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Maria happy to keep working

Maria Puglia would love to be one of the estimated 40,000 Australians aged over 100 in 2055 - but she's not counting on it.

What the 62-year-old is confident about is a continued steady rise in the cost of living and an unwavering desire to travel.

Ms Puglia has held several jobs in a number of settings, ranging from offices, kitchens to warehouses.

She has spent the past nine years as a sales assistant at the Osborne Park Home Hardware and Building Centre. "When I started here, I knew what a hammer was and I knew what nails were," Ms Puglia said. "I've just slowly picked it up as I've gone along. The thing that got me was starting on a new computer system because it was all completely different.

"But if you have the determination to learn things you pick it up fairly quickly."

With the Federal Government planning to lift the retirement age to 70 by the mid-2030s, you could say Ms Puglia is ahead of her time.

"I'll work for as long as I can, so yes, hopefully into my 70s," she said. "I'd be too bored at home. You do your housework, but then what do you do for the rest of the day? Watch TV? I pay my bills and I put some money away each week for my trips."