We live in a time of many surprises and not a few shocks. We expect everyday things to change in our lifetime, but it seems we’ve had more than a lifetime of shifts in a handful of years. Things that might have seemed impossible even a few months or years ago happen now. So we’re asking members what’s now commonplace that they never thought they’d see. Here’s my sample list –what’s on ... read more>

It was said by a female rear admiral no less that “One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.” As well as rising to the top of the US Navy Grace Hopper was also a professor of mathematics, and she knew a thing or two about figures. So what she might make of the alleged wonkiness of our most studied statistics - on which many political, economic and social decisions are ... read more>

Although the less well-off tend to suffer more from cost of living pressures, it doesn’t stop the better-off from complaining too. The dazzling high-tech signage of $2-a-litre petrol can raise a certain anxiety regardless of whether you drive a shiny new Porsche or a dusty old Falcon. But it seems that retirees and older Australians might be particularly susceptible to consumer price infl... read more>

With so much talk about cancel culture, let’s focus instead on retiring a controversial word that seems to many a little outdated - ‘retirement’ itself. There are so many misconceptions about the term, not least that there’s somehow an ‘official age’. But I’d like to replace it with a more useful concept. Given the FiftyUp Club’s mission to reinvent the future of older Australians, how ab... read more>

We hear endlessly about the ‘new normal’, usually in terms of the broader economy and population-wide changes to how we will do business ahead. But what about us as individuals, the so-called microeconomic level? All of us have either been locked down or restricted in our movements. Slowly but surely, that regime is ending. So how do you think your everyday habits may change due to the pa... read more>