Happy Birthday Mickey!

18th November 1928 – Steamboat Willie

Unbelievably Mickey Mouse is 88 years old. Doesn’t he look good. Well I’m sure he has had a bit of work done over the years and whenever you see a picture of him, it’s clear he has been touched-up like a super model. But still, 88 years old and he still works every single day, just like our Queen. You can just tell that he enjoys what he does, he doesn’t see it as work at all. His pension pot must be pretty amazing too! He has quite possibly got 88 years in The Walt Disney final salary pension scheme. If he was British he would have a few pension problems.

• If you don’t take your tax free cash by age 75, you lose it.
• The maximum number of years in a final salary scheme are only 40.
• The maximum pension pot you can own is now £1 million.

18th November 1961 – Howard John Scott

Yes, It’s true I share Mickey Mouse’s birthday. Last Friday I reached age 55. Apart from visiting Walt Disney World to run the half marathon with Lesley, I wanted to celebrate this age milestone with my old birthday buddy. I had a chat and yes, we do share a few things in common.

• Nobody took either of us seriously to begin with.
• We both believe that consistent hard work over many years has to bring good results.
• Probably both of us can continue to develop and get better still in the future.
• Neither of us want to retire any time soon. Maybe never retire at all.

The Key of the Door

Sing all together…

55 Today,
55 Today,
Got the key of his pension door,
He’s never been 55 before.

Yes, I’ve reached the point that I can access my pension. It was age 50, but the Government pushed it back by 5 years just before I got there. So now I can get some of my life savings back. I’ve been saving into pension my entire working life since I was age 24. However like Mickey, I won’t be taking my tax-free cash or pension just yet, although I can’t promise to still be working at age 88, but I’m willing to give it a try.

Other Mickey Mouse Facts

• His original name was Mortimer Mouse.
• The first recorded use of ‘Mickey Mouse’ to describe something lacking in value was in 1931. It was hilariously re-worked in an episode of “Only Fools & Horses” by Boycie when he said “It’s rumoured that Mickey Mouse owns a Rodney Trotter watch”. An odd thing for me to remember you may think, however at a branch meeting in the late 80’s a manager of Abbey Life told the audience that “Mickey Mouse owned a Howard Scott watch”. Ouch, you don’t forget put down lines like that. However I was pretty useless as a life assurance salesman to begin with.
• In France he isn’t known as Mickey Mouse, instead he is known as Michel Souris. It’s no wonder a coherent European United States of Europe has never materialised.

Thanks John for the birthday wishes and the reminder of my famous connection. 😀