Tim Drake - Generation Cherry: Retired? Redundant? Rethink! Powerful strategies to give you a second bite of the cherry

A tremendous book full of wisdom and perspective. The latter is particularly welcome in an era that has lost its sense of where we stand in human history, and how lucky we are to be alive today.

Paul Flatters, CEO Trajectory, leading Global Consumer Trends forecasting organisation

Generation Cherry absolutely nails a major emerging social trend a whole generation who are unable and unwilling to retire this is an individual handbook, a battlesuit almost, for all of us who want to continue to be economically active well into our sixties and seventies, and who have something to offer the wider world in terms of experience, stamina and who knows possibly wisdom.

Charles Kingsmill, leading Business Strategy coach

The great strength of Tim Drakes book about how we should try to come to terms with personal setback in this unwelcome world is that he draws on his own, difficult, experiences of handling a career meltdown his practical suggestions for dealing with a sudden and painful change in career and personal prospects offer sound guidance not just to older citizens. Many forty plus strivers of today are destined to find the next twenty years a lot harder. They too may find the lessons and coping strategies he has drawn from his experiences not only, and most importantly, practical, but also reassuring and inspiring.

Stewart Fleming, former US Editor, Financial Times

For those who read this book and identify with its purpose, the third age is one of fulfilment freed from financial chains they will find purpose and ways to apply it that suit them perfectly. The four autonomies earning, learning, giving and recharging give the reader the tools they need to navigate past the obstacles that imprison some in a cynical later life and create the life that they choose.

In an increasingly uncertain and insecure world this is an optimistic and essential guide for our times.

Malcolm Durham, author of WealthBeing: a guide to creating wealth and enjoying well-being

I think its brilliant. Packed full of insight, accessible and challenging and a rallying call to make the most of your life at any age.

Michael Townsend Williams, author of DO BREATHE: Calm your mind. Find Focus. Get stuff done

Also by Tim Drake

How to Make a Difference, Marshall Cavendish, 2006

Tim Drake and Chris Middleton

You Can Be As Young as You Think , Pearson, 2009

Published by RedDoor
www.reddoorpublishing.com

2017 Tim Drake

The right of Tim Drake to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

ISBN 978-1-912022-55-7

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the author

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover design: Clare Turner

Typesetting: Sheer Design & Typesetting

To Lizzie, Tansy and Lettice,
who are wonderful, warm, sunny and supportive

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms to choose ones attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose ones own way .

Dr Viktor E. Frankl
Survivor of Auschwitz, who lost friends, family and his pregnant wife in the concentration camps of World War II

Lo, life again knocked laughing at the door!

Robert Browning

I am part of a privileged generation.

I grew up in the 1950s. At the time we didnt realise we were living in a golden age. Rationing had only just been withdrawn. There was little money around. Or food, or clothing. Foreign holidays were unheard of.

But we understood from our parents that we had survived the war, and things were going to get better.

And they did. Looking back we hit the jackpot in many ways. In comparison to the previous generation, we had a cherry on everything:

• There was no conscription for military service
• We did not have to pay for primary, secondary or tertiary education
• The Beatles, the Stones, Queen and Dylan were fresh and fantastic
• Jobs were plentiful you could pick and choose
• We benefited from an excellent, free, health service
• The Welfare State was generous, and benefits werent being cut all the time
• We could afford to buy a house (a big cherry, this)
• We benefited massively from increases in property prices (an even bigger cherry)
• We (well, some of us) had generous work pensions
• There is a state pension which, though not generous, is paid every week.

I speak as a man. Women had smaller and fewer cherries. Career opportunities werent exactly abundant during this time. Many never looked further than being secretaries, teachers or nurses. My wife Lizzie became a nurse, while her brother, similarly talented, became a doctor. Fewer women went to university.

While we have great cause to be profoundly grateful, and the younger generations have reason to be envious (although, to their credit, most of them dont seem to be so), things are no longer entirely rosy.

Restructuring stalks the land, which often means redundancy for experienced, and thus expensive, more mature workers. Many pension schemes have been terminated, or severely watered down. Older workers are not the first choice for job vacancies. End-of-life care-home costs are no longer funded by the state. Increased life expectancy can put stress on those whose savings or pension wont be able to cope.

But looked at from another angle, we live in exciting times. Being healthy and living longer in a more developed and interesting society is a wonderful bonus. It means we are fitting in an extra decade or so to our lives before we even begin to think about getting old.

We can slot in some new adventures or take on some new challenges, especially if the conventional job market has closed its doors to us earlier than we expected.

My own adventures started early, and not through choice. My journey began shortly before my fiftieth birthday, when what had been a gentle cruise towards a successful and comfortable retirement turned into a bit of a whitewater ride. Over the last twenty years since then, Ive learned a great deal from the good times, and even more from the not-so-good times.

I found myself in cold and unwelcoming waters, and had to start swimming. Both to save myself, and to support my young family. Good nearly always comes out of bad, and for me it certainly did. So this book contains some of the lessons Ive learned, and the insights Ive taken from the wisdom and experience of others.

Most important of all, it attempts to define the mindset I have been able to develop in order to take on some of the challenges that face us as we progress through life. These are challenges that are new at this particular time in the evolution of our economy and our society, but they are likely to become more pervasive as the concept of what constitutes work rather than a job evolves over time.