Older retired Australians can do things normally considered to be the preserve of the young. I'm a retired writer and academic, and I'm now a singer/songwriter working the clubs in Sydney, taught myself keyboard, write my own songs - blues or ballads - about love, life and so on ("young" topics) and I'm having a ball and making a contribution. The need to overcome performance nerves has been a stimulant for me. Things reserved for oldies, like catching a train with a glass roof across the Canadian Rockies, are too boring.

Clem Gorman

Clem you are a talented exception and I would love to catch your act.

But just to play devil’s advocate, what of the un talented and non credentialed, the one who held down a job raised the kids in the suburbs and whose destiny relied on a buoyant job market, most of us in fact. I can recall a time when a manager of any kind was an older person, and when you came across a young person in that role more often than not they were a close relative of the owner. I can only suppose that generation had a glass ceiling on the young whether they were fit for the duty or not.

A 45 year old mate of mine who is credentialed and talented could not get another position after his company pulled up stakes and went back OS. I told him that I could not fathom it as he is talented and experienced. His response was I have 20 years experience but 10 are enough if the other candidate is 35, and there are a load of them out there.

He like you Clem started his own vocation but it is not the same as having a compulsory super nest egg growing , annual leave, sick pay, company benefits, and the knowledge that you are playing with someone else’s money.

The only positive thing about getting on is that just as in your youth every day is a profit.

Hi Sonofgloin,
Older people of today (including me), used to have a strong work ethic,
respected each others position in the job, and did a fair days work for a fair days pay.
My Husband and myself retired at 55y.o. and moved down to the SouthEast coast of W.A.
After a well deserved rest, we started up two businesses and had an absolute ball, we met many people, and felt a lot of self worth, whilst we finally let go of both businesses, we are busy doing what we want to do instead of what we have to do......we are both studying on-line Uni.
I have taken up art on a self-taught basis, same with photography, my other half has finished two post-graduate diplomas, life might begin at 40, but we are having a great time at 69 & 66 respectively. To get up in the morning and do what we want to do instead of what we have to do is a great bonus. Cheers
NSB

Hello Noisy

I’m sorry about any tetchiness between us previously.

I’m a mad birdo. I remember one of my most significant birding experiences as trying to get a look at an Atricornis clamosus (noisy scrub bird) near Two Peoples Bay and getting to within about a metre of the blighter, but I just could not get a glimpse. It was singing its head off, regardless of my proximity, with an ear-piercingly loud call.

I’m trying very hard to retire at 55, just three years down the track.

The southeast coast of WA. Would that be beautiful Esperance by any chance?

What are you studying at uni?

Dear Noisy I came in near the end of the baby boom era, so I'm one of you, but there is over 15 years between us. When it comes to the character traits of a generation I have found that my elder siblings are much more in line with our parents morals and standards than I am. Not particularly on what is generally accepted as responsible social behavior but on the basic tenets that they think our Australian society should reflect, old fashioned for want of a term. Considering today’s society you could sum up their thought process as the direct opposite of Political Correctness.

The work ethic was instilled in them because work brought the assurance of security and home ownership, and the availability of employment meant that if you wanted to work you could; we had the largest home ownership rate in the first world. Today’s young do not have the options for employment, and so day to day rather than lifelong plans occupy them. When we were buying our first house a combined income of $600 per week paid for a suburban Sydney house that cost $36,000. Today’s kids are looking at that same house in that same suburb for $580,000 and their combined income is $1600 per week. Wages went up 300% and the home went up 1500%.

The X and Y gen is a product of a first world global agenda to “dumb down” their reasoning capacity and at the same time make them socially aware of issue that suit the agenda setters. We baby boomers may well be the last free thinking Australians this nation has bred. I might join grey power because I could be sure that common sense over spin prevails in that corium. So when it comes to management implementation and value of return for investment we baby boomers are intrinsically more capable of getting an ongoing success than those who came after us. I give you ALL sides of politics as an example, we need to fill the parliament with pensioners.

Noisy I forgot to ask, what are you going to do with the degree?