What this is, and what it refuses to be.

What does this site cover?

Men with capability, experience and hours, and no structure to spend them in, and the case for giving time rather than money.

Will it tell me where to give my time?

No. It names no organisation, cause, charity or fund, recommends nobody, and vouches for nobody. It helps you work out what you would actually commit to. Where you take that is yours.

Why not just give money?

Give money if you want to — that is your business and a matter for your own advisers. The point made here is only that money leaves an account without changing a week, and hours do not.

Is this for retired men?

Not particularly. It is for any man with capacity and no structure, which includes men still in work who can see what is coming.

Does it predict what happens to jobs?

Never. No numbers, no dates, no rankings of which trades survive. James has watched an industry rebuilt repeatedly and nobody who gave him a figure was right about it.

Is it saying a man without purpose is finished?

No, and it will not say it. A man without a purpose is unemployed of meaning. The only claim made here is that a week with something in it is easier to be in than a week without.

Who is James?

A recruiter of twenty years, not a philanthropist and not qualified in charity, finance or law. The account.

Is the chat James?

No. It is an SI guide and it says so. James is not reading it in real time.

What does the chat cost?

It is free, capped at ten exchanges in a rolling twenty-four hours on this site. Membership raises that to a hundred across the whole network and is bought at contented.guide. Safety responses are never limited by any allowance.

What happens to what I write?

Conversations here are held in your own browser on your own device, and clearing browser data removes them. Nobody scores, ranks, monitors or profiles you. The privacy policy has the detail.

How do I find purpose after retirement?

Not by searching for a grand cause, in my experience. Purpose usually turns up in being useful to someone specific, regularly. Start with what people already ask you for help with. That is often where your purpose has been hiding. Give it a few weeks before you judge it; the first month of anything new rarely feels like purpose.

How do I start volunteering?

Pick one thing near you and one regular slot, rather than signing up to everything. Local charities, sports clubs, schools and community groups are often short of steady people more than of money. Turn up, be reliable for a couple of months, and you will soon be asked to do more. If it does not suit you, change it; that is not failure.

Is giving time better than giving money?

Both matter, and they do different things. Money lets an organisation plan; time changes you as well as them. For a man who has lost his work, giving time often matters more, because it brings back rhythm, people and being needed. If you can do both, do both.

What will men do with their time if they do not need to work?

I do not know. What I believe is that we will replace work with other purposes, and that giving time, to people, places and causes, will be one of the biggest. It is brave to think about the future. Think about the best future for you. That is now entirely possible.