I’m writing from Koh Lanta in Thailand, where we’re catching some winter sun and celebrating my 37th birthday and Winnie’s second birthday, which is actually today. Happy birthday, Winnie!
Something struck me about the 35 years between us. It got me thinking about time, generations, and what that span of years really means – both personally and financially.
Let me share some context from 1989, when I was Winnie’s age. These numbers aren’t just interesting trivia – they show how dramatically the financial landscape can shift in just one generation:
- The average UK house price was £45,000
- A pint would set you back 92p
- The World Wide Web hadn’t been invented
- The Berlin Wall was coming down
- The first Game Boy was just hitting shelves
- The average UK salary was £13,903
- A litre of petrol cost 38p
- Interest rates peaked at 14.875%
While those interest rates seem eye-watering today, they’re a reminder that what seems normal in one era can seem unthinkable in another.
Here’s something interesting: the average age gap between parents and children in the UK has jumped from 23.5 years in the 1970s to 30.6 years today. This shift raises fundamental questions about supporting the next generation, managing inheritance, and planning for longer retirements.
Consider this:
- The average person gets about 4,000 weeks on this planet
- A child born today (like Winnie) has a 50% chance of living to 100
- Someone who was 35 back in 1989 has witnessed their entire pension landscape transform – state pension age climbing, final salary schemes virtually disappearing and pension pots being mismanaged and poorly invested
This transformation in pensions is particularly relevant when thinking about Winnie’s generation. Will the state pension still exist in its current form? Will the concept of retirement itself look different? The changes we’ve seen in just 35 years suggest the next 35 could bring even more fundamental shifts in how we think about work, savings, and financial security.
Thirty-five years from now, in 2059, Winnie will be my age. That date sounds like science fiction, but it’s a year many will see, if not you then hopefully all of your loved ones. What will the world look like? What huge changes will sweep in? What new inventions will we come to rely on?
I wonder what will matter to me then? Will it be health, family and fun, like it is now? I’d certainly guess so, but maybe there will be other priorities?
The financial decisions we make today cast long shadows into the future. When I look at Winnie, I’m not just thinking about education funds or inheritance planning – I’m thinking about preparing her for a world that might be as different from today as today is from 1989.
It’s this perspective that makes financial planning interesting. We’re not just moving numbers around on a spreadsheet – we’re looking at how decisions echo through time, how choices made in one generation ripple through to the next. If these thoughts resonate with you, perhaps you know others who share similar values about family and the future. They can discover more about our approach here.
Final thought from Koh Lanta: right now it’s this perfect mix of developed but unspoiled, busy but peaceful. It’s fascinating how some places manage to develop while keeping what makes them special. A bit like good financial planning really – adapting to change while preserving what matters most.
Here’s to the next 35 years of figuring out what that looks like.
