Knowing when it's time to change

I came across some interesting statistics in the last few days:
"823,00 UK pensioners over 65 have returned to work in the last 6 months!"
"1 in 12 British Pensioners are now working!" 
There are of course several financial reasons for this: It's well known that annuity rates have fallen ...I watched with dismay and disbelief as my pension forecasts fell. Other less well known financial reasons include Gordon's raiding of the pension pot by £100 billion when removing tax relief on dividends.  And 12% of  65 - 74 year olds still having a mortgage of £60,000 to pay off according to Aviva! And so the bottom line is that people, particularly outside of the public sector, are finding it increasingly difficult to manage on pension income.
But another reason for this trend is that an increasing number of pensioners actually want to continue working. Which is why these statistics from Age UK made disappointing reading:
"over 170,000 people over 50 have been out of work for at least a year, an increase of 52% since the beginning of the decade, and the highest figure in ten years!"
Yes it is disappointing to read that this is the case. But it is also disappointing that a potentially discouraging statistic is put out. Getting a job when you are out of work has always been difficult...at any age! And especially difficult if you've never thought about change affecting you!
Have you noticed how so many things are changing that we just seem to accept:
- Cheque books are not used in so many places now.
- Good old Woolworths and others have shut down as we shift our shopping to the internet.
- We even scan our own shopping at the supermarket checkout.
- CCTV watches us wherever we go.
- We cheerfully sort out our re-cycleable household rubbish.

Yet when it comes to our job ...we don't expect this to change. And we can't seem to accept it when it does happen. That is the key theme in the excellent book "Who moved my Cheese?"  It can be read in a couple of hours but the lessons will last a wee bit longer!!
And the key lessons taught by the different behaviour of its four characters when discovering that their "life long" hoard of cheese has finally been eaten are:

• Accept that is has happened. It's not coming back and you have to move on and be prepared to find something different somewhere else.
• Accept that it was always likely to happen, that the signs were there. And that it will probably happen again some time and to prepare for that eventuality.

And I learned every truth in those lessons 20 years ago ...eventually!
These days I very happily find my own cheese.  And I am always looking for the freshest because it is so much better!