Retirement never gets old

Two mock ads. Opposite points of view. Head-to-head. Which is better? That's The Pitch - part of Aussie TV show Gruen.

The ads are just for fun, but the topics are real. The latest episode focuses on retirement. Hiring more elderly workers versus compulsory retirement at 65.

Here's the ad in favour of retirement.

It features retired people making (pretend) regretful statements about work. None of which are in the least bit convincing - especially when said while the person is enjoying their post-work life.

"I wish I'd spent more time at work"
"I'd kill for a conference call."
"I miss my emails"
"What I'd give for one more rush hour"

The ad ends with the slogan "Retirement never gets old". While it's talking about retirement at 65, the same point could be made for 60, 55, 50, etc.

For many the only reason to continue as far as 65 is monetary. Basically, we spend too much money on questionable purchases along the way. As a result, we need to keep working in our older years to re-earn the wasted money.

Give ourselves a gift

While we might get some joy from our current-day purchases, it's worth asking if they are worth the pain that our 65-year-old self will go through in the future to earn back that lost money.

Perhaps it's better to discover today the joy of less.

Less, or smaller, purchases give us less clutter in the here-and-now, and give our future selves the gift of an earlier retirement - less email, conference calls and rush hour traffic.

Comments

5 Reasons why we hoard - and they're wrong

"Less is More" is one of the catch-cries of downsizing. Often the fewer things we have the more we value them. So it's a great title for a book that's basically a manual for how to de-clutter your home. The introductory chapter of Less is More: How to De-clutter Your Life gives some great insights into why we find it so hard to reduce our stuff. Here are 5 of them - the last one is one of the biggest for me. 1. The cost of holding on. We were raised by our parents and grandparents and in their day items were expensive and space was cheap. It made sense in those days to hold onto stuff just in case you ever needed it. But today housing is expensive and items are cheap. It's hard to change a habit, but now we save much more by downsizing. 2. Keeping it in the family. For some reason we prefer to give things to those close to us. Again this was viable in the days of big families and lots of children to receive hand-me-downs. But these days we have smaller fa...

20 unplugged ideas

May 1-7 is Screen-Free Week . It's about spending time away from the screen and more time with each other - or doing things we love. It's a great chance to break the work-tired-watchTV-ads-shop-work cycle. This list of twenty alternative ideas is great for screen-free week. It's also a great reminder of things we could enjoy if we're shopping and spending less - and maybe working less and enjoying life more.

Why millionaires don't "feel" rich

We're wealthier than ever - so why don't we feel like it? Australia has gone almost three decades without recession. The stock market recently hit a record high. Our wages are record highs. Home loan rates are at record lows. We live in one of the richest countries in the world at the richest point in history. So what's wrong? Comparison Wealth is relative. So what do we compare to? Where we expect to be? "When your wages growth is only 2 or 3 per cent, you don't feel as well-off as when it's going up 10 per cent. That's that nominal distortion that people often suffer from" , says economist Shane Oliver, and that "expectations have grown a lot faster than reality." We're earning more than last year, but we want even more. So compared to our imaginary situation, we see ourselves as worse off. What we see around us? Shane Oliver again. "If you think about it - Australians today are a lot wealthier. They're living far ric...

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog