Retiring Part Two

Trying to live on a fixed income can be very, hard that is unless you are receiving pensions that are the size of the pensions that our retired politicians receive. Being fair to them they are probably feeling that they are being hard done by because their standard of living is so much higher that the rest of us middle class.

Today every one gauges their income based on the value we place on the dollar. In actual fact the dollar decreases in value every year.

Our Canadian currency as well as many other countries currencies from around the world is based upon the value of the American Currency. When the US went off the gold standard they were able to deflate their dollar by printing more money. Canada followed right behind the US by going off the gold standard. Our government can now print as much money as they want without having to back their money with gold what a great concept. To me this sounds a lot like a counterfeiter who print worthless money and expects to pass it off to anyone who will take it.

Note:
Did you know that an ounce of gold today buys the same amount as it did 100 years ago when it was only $16.00 per ounce. To me that means that our dollar is really not worth very much. In Germany after the Second World War the German mark was so devalued it took huge sums of them to purchase even the basics such as bread and other staples. Our money is going the same way.

When I started work back in 1962 at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon I was making $210.00 per month. I bought a brand new car in 1966 for the grand total of $2,650.00. Gold at that time was only $32.00 per ounce. Today an ounce of gold is over $1,600.00 per ounce and a car is $xxxxx. Financially are we any further ahead than we were when we started working?

Now for the good news. People that are on fixed incomes such as a retirement pension do have a great advantage over today's working population, even though most of them would disagree when they were asked. Everyone who receives a pension no matter how small has most of their physical needs met such as shelter, food and clothing. Yes, I agree that more money would be of help to do the things that we want. The one thing that these people seem to forget when they retire from the work force is that they have an additional 40 or more hours each week that they have to spend on what ever they want. Yes these people are rich in free time. In fact most people will use all this new found hours in the day on things that they always wanted to do. Most when asked will say that they are busier now than when they were working and would never have the time to go back to work. Could they use more money than what they are currently receiving from their pensions, absolutely but most of us are so brainwashed by our society that we can not start our own business at our age because we are too old, not smart enough, and should be retired.

Stay tuned for some interesting ideas and concepts tomorrow in part three of this exciting series.

Keep on keeping on.

Gary King