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« Toileting and Retirement, Should I Purchase Long-Term Care Insurance? Part 1 | Main | Do You Ask Anyone How Much Money They Make? »

September 30, 2010

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I believe that this younger writer's perspective has underestimated the great importance of relationships to the human psyche, especially as you grow older.
As a 76 year old male, married for 54 years, and retired for 18, the richness of my life is far more the result of the relationship I have with my significant other (in this case my wife) than it ever is from friends and family or anything else I can think of. Even from the day our first child was born we put our own relationship ahead of all others, because if our relationship failed we realized the whole family would suffer greatly.

Later on in life when you are retired and don't go off to work every day and mix with large numbers of co-workers, and also when your children are grown up, have moved away, and have families of their own, the importance of your significant other becomes the most enriching factor in your life and the sympathetic ear always ready to listen to whatever's troubling you.

Life changes dramatically as you move from one phase to the next.
We no longer use a budget - it's very simple - if we "Need" something we buy it, however at this age we don't need nearly as much as we used to because the very large expenses are mostly behind us and we no longer feel the need to try to keep up with the Joneses and the constant changes brought about by all the Hi-Tech innovations and new gadgets.

I can identify with the topic of "Removing items". It's good to simplify one's life, get rid of the clutter, get rid of social engagements that you no longer enjoy. Become more hedonistic, don't just do things because others expect it or because you feel trapped in committments that are no longer enjoyable. It's important to restructure your life as you pass from one phase to the next. It's also important to simplify your investments as you move into old age. Consolidate them all at one institution, get rid of your losers and lower your risks as your portfolio grows. The most important things in life eventually become happiness and contentment.
As a wise old professor once told our group of trekkers one evening when were sitting around in the mess tent after dinner, high up in the Annapurna range in Nepal - The two most important things in life are 'To Love Someone' and 'To Be Loved by that Someone'.

I currently have $120K of graduate student loan debt I'm trying to pay off. I created a budget that analyzes my monthly cash flows. The budget builds up the expense categories from the ground up. E.g to calculate dining expense, I calculate the avg. cost per meal times the number of times I go out to eat. My budget is a 10 year model, so it's really interesting to see that small cuts each month really add up over time. Let's say you eat out once a day and you decide to substitute diet coke (cost $2.00) for water. Over a 5 year period you'll end up saving a total of 3,650, not taking into account the effects of compound interest, which would make the savings more.

I currently have $120K of graduate student loan debt I'm trying to pay off. I created a budget that analyzes my monthly cash flows. The budget builds up the expense categories from the ground up. E.g to calculate dining expense, I calculate the avg. cost per meal times the number of times I go out to eat. My budget is a 10 year model, so it's really interesting to see that small cuts each month really add up over time. Let's say you eat out once a day and you decide to substitute diet coke (cost $2.00) for water. Over a 5 year period you'll end up saving a total of 3,650, not taking into account the effects of compound interest, which would make the savings more.

New shoes? No one needs new shoes and seriously, people need to understand that material goods do not give us ultimate happiness. Temporary? Maybe.

Unfortunately, we now live in a society that loves things and uses people when it used to be a society that used things and loved people. : (

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