Retirement Today…by Harold

For those of you who are new members to the Marcus Today newsletter you might notice that on Fridays we carry articles by our resident retiree Harold. Harold is a friend of mine from the Black Rock Sailing Club, he is a very competitive, experienced and capable sailor sailing Sabres. This was me trying to keep up with him in the Nationals five years ago.

The only time I beat Harold was once when it was blowing 30 knots which favoured my 90 kilos over Harold’s somewhat more wiley brained 80 kilos. Note to new sailors - if you want to win anything choose your Class according to your weight. I never had a chance. Some of the Sabres Class Champions weighed 30 kilos less than me. I remember standing next to a couple of them after a race saying “Guys, just tell me, what have I got to do to win a race”. They both looked up at me and laughed. “Chop off a couple of limbs would be a good start” said one, “To be a fair race we should be carrying a thrity kilo child in the back of our boats" said the other..."ryou’ve got no chance”.

Harold has been writing for us since 2013. It all started with a couple of stories he told in the bar after our regular Thursday evening sailing sessions, one was about his shock, surprise and disappointment that a young girl had stood up to offer him her seat on a tram in the City (Harold didn’t know he was old!), and the other was about Harold and Mrs Harold arguing so often about Harold’s investment prowess as he attempted to manage their joint SMSF (he has been doing it for decades), that they set up a second SMSF and the two of them set about competing with each other to prove who was the smarter investor (or smarter in general). It even included he told us, trying to find some really good stock tips and making sure the other one didn’t know.

Harold is “old school” as I am when it comes to writing, spelling and grammar, and we carry a library of his well-crafted articles aimed at retiree investors (all investors really) which talk about retirement, managing your own share portfolio(s) in retirement, and life in retirement from the perspective of an intelligent, eloquent, retiree who has been managing his own destiny in the stock market since the 1970s.

I have always said that Harold should write a book, but he doesn’t have to, if you are a Marcus Today Member all you have to do is log into the newsletter, click the ARTICLES tab, and click on RETIREMENT TODAY and they will miraculously appear for you.

Here for your delight is his first article. You can email Harold on the link below - any inspiration, encouragement, feedback and ideas will be gratefully received. If you would like to email Harold, please click here.

Look out for Harold on Fridays, meanwhile, enjoy!