Idly thumbing through some old magazines recently, I came across an article about the effects of redundancy. It was written by a journalist who had found himself jobless in his early fifties.

 
He still had a big mortgage to pay and his children’s education to complete, so he couldn’t simply retire. The insecurity of the self-employment that he was forced into was not something that he enjoyed. He had thought that his old job really was a “job-for-life.”
Yet in the article the journalist also described the debates that he had with colleagues about what they would do if redundancy happened to them. The prospect of a large cheque, earned for many years loyal service, can seem attractive on those grey days when work seems such a trial. Taking early retirement has its attractions.

The writer soon found out that the reality is very different from the fantasy. Continue reading →