Before I write further, I want to position that this is a positive blog post. A celebration of life, but I want to put something into some perspective by what I am about to share.

I was on the treadmill today (I don’t mean work). I was actually on the treadmill exercising, and as I was running, I was lost in some thoughts. One of the thoughts was concerning the footballer that collapsed on the pitch the other day during the Euros. 

Star Danish footballer suddenly collapsed on the pitch during a UEFA Euro 2020 match on Saturday afternoon, leaving players and fans in tears. Christian Eriksen—the star of this Denmark team—collapsed to the ground with no other players around him.

I reflected on how his family must have felt watching from the stands and how sudden his life came under immediate threat. It was in an instant, his heart stopped, and if it was not for some quick action, it could have been the end of his life. Life is so precious. I love being alive.

I was thinking about the end of my own life and how that would be, and then I extended the thought out to my own children and what would be for them away in the future.

My daughter is twenty-three and my son is eighteen. With all of the advances in science and medicine, there is a high chance that they are both likely to live to be over 100 years old. So for my son, that is another 82 years. 

Stop and think about that for a minute. That would mean that they would be alive in the year 2100… mind-blowing.

My son will be living life for another eighty-two years. Reflect on that for a minute. Think about where the world was 82 years ago and how far we have come. For reference, 82 years ago, it was 1939, and the world was in the middle of the Second World War! That is way before the modern world that we know today. Much of the world was carved up after the war by the victorious, although no one wins much in such an awful war. Then we had the Cold War, the Space Race, Racial Problems, the Thatcher and Reagan years, Wars and more Wars, but we had many unprecedented innovations. We had the computing revolution, the internet, the mobile phone wars and massive advances on how we spend our money and what we can spend it on. Oh, yeah, we had full-on capitalism.

Think about how fast technology and invention has come in recent years and how far it will reach in eighty-two years!! My mind can not comprehend that, but it is wonderful to dream up what it could be like. 

Star Wars, anybody?

In my sons next eighty-two years, I am likely to be around for less than half of that time. According to society, he will be expected to work for more than fifty of the 82 years and then do something for himself in retirement. If he plays his cards right and works to protect his future wealth, he might have a decent retirement experience. But it is down to how he plays his cards – because the governments will not be worth sh*t in the future. He needs to get the mindset that he will be looking after himself and his family without much support from the social safety nets. That is unless we the people, get out the guillotines and change things, but I don’t see that happen because we are all kept dumb by the bread and circuses provided.

This is why I talk to him now about being financially savvy and confident around money. 

It is a long and exciting journey ahead of them both, and I can not wait to see what they do with all of the opportunities in front of them.

My job as their auld father is to make sure they go into that journey with their eyes and minds open and with a curious mind.

They will find their way, and it will be great to see it all unfold.

 I just wish I can live to be one hundred to see more of it.

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