Talkback 74                    May 2006

Talkback is a regular feature in laterlife.com run by journalist and author Helen Franks.   

Welcome to talkback 74 

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Raising Money Together

They do get a bit weird, some of your suggestions for the May Challenge. The topic is Raising Money Together. One idea was ‘past life therapy for people willing to investigate their former lives and then giving the proceeds to charity’. Wishful thinking or what?

Some of you thought the Challenge meant raising and spending money on yourselves. ‘This is what we saved for all our working lives – being able to retire early and enjoy each others company’. An admirable aim in itself, but not exactly altruistic, though maybe the idea is that happiness is contagious.

You can’t really say the same of ‘Clearing out the loft and garage and selling it at car boot sales’ unless the proceeds were designed for a charity. The proposers didn’t say.

More charitable were projects like campaigning for pension rights… joining a local community organisation for children, which (curiously) referred to clearing litter and collecting for children in need… and singing days with a local choir.
Local hospices, cancer charities, retirement clubs to aid charities were all on the agenda.

And I just had to laugh at the total lack of charitable intent expressed in ‘spending our inheritance’….but maybe it was just ironic.


 

Previous Challenge Talkbacks

Reinventing retirement
How not to go doo-lally in later life

Doing Things for Others

Time for Discovery

Raising money together

Previous talkback topics

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