The grey gap year

This amusing article in the Independent is about the trend for the 50-plus to pack their bags, trash their bank accounts, wave goodbye to the kids and take a year to travel the world.

As the article explains: Known, unflatteringly, to the travel industry as the "denture venturers" or the "Saga louts", there are an estimated 200,000 pre-retirement "gappers" in the UK. They spend around £5,000 per trip, totalling an impressive £1bn per year.

The other trend is for the same group to decide to buy a property abroad. It is thought that up to a third of the 50-plus have this in mind as a way of spending their cash.

I reckon buying shares in Kleenex is not a bad idea as a generation of kids weep, seeing their inheritance disappearing in far-off lands. Dick Stroud