Welcome to my site about making more of your money. You may like to subscribe to the RSS feed for the latest articles. Thanks for visiting!
“I am not obliged to do any more. No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself.”
Samuel Johnson
I assume the famous 18th Century Londoner and pioneer of the dictionary Samuel Johnson would include women if he were still issuing pithy soundbytes today. Men and women alike are now working longer hours than ever, albeit for better salaries than ever before.
Our combined efforts are keeping Britain and the US among the richest economies in the world (fourth and first, respectively). But to what end?
The British public has shopped its way into over a trillion pounds in debt. We’ve bid up house prices to crazy levels, with desperate first time buyers borrowing historically huge multiples of their salaries just to buy a starter flat, and often giving little thought to the long years ahead of repaying the mortgage.
The British work the longest hours in Europe, and what do we have to show for it: Multi billion pound shortfalls in pension contributions, and calls for the retirement age to rise to 75.
I suggest a different route. Instead of slaving away for 45 years and keeping your spirits going with credit card backed spending sprees and expensive cars, holidays and illicit substances that you don’t need and can’t afford, why not slave away (or work smarter) for 20 to 25 years, spend less, invest the spare, and retire early to a life of leisure, satisfying (if less lucrative) work, or even study?
“Most people are to busy earning a living to make any money,” someone once said. History doesn’t record if he said it hunched over the office desk aged 65 (or if she said it racing to her next appointment). Perhaps the words weren’t bitter at all, but triumphantly shouted from a chilly but gorgeous empty British beach where the speaker was walking the dog during rush hour.
Either way, I think he or she was right.
* The title of this post is cribbed from the British poet Simon Armitage’s wonderful Selected Poems
I have not padded through the Taj Mahal
barefoot, listening to the space between
each footfall picking up and putting down
its print against the marble floor. But I
skimmed flat stones across Black Moss on a day
so still I could hear each set of ripples
as they crossed. I felt each stones’ inertia
spend itself against the water; then sink.
You’re a long time dead.
