From 1962-1966, I attending high school in Cairo, Egypt as the son of a Diplomat so the house that we lived in was rather GRAND to say the least. The living area was upstairs with a bathroom for each large bedroom and there were 6 bedrooms. Downstairs, we had two rather large living rooms one of which had a stage for a small band, a kitchen, pantry, dinning area, and a all glass sun run in which we ate our morning meals. There was a patio completely surrounding the house and an acre yard that was completely enclosed by bushes.
We had a cook who had an assistant and we had a house boy who cleaned and a gardener who maintain the outside yard. My dad had an embassy car and driver who would also take us wherever we needed to go when he wasn't driving my dad somewhere.
It wasn't the life of a billionaire or even a millionaire, but it was a life of WEALTH and PRIVILEGE...
When I graduated from high school, I decided, for some reason, that I never wanted to live like that anymore... that I wanted to live like the COMMON PERSON lived... so, I lived in a trailer out in a field with no neighbors while attending college for 3 years until I decided that I wasn't satisfied and after dropping out, joined the US NAVY as an enlisted man which had never happened in our family... I was later told.
Military life was not for me either... too many rules and regulations... and too much power and control, especially over those who were of a lesser rank, even though from one man to another man, we were all equal... in the eyes of God.
Throughout my life, I did WITHOUT most everything that I did not need but as I grew older, I decided to reward myself with a few things... convincing myself that I had finally earned them. MONEY and thee quest for MORE MONEY was never something that I needed, even though I had earned both a BA degree and an MBA which was a ticket back then to HIGHER MONEY INCOMES. I remained in the south where incomes were low and in education where incomes were even lower.
After 45 years of BEING CONTROLLED BY INCOMPETENCE or by those who because they were being controlled too had to act like they were incompetent, I decided to retire... and, after calculating my finances... decided that I a little bit more than I needed to live until my wife and I were 95 years old... and, this was based upon the COST OF LIVING in East TN only... if we moved somewhere else, even in the same State, it would cost us more to live.
Every year, I calculate our finances and I now look at me dying today and would my wife have enough money to pay the bills until she was 95 and after each calculation, the answer is always YES... and, that includes living a MODEST LIFESTYLE like has been the case ever since I left high school.
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