WEBVTT

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We pay taxes and we die. These things are certain,

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but they're not the whole story. Many things

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in life are less certain and we face uncertainty.

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Sometimes what we do is we use this as an excuse

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to avoid planning. I mean, you might say, well,

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there's no point working out how long my pension

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will last because there's no way if we retire

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yet anyway. Or we might say it's not worth increasing

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my pension contributions because... I might get

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hit by a bus tomorrow or we might just say that

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everything will disappear in care home fees I

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mean uncertainty is a great excuse to push decisions

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away into the future a time when we know more

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but as we get to know more we find out things

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that were other things that were uncertain about

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I mean I'm 55 and I've just pushed the button

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on retirement I don't know how old I'll be when

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I die but that won't stop me from making plans.

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So I've called my plan 20 summers and this is

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summer number one. When I turn 76 it'll be my

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20th summer and I know that I wouldn't trade

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a summer when I'm 56 for a summer when I'm 76.

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I mean not all these summers will be equal and

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they will have a different quality to them and

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I'll be able to achieve different things in them.

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So My plan is for 20 summers. Now, I could have

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worked another 10 years and instead of a 20 summers

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plan, I could have made a 10 summers plan. But

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not only is 10 summers too short for me, but

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the 10 summers between my 65th and 75th birthday

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won't be as full of activities as the 10 years

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between my 55th and 65th birthday. I mean, it's

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always a trade off, isn't it? If I had kept working

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until I was 65, then I'd have had a lot more

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money in my pension and could possibly have been

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more extravagant in the things I did, you know,

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maybe traveling first class rather than standard

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class, et cetera, or maybe even driving a nicer

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car. But one of the things that I have learned

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about myself over the last few years is that

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actually the things that cost a lot more money

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generally are not those things that make me the

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happiest. And certainly external shows of wealth,

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you know, such as wearing designer brands, et

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cetera. They haven't interested me for a long

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time, to be honest. So in my internal calculations,

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going at 55 with a basic amount of income is

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better than going at 65 with a better income.

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I mean everyone will have their own calculation

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and nobody's calculation will be anywhere near

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the same as mine and you know that's fine but

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what probably isn't fine in my eyes is not to

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do the calculation to avoid thinking through

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the options maybe because the uncertainty gives

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us the excuse to put off thinking about it. I

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mean I think finding a person at the end of their

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life who says that I wish I'd worked longer probably

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going to be tricky but finding people who say

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I wish I'd had more time to do the things I wanted

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to do well you know that could be much more common

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I mean have you done your calculations yet or

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are you putting them off because there's too

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many unknowns well I'm in summer one of my 20

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summers plan so Keep tuned if you want to know

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how I get on and thanks for listening.