Jeepers creepers; until I retired I had no idea just how expensive a ream of photocopy paper was and I really had to cut back on my profligate use of this commodity. As for the cost of running a vehicle well that’s ridiculous, when I had a company car I didn’t even know the cost of fuel and depreciation was not a function that concerned me.

All you folks out there who are still gainfully employed and think that retirement is so far away it will never happen, be warned ….

Life is not a pleasure cruiser, it’s an express train hastening to its destination – your destination. Before you know where you are, your working days are over and you are having to face up to moving on to the next and final phase of your existence. And for those of you who think that, by the time you get there, life won’t really have any significance, then I can assure you that you are totally wrong; you’ll still think that you are twenty-five!

Statistically; too few of us are preparing adequately for our retirement or to put it another way, we are mortgaging our future to provide for our present. I know the process, I’ve been there – ‘I’ve got plenty of time to sort this out’ followed very quickly by ‘Blimey, where did that time go?’ The question is not at what age do I wish to retire, but at what income?

I know there are some people who think that ‘old people should be destroyed at birth!’ but it’s not really too bad providing you fill your time gainfully, and I don’t mean climbing Mount Everest.

It’s probably better if one’s activities are more on the gentle side. Golf for example, when you can play say nine holes, have four or five pints in the bar and then make your way home to amuse your partner. Some may enjoy spending their time reading or even watching the TV. I read somewhere recently that one of the biggest problems in retirement is that of people feeling guilty about not doing much, which in turn then causes stress, which in turn leads to declining health. So the secret is to do whatever you want and not feel guilty about it - within acceptable reason that is

I recall my Father’s eightieth birthday party when somebody asked him what were the good things about being eighty and he replied: “Knowing that you’ve made it that far!”  Sage words. So here’s the problem. You retire having, hopefully, received a pension but also a nest egg which (having read this article) you have accumulated over the years, but the dilemma is that you don’t know how long you’ve got. If you did you could divide it by the appropriate number of months and spend it accordingly. But you don’t have that vital piece if information. So, because you think that you are going to live for ever (or nearly), you tend to conserve your funds … and then in due course it’s passed on to your descendants, who, because they think retirement is so far away it will never happen, spend it on something quite fatuous like a swimming pool or a fleet of quad bikes.

Anyway, why am I telling you all of this when you’ve got years to go before you retire? I stress again that the sentiment in that old Latin phrase tempus fugit really does apply. So maybe you should consider increasing what you put aside for your later life, because it will be just as important then as is now.

In this context, the interesting thing about the moving industry is that people tend not to rush to retirement, and this is most apparent when I leaf through the pages of The Mover magazine. I recall the most apposite words of the late, great, Roy Fox of Fox of Cwmbran when he said: “People in the Moving industry don’t necessarily retire, they just slowly fade away.”

I know we hear people say that the moving industry is a very competitive industry to be involved in, and maybe that’s why people have to stick around longer. But I don’t believe this to be the case, in my experience people love the industry within which they work and they really don’t want to be inhibited by an arbitrary leaving date. Retirement can be great, but the only problem is that you don’t get a day off!

Anyone for golf?