Work

The amped-up piggybank of pensions – a guide for 20-somethings

So, what will your life be like when you reach “pension age”, when you’re “allowed to retire”, when you can “draw your pension”? Have you assumed the state will take care of you?

We’ve evolved a language of dependency and assumption over the past century that seems to absolve us of responsibility. But it’s not like that. It was never like that and never meant to be like that.

In the beginning, the UK state pension, although non-contributory, was means-tested. It was paid to those over 70 at a time when you could expect to live another nine years or so and was worth about one fifth of the average wage for a male manual worker.

The state pension was always intended to alleviate poverty, not to provide a comfortable living.

Fast-forward to today. The current state pension (for a single person in tax year 2026-27) is £12,548 per year. The amount required for a “minimum standard of living” is £13,900 and, crucially, this doesn’t include any rent or mortgage costs – it assumes you’ve already paid off a mortgage.

Despite our cosy language, we can’t expect the state to provide for our old age. We need to take a sovereign professional approach and do it ourselves.

Continue reading “The amped-up piggybank of pensions – a guide for 20-somethings” →
Uncategorized

The value of values – Donald Robertson

Author, psychotherapist, coach, trainer and Stoic Donald Robertson offers seven strategies for living in accord with your values.

Most of the time, when people feel a lack of value in their lives, it’s because they’ve become too absorbed in outcome-oriented goals, which are not entirely under their control, and to the neglect of process-oriented goals, such as the virtues.

The article describes high-level strategies that can help people identify and develop the core values, or virtues, by which wish to live: reading, writing, reminders and more.

Read the full list and details, here.

Robertson is, of course, the author of a fine biography of Marcus Aurelius and the Stoic guide How to Live Like a Roman Emperor, along with many other titles.

Photo by Hannah Gibbs on Unsplash (Borrowing Donald’s choice of image as it seems so apt.)

Random

Riff Raff

Rob at The Hammock Papers highlights a track from my favourite AC/DC album, Power Age.

Riff Raff is a great track from a great album, but my favourites are probably:

  • Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation
  • Down Payment Blues
  • Gone Shootin’
  • What’s Next to the Moon?

The album’s a cornerstone of my gym playlist, in rotation with:

All fantastic albums especially suited to (occasionally reluctant) gym-work.

Photo by Anastase Maragos on Unsplash (For the avoidance of, surely understandable, doubt, that’s not me in the picture)

    Heroes of the Sovereign Professional, Work

    The Sovereign Individual, 30 years on

    The Sovereign Individual, James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg’s 1997 classic, is nearly 30 years old. I bought and read it when it was published and, along with a couple of other books, it shaped my thinking about work and employment. It also inspired this blog, The Sovereign Professional. But does it stand up to scrutiny three decades later?

    The book is famous (infamous?) as a libertarian call-to-arms and for correctly anticipating the rise of cryptocurrency, remote working and the (often tax-driven) international mobility of capital. As the cover blurb said,

    “Economic responsibility will be shifted to individuals who will become completely responsible for their own destinies, arranging for their own welfare through their own pension schemes, medical insurance investments, etc. The individual will become more of an entrepreneur, a private contractor, in complete control of his or her finances with easy access to enormous computing power – in fact the Sovereign Individual.”

    Continue reading “The Sovereign Individual, 30 years on” →
    Tools & kit

    The Hunter Gatherer 21C on the Cafetière

    Like Nicholas, I’m a big fan of the Cafetière for fresh, rich, deep coffee and I use a single-mug-sized one every day.

    From clarinet factories to the perfect grind and skimming the surface, here’s everything you need to know about the perfect cup…

    It is full-immersion brewing, which means the grounds sit in the water rather than having water hurried past them. The filter is metal rather than paper, so the coffee oils survive the journey and you get a heavier, rounder cup with more body and none of that faint wet-cardboard note.

    Read the rest, here.

    Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

    Uncategorized

    Enfilade

    The simple joy in discovering a new word.

    Enfilade: a suite of rooms with doorways in line with each other.

    I didn’t know. So, here are some enfilades borrowed from Tumblr…

    https://www.tumblr.com/buccierostefano
    Residenz München, Raumflucht der Reichen Zimmer vom Miniaturenkabinett (R.62) bis zur Grünen Galerie (R.58), Blick nach Osten. From https://www.tumblr.com/livesunique
    Screenshot. From https://www.tumblr.com/thesixthduke
    https://www.tumblr.com/thevirtualbuilder/824188413385293824

    Uncategorized

    No bond market vigilantes

    Here’s an essential reminder for these strange times (courtesy of the Adam Smith Institute):

    No one at all is looking at UK government policy and deciding that oooooh, no, we don’t like that, we’ll punish them into not doing it. … There are no vigilantes, just people trying to decide what your promises will do to the value of money and thus home in on the price at which you can have some of their money.”

    Photo by Sasun Bughdaryan on Unsplash

    Uncategorized

    An overdue de-cluttering

    Only slightly mixed feelings last Friday as I said farewell to five of my guitars.

    I haven’t played properly in a few years and, for most of those years, I had been telling myself, “You’re a writer. You could weave the most compelling story for each and sell them on eBay or Reverb.” Instead, they hung or lounged around my office collecting dust and muttering at me with their dead and unplayed strings.

    Then, three things happened. I tidied and redecorated my office, resulting in the instruments huddling all together in one corner, looking at me ever more balefully. They deserved to be played. They deserved a better home.

    Then, my old guitar tutor popped up on email. We hadn’t spoken in years and, in the course of the exchange he said “you only need two guitars: an electric and an acoustic.”

    Now, in my dreams, once I had started to play again and reached some level of passable competence, I have (not had) always promised myself a 1964 Fender Stratocaster. Not investment grade, a well-loved “player’s” guitar would do as long as it’s original in the important places. So I regularly receive emails from No.Tom Guitars, a vintage specialist on London’s Denmark Street (and, in fact, the shop that features in the TV detective series Strike).

    This time, their monthly mail of delicious objects had a footnote: “We want your old guitars.”

    The upshot is that I sold five to the very nice Mr No Tom, and kept two; my 1981 Tokai Springy Sound ST-80 (if you know, you know – it’s a dream of a guitar with all the classic Strat bark and jangle) and my Yamaha APX electro-acoustic. What’s more, because I didn’t want to be embarrassed on collection day, I braved the ouchy fingers and managed to pull together a half-passable Sweet Home Alabama, just in case.

    And I have new strings.

    I feel lighter in every way (except my bank account).

    And, if you feel you missed out, four of the guitars are here:

    1980 Tokai Springy Sound ST-60

    1982 Tokai Springy Sound ST-50
    2004 Fender Classic 60s Stratocaster in Lake Placid Blue

    2007 Fender Classic Players 60s Stratocaster