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Retirees offer skills to help economy

Cape Town - A Fin24 user recently wrote about the issue of society often regarding retired or "old people" as useless. Glyn Bricknell, a former businesswoman, wrote:

"Society has decided that we are of no further use to the workforce. So how can we keep our active brains busy?"

Bricknell listed some ideas on how she and her fellow 'genarians' can contribute to the economy. These include setting  up a website where professionals like teachers, lawyers, architects, builders, secretaries, ex-managing directors of corporate companies like herself, engineers, social workers, nurses, etc can offer advice for a nominal fee of say R100, because she has learnt that what people get for nothing, they don’t appreciate.

"The money we make could be used to set up an NGO for entrepreneurs and in doing so, we could create employment."

Her letter drew quite a response. One user who "fully agreed" with Bricknell's statements said: "I myself own a resourcing company and we often say that we are not using the skills retired people have. This needs to be addressed."

Read: Pensioner: We are not useless

Another user Len Cox said he would certainly support such a project.  "I am sixty five and fairly healthy and I am very enthusiastic about your proposal," Cox wrote.

Cox, who is still employed at a company which is "involved with a multitude of projects", said his background is in analytical chemistry and he has extensive knowledge in alternative energy resources as well as anything of a technical and/or scientific nature.

"We often need experts' advice with our projects. It may well be that we could work together."

Roderick Hull said the older generation "is our gateway to current solutions for future problems".

Mervyn van Rooyen said he agrees completely with Bricknell's article. "I am a retired (nearly 70) engineer and I think like-minded people should get together and thrash out ideas. We can still make an enormous contribution to the country.

"Please count me in and keep me informed," he wrote.

Gerhardus de Klerk hailed Bricknell's suggestions as "an excellent idea".

"We might even be able to render some good advice/tutoring/support/etc to some municipalities and other government departments to get the country going," he wrote.

Mary Simpkins congratulated Bricknell on "an awesome article", saying that she was very interested as "I'm sure are many others".

Andre du Preez simply said he likes the way Bricknell thinks.

From one 'genarian' to the other ... hear hear, exclaimed John Shaw.

Said Shaw: "I too find myself surplus to requirements. Like so many, I'm sure, we surf the net, we dabble in social media, we join business networks, we bemoan the fatuousness of twitter, we read, but boy oh boy, am I bored. I'm tired of hearing the lip service paid to the urgent need for skills and mentors and advisors. I'm tired of twiddling my thumbs.

"We hear so much about the push to encourage entrepreneurship and the importance of SMEs as employers. We hear so much about the pools of money available to kick-start businesses. We see the efforts of the Setas bearing little fruit.

"Then there's the IDC, Seda, the BBSDP, Sefa and the rest. And there's EDF and CSI and so many more acronyms it makes your head spin. And how much of it is going to waste?

"In my limited experience, all this available lolly has created an industry of funds accumulators using business plans written for them by a new industry that churns out business plans. What a waste. Not to mention all the 'incubators' and professional advisors that purport to provide all the answers ... using (in many cases) in-house 'advisors' moulded to suit the company culture who are mainly young and lack the experience and know-how required for the role of 'mentor'!

"So yes, yes, yes. Let's get together and make something work. As you said, lets be useful; let's do something. Count me in."

But not everyone who is retired think they are "useless". Fin24 user Roger Mayes said he gets very frustrated by articles such as 'Pensioners: we are not useless'.

"In my opinion, if you have reached retirement age reasonably financially independent and in good health and you do not know how to keep yourself motivated and interested, then you certainly ARE pretty useless."

Read: Retirement is freedom for Fin24 user

- Fin24

Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.

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