How our life has changed compared to years past. The problems of earning enough, fast enough to insure that one day you may retire. Then hoping that the modern tendencies, do not eat out your savings causing you to out live those savings.

So many young marriages fail after a few years, resulting in disruptions to the family, financial progress towards retirement, backlogged. Children's lives put aside whilst parents fight over their future, for that matter even the future of family pets. The victors of these, only the lawyers and attorneys. A long-lasting relationship a thing of the past, almost news worthy.

In days gone by, it was the norm to select a career and stick by it till retirement age. By then, in theory, you would have enough funds to live out your life in the way to which you had become accustomed. Your house would be paid for, and you would possibly have your dream car, with no outstanding debt. What has happened to the theory? Inflation, in some parts of the world, have now made this an impossibility, and with the exorbitant prices of vehicles and homes, do we ever manage to pay for them? Have we surpassed the “keeping up with the Jones” scenario, and now move to bigger and better houses, forgetting that in time to come, the children will leave home and the bigger house will only be needed by two people? Two people who will retire in a house too big for them.

The younger generation are job seekers, always looking for the “hen that lays the golden egg”. Career moves are no longer made within a certain company, but rather by jumping from one to the other. Retirement packages, unless invested with insurance brokers, never get the chance to earn the higher interest rates required to keep up with inflation. Careers take precedence over family life, and holidays taken in the short times that the career allows. Cell phones, modern communication and emails have made it impossible to switch off from the work situation, always within reach of those who are not on vacation. All of this must have a damaging effect on the modern family.

Infidelity, incompatibility, communication breakdown, physical, psychological, or emotional abuse, financial issues, boredom, child rearing and addiction, all top reasons given for divorce. Were these not issues in the past, or did our parents and grand parents have a higher level of tolerance towards each others moral misadventures? The way of life today must have made the younger generations less tolerable of the misgivings of their partners. Women, now within the job market, are not seen as domestic creators. They have placed themselves in superior positions, competing on a level field with their husbands as the bread winners, and therefore want to share the power that comes with it. Men feel threatened, that their very manhood is being jeopardized by the power wielded by the modern woman. The need to dominate and outsmart, the one sex above the other, has placed the modern marriage under a strain that neither partner ready to relinquish.

Whilst all this is happening, is there any consideration of old age? Do the pair consider the future of retirement? I think not, never have I heard the retirement savings awarded or fought over in a divorce court. These savings get lumped with the assets, divided whichever way the courts decide. Do they stay invested for old age? Again I think not, used to set up new homes, over compensation spent on children to help over come the traumas of single parent rearing. The retirement will take a back seat to all other considerations, and times in the future will differ to that of which they're accustomed.

Those that have made it, do they have a secret, are they freaks of nature, or are they just lucky? Think love and tolerance when considering your answer to this question.