About twenty years ago I went to one of these ‘do as I do and you will get rich by selling crap to suckers like you who want to get rich’ seminars. Don’t misunderstand me; I am all for proper wealth building seminars that openly admit that the only place where success is before work is in the dictionary and that not everyone in the room will end up wealthy. You know you have paid for a good one when you hear that statistically only a fifth of the attendees will take action and even a smaller proportion will do it smart!

This is not what I wanted to talk to you about though; what I remember very clearly from the really useless in any other way seminar I attended is the following:

‘You have reached your peak earning potential by the time you get in your 40s. After that, it is all over the hill!’

Although I was in my late 20s then, I remember my analytical nature objecting. Surely, this is far too young! Or is it?

Apparently, at the time of the seminar this was almost correct: twenty years ago, statistically, the peak earning years were 35 to 44. Today, however, this margin has moved by about ten years and it is 45-55. Now, you will understand that for obvious reasons I was very pleased to get my hands on this statistic. One, it means that I am half a decade away from my earning acme – much can happen in five years you know, particularly if one has a good plan and is taking action (my estimate is that if we achieve about 40% of what is on our plan we are doing spectacularly well). And two, this is a good one to pitch into any even remotely ageist debate – it is not only that I have better insurance because I am older; I also earn more now that I am older. Ha, ha!