Gold Cardlife advice
AS people who know me well will testify, I am not, by nature, the shy, retiring type. But such was the outpouring of advice and good wishes on my pending retirement yesterday, I was just about lost for words. Just about.
So, firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who contacted me yesterday. It was quite overwhelming, and emotional at times, but greatly appreciated. So, what did I learn from Wash readers about how to enjoy my gold card (post65) life?
Well, let’s start with a couple of lighter moments because there is never really enough laughter in this life, is there? Or as my old friend, the late Bill ‘‘Willie Wong’’ Cowie would have put it, ‘‘The day that is wasted is the one on which one has not laughed.’’
So, here is a cheerful email from David MacLeod: ‘‘Hi Dave. We live on a lifestyle block near Mosgiel. On my first day of retirement I went outside to feed the hens etc and my wife, who had forgotten I had retired, locked the house and went to work in Dunedin. Had a pleasant day entertaining some visitors (outside) till she came home. Enjoy your retirement.’’
Then Barbara, a reader, rang to say how much she will miss The Wash but recommended I don’t make any hard and fast plans for retirement and for the first 10 days or so, to just suit myself.
‘‘But don’t do what I did,’’ she said with a laugh, recalling how soon after she retired she found herself having driven halfway to work and then feeling ‘‘like a bloody idiot’’, adding ‘‘I am so glad there was noone else in the car’’, as she turned around and drove home again!
There was also a touch of humour in the advice sent by Dr Karen Love, who wrote: ‘‘Dear Mr Cannan. Congratulations on your retirement; these will be the most wonderful and magical years yet! Dave, you get your tomorrows back! If you don’t get to something today, well, there’s always tomorrow.
‘‘We came to NZ in 2001 from the US on the strength of our memories of a skiing trip to Coronet Peak in 1973 when we were living in Australia. Our choice to emigrate to NZ gave all five children the opportunity to choose their own lives, as well. They now live in four different countries: US, Canada, Israel, and NZ.
‘‘So, Dave, run, don’t walk to the door, and as we say back home, don’t get hit on your bum going out! (Actually, we would say ‘ass’ — nobody back there says ‘bum’!)
Then there was this hilarious reaction, on Facebook, from Dorothy
O’Donnell, a regular contributor from Oamaru who, coincidentally, also features in today’s ‘‘Showing us your pets’’ feature.
She wrote: ‘‘Why would you want to retire? Your mind is sparking on all 6 [cylinders]. Do you really want to lay around the house driving your wife nuts? No, I don’t think so!
Dave, have a little chat with the boss, cut down the hours but bring The Wash in a condensed format; have laptop will travel. C’mon man, you’re in the prime of life; don’t let the grey cells turn to jelly.’’
Life expectancy
On a more thoughtful note, among the questions I sent to the Commission for Financial Capability (aka The Retirement Commission) was this curly one: ‘‘Is there any data on average lifespans after retirement at 65? (in other words, do you live longer if you retire earlier?)’’
Here’s the reply the commission’s research manager:
‘‘Data on average lifespans can be found at: http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse—for—stats/health/life—expectancy.aspx
‘‘In a nutshell, over the past 20 years the average expected life after 65 has risen from 14.8 to 18.8 years for a 65yearold male and from 18.5 to 21.2 for a 65yearold female (bear in mind the expectancy is lower for Maori and Pacific people).
‘‘Do you live longer if you retire earlier? There is some evidence of the opposite — that you live longer if you retire later (Harvard Business Review,
Oct, 2016). But just because living longer is correlated with later retirement that does not prove that retiring later is good for you.’’
That’s all the room I have today for retirementrelated correspondence but we will return to the topic tomorrow. Again, many thanks to everyone who got in touch.
Good Samaritan
A selfexplanatory email from Diane Miller, of Macandrew Bay, which I’m happy to share:
‘‘To the Good Samaritan who picked up our lost parcel and paid for it to be delivered to Hayes Engineering — a huge thank you from us. Men seem to have tunnel vision and can’t see a white readytobeposted parcel sitting on a white car roof — which, of course, fell off before the post office.
‘‘The news today so often seems full of disaster but obviously there are people out there ready to make others smile. We would love to thank you personally.’’
Contact The Wash for Diane’s contact details if you posted the mislaid white parcel.