Who is likely to be wealthier at retirement – someone who earns $250k pa and spends $250k pa or someone who earns $50k and spends $40k? Your household surplus is the tool that funds your future. If there is no surplus, the toolbox is perhaps empty.

The world around us is now so proliferated with advertising and marketing messages which are getting cleverer about inducing our consumption. But it’s not your retirement they have in mind when they write these adverts, it’s their own.

So it’s a matter of firstly creating a good tool for the future, and then protecting it from those loudly trying to get at it. Perhaps some earplugs should go into the toolbox too!