Retirement

[Ben]

There's a simple story that I summarise below:

An investment banker went on a holiday and met a fisherman fishing with his rod. Since he's on holiday the IB will provide his investment advice for free to help a downtrodden fellow raise seed money to get boats, hire people and get nets etc. The fisherman ask what for? So that he can have enough revenue to get bank loans and get large fishing ships to go deep sea fish for more expensive fish and hire more experetise and corporatise etc. The fisherman again ask what for? So he can have good numbers prepare for IPO and be very wealthy and dont have cares in the world. The fisherman again ask what for? So that he can relax and do what he wants

At this the fishermman ask: "Isn't that what I am doing now?"

Yes, I heard of this story and like it too. But the IB does have a point too. If the fisherman is already rich to start off with, then fine, he can choose to live his life this way for as long as he wants. But if he is not rich, and assuming that he has lives his life this way from the beginning, we can safely say that he doesn’t have a comfortable reserve to fall back on. To sustain his life style, he needs to go fishing every day, rain or shine, sick or healthy. If says he is not able to fish for a few days, due to bad weather or not feeling well, then he probably will have lots of catch up on fishing when he can.

So, I guess there is no escape from hard work, if we want a good and easy life later on.