An alternative approach to retirement planning

A friend recently reminded me of the story published in the London Times several years ago about the attendant who collected fees seven days a week for twenty years at a local parking  lot owned by the local city council.  One day he didn’t show up.  After some investigation, it was discovered that nobody knew his name, he had not been employed by the city, and had apparently been pocketing the parking fees, untaxed and unrecorded, for twenty years.  The estimate is that he retired to Spain with as much as seven million pounds – or more than 10 million dollars.

Yesterday my husband reported that a similar acquisition plan seemed to be operating at the gentlemen’s pay toilet facilities in the train station.

A street person (I think that might be the politically correct euphemism for what we would have called a beggar or a bum) was standing by the entrance turnstile which usually required the deposit of a coin to open.

Instead, the helpful self-styled attendant was holding open the turnstile and holding out his hand for the coin.

Probably not the most efficient way to collect enough to retire on in Spain.  But enough to get a couple of drinks at the local.