‘The land of faery … where nobody gets old’

I want to know that, if I choose to retire into a certain environment, that environment is going to retain those qualities which drew me there in the first place. I am talking about perceptive and informed change, which encompasses progress with sensitivity both to the physical environment and the social expectations of the community.

I want to know that my retirement income, be it from any one or a mix of the three pillars of superannuation, savings or pension, will be sympathetically protected and supported to the full extent possible.

Much is made of the increasing demands of an ageing population, dependency ratios, and the need for future retirees to ensure that they are self-supporting. There are many people who will never be in that happy position, particularly single women who have been in and out of the workforce during child-bearing years, and may never have attained the equivalent salary levels of their male counterparts - thus affecting their ability to contribute to their superannuation. Even for those who are in a happier position, their assets are finite; with greater longevity, they have to stretch further and further.

I want to know that the dispensation of Local, State and Commonwealth services on which I may have to draw at some time are dispensed efficiently, effectively, and with sympathy and respect. I want to know they are dispensed without stigma being attached to their acquisition, without being regarded as a burden on the community; that it is I who am the cause of a financial crisis in our society.

You may remember Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby in Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies?

How would you like to be “doneby” as you reach the precipice of ageing? - the “vale of years”? Are you prepared to “do-as-you-would-be-done-by”?