Reviewing David Bogan & Keith Davies' novel Avoid Retirement & Stay Alive
Title: Avoid Retirement and Stay Alive: why you should never retire
Authors: David Bogan and Keith Davies
Publisher: Harper Collins
RRP: $27.99
Who would have thought working would keep you alive? While it is a hard concept to swallow authors Bogan and Davies are on a mission to keep you working.
Why you ask? Because in a time where most people can only conjurer blissful images when thinking of retirement, they will have you believe that retirement is anything but a dream-ending.
In fact they argue that for some, retirement is their own personal living nightmare - A virus-like concept that will take over and control of their lives.
And if you disagree with this thought, then they argue the 'retirement virus' has already hijacked your brain into believing retirement is good for you. The cure - delete retirement from your mind.
Bogan and Davies set out to obliterate the thought that you need to retire to 'get a life' and insist that 'whatever it is that you're doing, keep on doing it'.
Rightly so, they argue we don't have use-by dates stamped on our foreheads telling us that once we hit 65 we have to retire. Times have changed; we are more fitter and healthier than previous generations were.
And as Bogan and Davies point out we have decades to live after the age of 65 - not just the few short years as was once the case.
Backed up with real life examples, Bogan and Davies embark on a dissection of the retirement industry and arrive at some life-changing conclusions.
And in an era where Australia is facing a rapidly aging population of baby-boomers with no guarantees of government supported pension their message couldn't be timelier.
While many will baulk at the notion of having to work for the rest of their lives, essentially Bogan and Davies are enlightening readers not on how to stay at their jobs but rather on how to live actively and stay in control of their lives.
Because for them a job is something we do to make profit, where on the other hand, work is for a purpose.
"Working is an integral part of life's purpose, a function for which we are genetically 'hardwired', part of essential survival kit. So, give up your job by all means, but don't stop working."
With this in mind their message is simple: take control of your life and make the decisions about the way your life will be lived.
