When I was 25 … (Part 1)

Recently, Ronni at Time Goes By answered a meme that instructs participants to list five things in life they never thought – at age 25 - they would become.

I thought I would write five posts about personal things, as well as, social trends I didn’t know would happen 25 years ago. I was 25 years old then and just graduating as an electrical engineer.

This is the first thing I didn’t know back then:

Age of retirement:

My grandfather went into retirement in his early 50’s. He was a senior engineer at a large telecommunication corporation in Montreal. He retired in order to give the returning WWII veterans a chance of employment.

My father also retired in his early 50’s. Fulfilling a life long dream of working hard, taking risks, accepting responsibilities and getting rich. He died in his early 70’s, having enjoyed retirement for almost as long a period, as he did his working career.

I believe that my generation is going to be the first generation since the end of WWII, who will not have the privilege or luxury to enjoy full retirement. I know longer share the same dream as my father. Instead, my dream or ambition is to enjoy partial retirement for the rest of my, the gods willing, long life.