Now everyone can understand pensions, thanks to a father-son duo.
Brett Ladoucé and his son Micah (17) live in Hoheizen, where Ladoucé is a qualified advocate and Micah a gr. 11 learner at CBC St John’s in Parklands.
Other teenagers and their fathers may be at constant loggerheads, but these two have teamed up to create a book accessible to all.
Brett, the author of the book, has been working in the financial services industry for over two decades.
He saw the need for something like Pensions for Palookas to help others with an easy-to-read guide.
“I have found that retirement fund members are making mistakes in their retirement planning because they do not understand the complex world of retirement funds.”
He soon realised sketches would help him write a short, fun book and who better to ask than his artistic son?
“The book gave me the opportunity to do a father-son project by combining my knowledge of retirement funds with the artistic talents of my son who was only 15 years old at the time when he started to draw the first sketches for the book.”
The project took place during lockdown and Brett says they could build a better relationship because of it.
“We shared good times, but also frustrating times as the time we had to the launch date became less, but we pulled through.”
Micah agrees and says the project also improved his artistic skills.
“There were many ideas that I had to convert from words into drawings and my dad helped me keep the meaning of those ideas without tampering with my artistic vision.”
His father also encouraged him when he had to do sketches he thought were out of his range of skill.
“Through hours of practise . . . I was able to learn certain techniques that I didn’t know before doing the sketches for the book.”
Brett, who has been working on pension funds for years, says people need to understand why they belong to retirement funds.
They should also know “what benefits are offered to them by retirement funds, what investment options they have, what influence tax has on their retirement contributions, savings and benefit payments and what their options are at resignation, retrenchment and retirement.”
All this and more is covered in the book.
His whole family later became involved in the book as his wife Margot gave her input on all the versions of the book.
“She was also instrumental in the launch and marketing of the book, something that a legal eagle like me is not too good at.”
Besides acting as her brother’s agent (at a fee), their daughter Sian also acted as official photographer.
Brett says he’s proud of Micah for his contribution, but also of Sian for looking after her brother.
Brett now juggles his full-time work and occasional marketing of his book.
When he set out to publish Pensions for Palookas, he had little knowledge of the industry and finally decided to self-publish through Reach Publishers.
V Readers can order their copy of the book directly from pensionsforpalookas@gmail.com.
“The price of the book is R300 plus R55 for delivery, but I am offering the book to readers of TygerBurger for the all-inclusive price of R255 per book.”
Readers can send an email to pensionsforpalookas@gmail.com with “TygerBurger Offer” as the subject heading to qualify for the discounted offer. The first 20 readers that order the book will get it for free.
The book is also available from Amazon and Smashwords in electronic format.
