Nine Million People Can't be Wrong

When you learn that the government has spent 60% more on the National Health Service over the last 10 years you think, "OK, credit where it's due. That sounds pretty good." Then you learn that productivity in the NHS has actually fallen by 4% over the same period.

Hang on. How can that be? How can expenditure go up by 60% and productivity fall by 4%. If you were in business you'd go broke in no time. If you were a manager with that kind of record you'd probably get sacked for incompetence. And yet the NHS, that you and I pay for, gets away with it.

It transpires that 2/3 (yes, that 66%) of all the new money has gone on pay deals and additional managers. Suddenly the government doesn't look too good any more.

According to a statistic I read in Money Week, nine million people of my generation - the over 55's - are thinking about leaving the country to go and live somewhere else. I never quite understood how they work out these statistics, nobody asked me, but if that's correct, it's a sad reflection on the mood of the older generation and nine million people can't be wrong, can they?

Actually, they might be thinking about it, but not many will go through with it. For a start the pound has fallen to such low levels against just about every other currency (it even fell against the Zimbabwian dollar) that moving abroad is an expensive business. Living costs will therefore be that much higher because we are going to be taking our pension in sterling and buying our food in Euros or whatever. So we might want to move out, but just at the moment it doesn't make economic sense, so we're stuck.

May as well stay put and try and make some extra money. Perhaps start a business in our spare time working from home, or maybe get a part-time job. There's a web site that will give you some ideas about how to get started: http://retirementrevenue.co.uk