How do older Australians develop the knowhow to devise lives they value in our increasingly complex society with its tsunami of information and plethora of choices? This small qualitative study found that older adults particularly valued the ‘knowhow’ that enables them to manage matters such as health and personal finances and to plan for challenges such as becoming a carer, living alone and maintaining independence. For this group, social interaction was overwhelmingly more important than any form of education in generating knowhow.