Nevin's Data "Points"

This weekend most of America will undergo a rather painful change. I’m talking about the legally mandated move to Daylight Saving Time (for most of us). That’s right, at 2 a.m. on March 12, clocks around the nation will “spring ahead” to 3 a.m., reversing course from last fall when the move was to “fall back” to standard time. It’s a “movement” laid at the feet of none other than Benjamin Franklin who, in what’s been characterized as a “satirical” letter to the editor of The Journal of Paris in 1784 pitched “the economy of using sunshine instead of candles.” Mr. Franklin may have been satirical, but the economic rationale for this artificial time contrivance lingers on. It was certainly a factor in 1916 when Germany saw adjusting the time as helpful to its war effort.  Great Britain embraced the same logic the following year, and by March 1918 [i] the (now at war) United States was on board — well, sort of. It only lasted till the end of that war, was picked up again

As you have (hopefully) heard by now, as of tomorrow (March 1), I am entering a new phase of life, one still affectionately referred to as “retirement.”  Not retirement in the traditional sense, though I do hope to work less hours, forego trips to the office, and spend more time doing the things I want, rather than the things I must. In recent months much has been made of how difficult it is for younger workers to grasp the reality of retirement—but the reality is that retirement “myopia” is not limited to younger workers. Indeed, the reality is that I am not 100% certain what that will be like, though I have described my vision of mine as being akin to Saturday mornings—no alarm, no commute, no meetings, and a much-reduced volume of email to read/respond.  Here’s hoping. I’ve done the math (lots of times), so the finances are fine. COVID gave me and my wife plenty of time together, so I’m not worried that I’ll drive her nuts by being around all the time—quite the con