INVESTMENT
started breeding, pretty soon after puberty. (For most of history, a
twenty-year-old woman who had not had a child was considered a
barren old maid – someone to be greatly pitied.)
By the second half of the 20th century, the norm in much of the
developed world was that you spent the first 20-odd years of your
life learning. Then – in this order – you got a job, then you got
married and moved out of your parents’ house and ‘settled down’.
Then you had children – hopefully before the dreaded age of 30 by
which a first-time mother was labelled an ‘elderly primigravida’. The
age criterion for qualifying for this flattering label has since been
changed to 35.
19 R E T I R E M E N T R E N D S