Future-proofing for low-cost retirement

WORRYING. That’s one way of looking at today’s world, but if you do feel your spirits sinking it’s worth remembering that everything in the universe seems to be arranged with some degree of balance. There’s good and bad, darkness and light, yin and yang.

So while it’s true that every time we watch news on the television most of us spiral into a mini-depression, it is also the case that there’s plenty to be glad about in this crazy modern world.

My own bouts of delight this week have been prompted by two purchases made in my “Protect Hesp from the Poverty of Old Age” programme – a unique and utterly selfish project dreamed up through necessity when I at last woke up to the idea that I was approaching pensionable age with little or nothing in the piggybank.

I made a vow to my wife: “Any major thing I purchase from now on while I am still earning a crust will have to be capable of making life easier for us as we grow old and wrinkled in this new age of uncertainty.” She, of course, thought I was completely deranged. But then she always does. And I do realise that this is very much the kind of argument only we, in the well-heeled West, could pursue – however I can report to you, dear readers, that a future-proofing project like mine can, and does, pay dividends.

Take the ridiculously expensive secondhand electric mountain bike I bought from one of my brothers (at a very reasonable price, I hasten to add). You might be tempted to agree with my wife that this was a stupid plaything purchased by an old geezer suffering some kind of late middle-age crisis. But here’s the logic…

It struck me, as the price of diesel rocketed recently, that there could come a time when someone on a state pension might not have the wherewithal to fill up his tank. At the same time, his advanced years might preclude him from pedalling a normal bicycle the 14 miles through forestry tracks to the nearest supermarket.

For those of you who’ve never tried out a modern electric mountain bike, let me tell you: they are absolutely brilliant. Even a man like me whose heart has been hacked about by surgeons can climb the highest and steepest hill without getting out of breath aboard one of these wonder machines. You have to pedal, certainly, which means the bike will keep you fit – but you could conquer Everest if it had some sort of cycle path.

So, it’s a prime example of a future-proofing purchase. Even after my dear old Qashqai has swallowed its last gallon of diesel, I will be out and about o’er hill and dale on my mountain-eating wonder, which is part-powered by the solar panels we had fitted a few years ago.

And there’s an unexpected bonus. For the past few weeks I have been belting about to secret and largely unvisited corners of the local countryside picking delicious edible mushrooms. It would take me days to walk the ground the e-bike covered in just a few hours. I reckon at Harrods Food Hall prices I’ve picked a couple hundred quid’s worth – and now I have all manner of receptacles filled with dried ceps and the like which will bolster my future peasant diet.

Talking of food and cooking, here’s the other poverty-defying purchase… While hunting around to replace our old woodburner after its 20 years’ good service, it came to my attention that the excellent Dartmoor-based Dean Forge manufactures a classic type of stove complete with a window through which you can see the flames. Some of us are a bit old-fashioned like that – we like to sit near a live fire on a winter’s eve. Anyway, the great thing about the Dean Forge model is that it has an oven with its own little window above the flames.

Having seen how fast our smartmeter was eating through dosh every time the electric oven was called upon to bake a sourdough loaf, I was very interested indeed. Soon the electricity to bake a loaf will cost more than the flour! I had also, by the way, seen the diseased ash trees dying in our valley. Hundreds have perished of ash die-back in the past six months – which means there’s going to be an awful lot of firewood within a mile of our front door.

So one Eco Dartmoor Baker range stove later, I am creating fabulous sourdough bread for free (energywise at least). The lamb shanks and other slow-cooked wonders have been amazing too. I hasten to add that I paid full price for the stove and have no commercial interest in the company – but all credit to a local firm which is making a great product.

The one thing Liz Truss and I can agree on is that the country needs more in the way of such enterprises – and we consumers should be supporting them.

So… future proofing while I grow older and poorer and return to my peasant roots. They say every cloud has a silver lining, which I guess is an old-fashioned English way of referring to yin and yang.

I am creating fabulous sourdough bread for free (energy-wise at least). The lamb shanks and other slow-cooked wonders have been amazing too