Another arithmetic puzzle

Re Kelly's suggestions on what Jo and I should do in our "golden years", taking an RV around USA sounds great - I could probably do this for a year - but I'm hoping that we don't exactly have one foot in the grave yet, and we may be around for another few decades yet - or, at least I hope so!

In my father's (and grandfather's) day, men were expected to work for 50 years from the ages of 15, when they would start their apprenticeships, to the retirement age of 65. Life expectancy for males was no more than 18 months after retirement, so you can see that funding of pensions was simple - saving small percentages of your earnings each year for 50 years would easily provide for a comfortable retirement pension for the short period when you were actually able to draw it. When Britain took on the responsibility for social welfare (including state pensions) after World War II, it wasn't exactly onerous on the Government to take on the liability for pensions.

Now the whole demographic - and people's expectations - has changed dramatically. The ratio of expected working life to retirement life is now virtually 1:1 - i.e. work for 30 years and be retired for 30 years. You can see where I'm going with this one now, can't you?

You lot - my little sprogs - must have started saving for your old age by now. You cannot rely on the state to fund your retirement - it can't do it anyway - especially not now, after giving it all to the banks!

Forget the effects of interest/investment returns and inflation - they basically cancel each other out over time anyway. If you feel you can happily live in retirement on, say, half, of what you earn now, what percentage of your earnings should you be putting aside each year whilst you are working, for you to have enough of a pension pot on retirement to live on for the rest of your days?

It's not rocket science - merely simple arithmetic - think about it.

Sublime to ridiculous

After sleeping for a full 8 hours on Tuesday evening, it was back to another fitful night last night - Jo reckoned it was due to the fact that I did not complete some work yesterday that was required for this morning, and I was thinking about it all night - she's probably right. I'm trying to get everything tidied up before I go away at the crack of dawn tomorrow and there's so much on my mind just now.

Forgive me therefore if I come across as a bit edgy today - no sleep last night and none tonight either (never sleep when I'm catching an early morning plane). Jo too was - understandably - a little edgy last night when she eventually got back from Carole's - it was Ash Wednesday and she hadn't eaten all day - and despite the fact that it was almost 8 pm when she got home, Ross and I hadn't eaten either, so she was starving and still had to cook for 3 of us! Ross, apparently, was meant to tell me that it was just omelettes for tea and Jo fully expected we would have had ours by the time she got home.

Another photo of Dawn's new pug - she's a 7 week old Bichon Frise (whatever that is) and Dawn is looking for suggestions for a name for her - any ideas?

Help!

Technical problems - no e-mails for the last 24 hours. I'm at a loss - what do I do now? Is this what retirement is like?

Today, just making sure everything is in order for my holiday - work-wise too. Haven't got any Euros, however - will probably leave until I get to a hole in the wall machine when I get there now.

I actually slept in a bit this morning - generally I don't bother putting the alarm on as I awaken before 6 anyway, but this morning I woke with a bit of a start at 6:30 am - wow! Better not do this on Friday!

One mystery solved, another arises

Kelly was right - it was Dawn who texted me - I only had her work mobile on my contacts and as she's been off work for a while, she's had to resort to using her own one.

Thank you, Kelly - you are the only one who thought I should retire now - but she added the qualification "if I can afford it". Well, the arithmetic on this is very easy - the equation is the amount of funds in your pension pot, divided by the amount you want to live on each year. If this sum is greater than the number of years you have left to live, then go for it! Oh - just one problem - there seems to be one unknown factor in this equation - can anyone supply me with the answer?

Tuesday alone at work

Well, Michael and Francis have now gone off to Thailand for some golf. Michael is only staying for a couple of days then he is off round the world to see customers, but Francis won't be back until the middle of next week, by which time I'll be away in Tenerife.

Got some squash last night but that'll be the last until we come back from our golf trip. Jo was out when I got home - she sent me a text saying "Tea at ban" - I assumed it was predictive text in operation again - she never bothers to correct it and it's a challenge to interpret her messages at times, but it turned out she started to tell me she was going out for tea at Banchory Lodge, but never finished the message!

OK -solve a mystery for me - whose mobile number is 07895-084817? I received a text photo headed "A new addition" - but I've no idea who sent it?:

Kelly/Craig - time to update your blog!

Skype/poll

Well, we tried - but nobody Skyped us and we couldn't get through to Lucy who was the only one online.

My poll has finished - I'll need to think about another one now! Somebody apparently doesn't like the photos and videos - strange - I thought that would be unanimous.

I forgot to mention about our trip to the annual CAMRA meeting to select the entries for next year's Good Beer Guide. We get 37 or 38 entries for Grampian and the Northern Isles, and out of our 385 members, only 22 actually bothered to vote! The pub of the year is also voted on and the Marine in Stonehaven was again voted as best in Aberdeenshire and best overall. Archibald Simpson's was a surprise winner of the best Aberdeen city pub.

It was a different way to spend Saturday afternoon - particularly when there was a key game going on at Pittodrie.

Golf today was good (see golf blog for photos) and this afternoon, it's been the Sunday Times and occasional footy. This evening, we've been watching some of the Best of Motown that BBC Four have been featuring this weekend - plus catching up with some Earl - and we've decided to give Mad Men another chance tonight - if it doesn't grab us this time, then it'll be deleted from the planner. Oh - and we caught up with the penultimate episode of Oz and James trek round the country to find the drink that best symbolises Britain - this week it was the West Country - cider in Somerset, Plymouth Gin, Devon wines and Morris Dancing in Cornwall!

Benny Gallagher

We enjoyed the concert at Woodend Barn last night. I always like it when older musicians tell you stories about the old days in between the music. Benny was more of a songwriter than singer - his erstwhile partner, Graham Lyle took on the main singing duties at the height of their popularity - check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgItntk5kTE&feature=related and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallagher_%26_Lyle

His encore last night was the McGuinness Flint number one from 1970 but he prefaced it with a lengthy dialogue about Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup and an Elvis connection:

He had earlier told a nice tale about the late Ronnie Lane, a hero of mine. I hadn't realised that he had played on Slim Chance's "How Come" hit - this was the only song he did last night that he hadn't had a hand in writing. He talked about Ronnie dancing across the stage with his "educated left foot" leading - I trawled my old Small Faces and Faces videos but couldn't find much evidence of this. See for yourself on this You Tube clip - Benny Gallagher is playing accordion and Graham Lyle is on mandolin, with Ronnie Lane singing: