If you were contemplating a road trip to a destination that was out of the way and out of the ordinary, you might consider buying tickets for a performance of the Ballet Folklórico de México in Mexico City. You can make the 4111-kilometre (according to Google Maps) trek from the Greater Toronto Area in 39 hours non-stop.

As part of your preparation you’d factor in time to refuel, rest, eat, sleep and detour around road construction while being mindful of check-in times at hotels and motels. You’d want to remember one-hour wait-times for Canada-US and US-Mexico border crossings. You’d prepare your car or trailer or SUV and pack travel and insurance documents, prescriptions, emergency names and telephone numbers, appropriate currencies, a valid passport—and your tickets.

Ballet Folklórico de México is real. The trip is a metaphor for the road from suburban Formal Education through Greater Metropolitan Work to Retirement Park. The second road is longer and more winding than the one to the Ballet. You won’t find an endpoint on a metaphoric map, no signs telling you how soon you’ll arrive. But these two things you will know for sure: (a) one day you will arrive; and (b) the world in which you’ll find yourself won’t be the one our grandparents wanted for our parents and our parents wanted for us. That world has changed. Making the trip with no safety net, no destination, no road map and no guarantee about being able to retire comfortably, if at all, won’t bring it back.

PDD has no crystal ball. What we do know for sure is that governments and individuals march to the beat of very different drummers and that they, too, have no crystal ball. But people have bills to pay today and they’re worried about tomorrow.

PDD marches to the beat of your drummer and your family’s. We understand the process that transforms facts into information and information into decision-making. We’ll show you how to evaluate the economic upside and downside in the career or educational plans you may be contemplating. We’ll review your conclusions with you so that whatever choices you make you’ll make with your eyes wide open. Your choices, not ours, are the only ones that matter.

We’re neither career counsellors nor financial advisors. We represent over 180 years of business experience, each in our own, distinct discipline. We want you to be in a position to understand how your work- and education-related options look and what to do about them. What we share with you will be yours to keep. We work at an hourly rate you’ll find affordable.

Like OnStar™ or the CAA™ or AAA™, PDD will be there to answer your questions and point you in the right direction when the need arises. Call or write to us and we’ll be happy to tell you more.