In an attempt to count my blessings, one upside of lockdown is discovering how many amazing things are online for the low price of free. All they ask is for me to pay attention (and register, of course). Case in point, the lecture series by the University of Toronto’s School for the Environment. Last week, I learned about Canada’s Climate Plan, available to you through the magic of Youtube …
Next week, I’m looking forward to this goodie …
Unlike my friend with her “Days to Retirement Countdown App” featuring a selfie with Kevin Bacon, my retirement is pretty far away. Whether retirement is a year, a decade or a half century away, if we’re lucky enough to have a pension, there is a good chance that pension is the biggest investment most of us have.
It’s tempting to “rest your eyes” when hearing about pensions and retirement planning, but I promise this can be exciting territory! We vote with our wallet everyday on the kind of world we want. Pensions for large institutions are one heck of a collective wallet. That investment isn’t just a pile of cash, it’s made up of a lot of investments in other things: real estate, banks, natural resources, technology, other companies, other countries, you get the picture.
Not being a time traveler, I haven’t seen the lecture yet, but am guessing they’ll discuss divesting from fossil fuels. As Mike mentioned, since climate change is a public health crisis, and most of us want to retire in a world that hasn’t been completely destabilized by it, we should probably stop investing in climate change’s cause. Not to mention, fossil fuels really tanked (get it? tanked! groan) for most of the decade before Covid showed up uninvited. Now they’re mostly in freefall.
But let’s not spoil the surprise. Anyone can register for this lecture and get some university education for free with just a little time and attention. That’s a pretty perfect investment.
Talkin' Trash With UHN 