There are two fundamentally different approaches to how we live our lives. Those different approaches are reflected in the ways people address the subject of retirement. A number of people go through life allowing things to happen to them. It is very noticeable that as some young people are educated, they seem to rely almost completely on guidance offered by their parents and teachers. It looks as though they drift into specific examination tracks at school; they move to university; and by their mid-twenties find themselves embarked on a particular professional career. Many such people enjoy a happy working life (though I have encountered a few people who have woken up in their mid-forties to realise that they hate their job). These men and women typically give the appearance of being taken by surprise when the subject of retirement is mentioned. The second approach to life is taken by those who make every attempt to determine their own course, by being assertive and by trying to plan for the future. But even those people who appear to have mapped out for themselves every stage of their career often encounter difficulty when it comes to working out their path to retirement.