With the footy season underway, I thought I’d share a favorite story: I was lucky to spend a few moments alone with Geelong Captain Joel Selwood, at a 2013 Grand Final Day event. He was pretty subdued as Geelong had missed the big game due to a memorable 5 point Preliminary Final loss to the Hawks. The Cats had been ahead 20 points at three quarter time but faced a resurgent Hawks to lag by six points with seconds to go. Geelong’s Travis Varcoe had the opportunity to tie the score when he kicked from 30 metres in front. The kick sailed right to record a minor score..and the game was lost.
I said, “great year, Joel. Hope the team isn’t going to give Travis Varcoe too hard a time.” Joel simply said: “Well, we’re trained to get those.”
That short reply said a lot. Still hurting. High expectations. Incredible intensity and competitiveness. And even though we’re trained over and over, we professionals still miss. We make mistakes.
Imagine then that you were playing a really important game, but one you’ve never played before. Maybe watched a match once or twice from the grandstands. You don’t know the rules —and they’re really complex. And have never been trained.
That’s what going into retirement is like for most Australians.
It’s not a game they’ve played before; it’s got complex rules; and they haven’t been trained. And with the small number of financial planners, and the very high costs of traditional financial planning (typically $3500-$5,000), there’s very little affordable coaching staff available —except to the wealthy.
