AHC's Peter Nicholas asks why is it we need to learn some lessons the hard way?
I was a crammer. All the way through school I loved the good life - sport, extracurricular activity, friends and an after school job that put money in my pocket for life's luxuries - movies, munchies and more.
What else could a teenage boy want? Life was good, except when it came to exams.
For years school was easy, maybe too easy. I was blessed with a modicum of natural talent. The standard curriculum I found basic and straightforward. Assessments were simple, more focussed on moving students through the education sausage machine than validating embedded learning.
Yet eventually, and inevitably, I was confronted with the harsh reality of external examinations - the Australian equivalent of GCSEs. An objective, moderated assessment of what I'd learned over the previous year.
I remember clearly the process of panic the night before my first exam - contrite cramming in a futile attempt to assimilate a year's teaching into a few sleepless hours. It was a tough lesson that one year into two hours won't go! A lesson I also learned surfing - it doesn't matter how hard you paddle, if the wave passes you you'll never catch it.
I learned these things the hard way. They form part of my life's experience, "life lessons" hopefully now embedded as wisdom. Indeed it's this wisdom that I've tried to pass on to my children.
Imagine my surprise last week in seeing my daughter desperately cramming for her GCSE Spanish exam. Why had she left it to the last minute? How had she not taken advantage of the tutoring and coaching available throughout the year? What was her plan? Why had she not sought my support, my guidance, my wisdom?
Sadly, too much like her Dad, there really wasn't a plan. There was just a belief, a hope that it would all work out OK on the day.
Today, my hope is that this will prove to be one of her "life's lessons". A lesson that the right outcome is underpinned by the right inputs. This is equally true when it comes to retirement. There is no way you can cram for your retirement!
In a DC world the quality of your lifestyle in retirement is directly proportional to the contributions you make and the time over which you make them.
There is no silver bullet in the few short weeks before retirement that will remedy lack of preparation. Like learning another language it takes time and commitment.
The reality is I'm most likely preaching to the converted. As you read this blog you are probably nodding in agreement to the central argument.
So the question remains, as a wave of baby boomers head, under prepared, towards retirement how do we help them to realise their peril and take action? From my experience it is peer to peer encouragement, easy to use web tools and access to advice – it's unlikely they'll listen to their parents. Yet with 54 years before my daughter will retire maybe there is some hope.
Written by Peter Nicholas, Manageing Director/CEO, AHC.
