using a - and backspace at the beginning of a macro

I have the same issue and am using IT V and when I created this in the advisory and tried to use it, it just backspaced and deleted the -year-old. I would love to put in the age, space and then backspace back and be able to use the -year-old macro if this is possible in this version of IT. I was able to do that in IV version 3. I'd appreciate any help!

Linda