How To Live One's Life

I am not a millionaire

I am not a billionaire

I am not CEO of a Fortune 500 company

I am not an elected official

I am not in a position of power and influence

I am not an expert in anything

I AM AN ORDINARY RETIRED PERSON LIVING OFF OF SOCIAL SECURITY AND MONEY SAVED...

What advice could you possibly get from me???

You only get one chance at this life, so why not experience everything you can and do everything that you can?

Some people want to live their lives exactly like that and I suppose that there is nothing wrong with that philosophy...

Some people want to live their lives following the laws of God and faith's religious teachings and I suppose that there is nothing wrong with that either...

It would then appear that I am supporting the concept of living your life anyway that you would like to live your life....  and, I suppose that I am...

BUT, that is not the way I would say that you should live your life...  although, the 10 Commandments are very powerful and I find nothing wrong with any of them.

BUT, that is not necessarily the way I would live my life...

While my life is 3/4ths over at the age of 75, I lived my life with:

• Integrity - kissing no one's ass for any reason
• Honor - never violating my ethics
• Class - always gave 110% to all my employers

I stopped all those things that I perceived were controlling me, like:

• Tobacco
• Alcohol
• Laziness
• Apathy

and instituted:  Discipline and Determination

What then did I do?

1. I made myself goals and followed them
2. I created a budget and followed it
3. I eliminated all of my debt
4. I saved money instead of buying what I did not need
5. I designed a retirement plan

My initial financial goal was to have $500,000 (not including the value of my house) by age 67 and $1,000,000 by the age of 80 which did include the house.

Rationale: at the age of 80, there is not much yard work or traveling that I would be doing, so my plan was to liquidate everything and move into an apartment.

Part of my Retirement Plan included a HEALTH plan.  This plan focused on healthy eating and exercise.  At the age of 40, I stopped smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, eating red meat, fried foods, and sugars.

Caveat:  I knew that it would be difficult stopping red meat unless I allowed myself a hamburger once a month or so.

Once I got used to retirement life and not driving into Knoxville's traffic every morning and afternoon, the stress in my life was substantially reduced if not eliminated.

When I drive anywhere now, I always leave 15-20 minutes before I need to...  so that I do not have to drive fast because I am late.  I drive the speed limit and just watch the cars pass me by as if I was walking.

I make a point of never raising my voice to our three cats no matter what they do.  Getting angry is a pointless emotion to have.

During the day, I keep myself busy with tasks that expand my mind...  and once in a while take afternoon naps.  I need to walk more, but let that stop because of my back fusion surgery and the increased fatigue from my all of a sudden active cancer inside me.

I am comfortable with who I am and comfortable with my finances.  Sure, it would be nice to have more, but I don't need more.  I do everything I want to do when I want to do it.

There are no regrets associated with my 75 years even though numerous bad decisions were made.  Those bad decisions actually brought me to the place I am today...  so, were they really bad?