The Retirement Media Conspiracy
When my marriage hit the rocks back in 2015, I started researching for my book, You’ll Hate Retirement. My choice was to either research or drink. And I choose research because I wanted to write about the mental game of retirement. Nobody else was, after all.
For instance, I found few newspaper articles on how to leap from a demanding career into a meaningful and satisfying retired life… no chat from superannuation funds or financial planners about anything but money and investing… and diddly squat from health and ageing professionals about anything but weak bones, dementia, and other reasons to be frail and sick.
All of which I put down to a media conspiracy. Or, the ‘Retirement Media Conspiracy.’
That’s where breakfast TV, tabloid newspapers and talk-back radio collude to perpetuate the stereotype that, in retirement, you’re meant to be relaxed and comfortable, to treat your life as one long holiday, and to finally get shipped off with Grampa Simpson to your local nursing home. The media’s intent? To line their pockets and put their kids through private school thanks to advertisers who want a platform to sell more caravans, aged care homes, and funeral insurance.
Am I serious?
Yes and no.
Yes in the fact that perpetuating the retirement myth serves some agendas (if you retire, someone will turn up to profit). And no, I don’t think it’s all some kind of organised conspiracy, like a secret society of sorts.
The point my ramblings?
Don’t let the media or anyone else steer your retirement ship, or you’ll be on the rocks like my marriage.
What’s more, if anyone is going to profit from your retirement, I’m first in line: