Yesterday was the 100 day mark in the countdown to my wedding. That’s 2400 hours, 144,000 minutes, or 8,640,000 seconds – not that anyone’s counting… well Robyn’s school children are, they have a counter on their blackboard. That’s a milestone by anyone’s reckoning. It’s not every day that there’s a century of days until something – in fact by time’s very nature every day marks a period closer, or further away from something. I’ve never been big on celebrating milestones like this. But my beautiful fiance and I celebrated in style. We went to a financial planning seminar full of useful information on how to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle in retirement. The seminar was in an opulent office space filled with free coffees (cappuccinos – but I did spy International Roast in the kitchen which I assume must be for staff on regular days), light snacks and dinner. In fact everything is free right up until you actually invest your money with them. Free advice, free consultation, free budgeting and then almost free wealth. I have a number of problems with the overt greed peddled at this seminar. I don’t necessarily philosophically agree with the concept of retirement let alone the concept of a luxurious retirement as opposed to “comfortable.”
The finance people did raise some issues associated with our aging population – which is all the baby boomer’s fault. I have this new theory that involves putting the baby boomers out to pasture when they hit 65 – not retirement but “retirement” – that way they wouldn’t be freezing up assets like property, jobs etc – or being a burden on infrastructure and services. Seriously though – there were a few cool government websites they brought up during the presentation including this one (a population tracker), and this one (a cool pyramid thing where you can watch Australia’s population break down since 1971 (and see why we’re getting top heavy with old people). So I use this to refute Ben’s stance on childcare – if we can’t provide affordable childcare to entice people into the workforce and generate tax dollars – these pensions will bankrupt us. That sounds like irrefutable economic evidence to me… I’m sure I’ll get an email shortly.