of negative assumptions. The thing is, older people can have wonderful and varied dating lives and many of them do. Timing in life doesn’t have to be dictated by other people or conventional social “norms”. People in their 50s are starting businesses, learning new skills, going to uni, and finding the loves of their lives. You don’t need to follow a set path. Some people settle down at 18 and spend the rest of their lives unhappy and some people meet their soulmate in their twilight years and have many happy years together. If you are a touch older, and you are looking to date, here are a few tips.

Use a specific older dating website

Although a lot of the bigger dating websites do let you put in an age range, the user interface, the design and the way many of these apps work is designed for younger people. If you are older your best bet is to find a specific older dating site like older dating online so that you can be SURE you are going to meet people in a similar age range. You’ll usually find a lot more to talk about with someone nearer to your own age, and you can also make sure you set the geo to meet up with singles close to where you live.

Take up a hobby

Another good way of meeting older singles is to take up a hobby or join a club. If you can’t join one physically, there are lots of pages and social media pages dedicated to certain hobbies where you can talk to like-minded people and also potentially find yourself a date who has at least one thing in common with you.

Stay safe online

Online safety on dating sites has come along leaps and bounds in the last few years, but people still assume that older people are a little bit less tech savvy. Try to keep your wits about you when you are online and make sure you keep an eye out for anything that could potentially be suspicious. If you do go to meet up with someone in real life, tell at least one person where you are going and ensure your first meeting is in a public place.

Take care of yourself

Just because you are over 40 or in our 50s, that does not mean that you need to stop taking care of yourself. If you are going to get into the dating game make sure you do things for you like exercise and freshening up your wardrobe. You don’t necessarily need to change to appeal to the opposite sex, you just need to be the best version of you for YOURSELF and any potential partners. Overall this will also make you happier and this will shine through when you are talking to new people, and they will be drawn to how positive you are.