I was reading the news about England’s early exit from the World Cup and the rush to book holidays by disgruntled England fans that had put off their annual trips to watch the World Cup. The sudden demand for holidays will no doubt increase prices.
We often hear people talking about the cost of the annual holiday and how difficult it is to budget for the annual 2 week trip. But what if the break was longer, where would the money come from?
We have all heard of the biblical references to “feast or famine” and so we can give thought to what it must have been like over 3,400 years ago at the time of one of the most famous famines, during the time of Moses and the Great Exodus.
While a lot of the problems may have been down to “divine plague and pestilence”, the fact is that during a famine times were hard. But they would not have been so hard if there had been the infrastructure and knowledge, that we have available to us today, for some forward planning.
Moving to the present, we can consider the analogy of a reservoir as something we can all relate to. In times of sufficient rainfall, the reservoirs are full. We all take it for granted that we have “water on tap” whenever we need it and, seemingly, without limit.
However, during a period of drought, the reservoirs start to empty and the very thing we took for granted is in short supply. When this happens, there are always questions raised as to why no provision was made for this eventuality, and why people weren’t persuaded to save water when the reservoirs were full.
If we now put this into a financial context, think about the longest drought of all- retirement. The income that we took for granted stops, but the need for income is still there. How can you afford your 30 to 40 year “ holiday’’ if you find it hard to fund the two week annual break?
We often hear people talking about the cost of the annual holiday and how difficult it is to budget for the annual 2 week trip. But what if the break was longer, where would the money come from?
We have all heard of the biblical references to “feast or famine” and so we can give thought to what it must have been like over 3,400 years ago at the time of one of the most famous famines, during the time of Moses and the Great Exodus.
While a lot of the problems may have been down to “divine plague and pestilence”, the fact is that during a famine times were hard. But they would not have been so hard if there had been the infrastructure and knowledge, that we have available to us today, for some forward planning.
Moving to the present, we can consider the analogy of a reservoir as something we can all relate to. In times of sufficient rainfall, the reservoirs are full. We all take it for granted that we have “water on tap” whenever we need it and, seemingly, without limit.
However, during a period of drought, the reservoirs start to empty and the very thing we took for granted is in short supply. When this happens, there are always questions raised as to why no provision was made for this eventuality, and why people weren’t persuaded to save water when the reservoirs were full.
If we now put this into a financial context, think about the longest drought of all- retirement. The income that we took for granted stops, but the need for income is still there. How can you afford your 30 to 40 year “ holiday’’ if you find it hard to fund the two week annual break?