Today is armistice day, it’s a day when we pray for peace around the world and remember those who sacrificed their lives so we could enjoy ours.

Today’s also my birthday and I’m off to Sheerness on a steam train that pulls out of Victoria at 9.30 this morning. I’ll spend a day with my partner of 25 years enjoying something we both love, each other’s company! The train will pass Dover around the time Yeovil Town play Dover Athletic at Huish Park. If Yeovil win, it will be their 13th consecutive victory, a club record. The signs are propitious!

WordPress tells me this is the 500th continues day that I have blogged. I think the day I missed was when I lost all connectivity two summers ago on the river. Blogging has se a rhythm to my life and kept me going through good times (and bad).

This morning, as every morning, I managed my overnight messages. 27 linked in direct messages, some from friends and 26 (by 5.30am)  from people I have never met! People so far messaging me from the other side of the world where a new day dawns as ours ends. Thanks – you know I try and do the same for you!

Some may say that managing extreme connectivity as I do, is a mugs game and I should stick with friends and family. But that is to shut the door on the world of opportunity that social media brings. By Christmas, the AgeWage and Pension PlayPen linked in group will have 15,000 members, it is one of the most active groups linked in monitor and it is a platform for a wide variety of people to share their views.

The value of groups, whatever social media platform you use, is more the network they provide. When I reach out to someone I hardly know, for information – to see we share groups, especially mine – is an immediate point of contact.

The connectivity of Linked in was recognised in the early years of the century by Rob Gardner and Dawid Konotey-Ahulu who invited me to Mallowstreet. Mallowstreet remains the apogee of social media success, in its early years especially, it provided a forum for change and many of the trends in liability and asset management I write about today , were nurtured in the Mallowstreet hot-house.

But today is not about blogging  connectivity, it is about enjoying the pleasure of real life experience.  I have been very taken this year by the way that Damian Stancombe has redefined himself though using social media to deliver a real-life walk around the dunes and shoreline of the north west coast.

Lady Lucy has been my offline outlet for the past 20 years, I may not continue to own the boat and run the tours as I find the strain of losing my summer weekends to hosting disparate groups has denied me the pleasure of my family.

Which brings me to the vexed question of retirement, something that at 62 becomes an issue. I see no reason to retire from AgeWage or social media or from writing these blogs, but I do want to use my 60s more productively than I do at present. I would like to spend more time communing with the  Wesleyan Chapel, more with my family and more time meeting with my clients and friends.

My life expectancy, measured against my health and lifestyle is around 30 years. That is a second career and that is how I am approaching it. I hope that many of the 34,000 followers of this blog will share it with me and that I will be able to meet many of you in person.