Looking BACK and Forwards

 

I have, for the most part enjoyed my 76 years of life.

Of course, I could not wait until I was out of high school and could finally be on my own and start making horrible decisions...  that I could only blame on myself...  but, looking back told myself that this was part of the learning process.

From dropping out of college, getting married, and enlisting in the military were some of my bad decisions, all made before I was 22 years old.

My work career was not much better and mainly I have again, only myself to blame.  I had the personality that worked against me in a couple of ways.  First, I would not kiss anyone's ass and Second, I, for the most part, had a better way of doing things than my supervisor...  who typically was someone's relative and did not know his ass from a hole in the ground.     

However, because of the military, the GI Bill paid for my BA and MBA degrees, so NO STUDENT DEBT.  And, because I listened to my parents about saving money, I was able to, over my 45-year working career, save enough money to supplement my social security income.

I never worked at one place long enough to create a pension program which is unfortunate and another bad decision.

In 2015, my wife and I retired, 67 and 62, and we have been living our lives retired, for the most part, just like we lived our lives while we were working.  We don't buy as many clothes as we used to buy but everything else is pretty much the same.

We are careful how we spend our money, and we are also diligent in doing our financial homework and are investing the money we saved which in essence replaces a pension program.  Last year, we downsized our house and yard, making sure that we now live only one level, so no steps to climb.

For the past 30 years that we have been together, my wife and I have exercised regularly, that is to say about 60-90 minutes 7 days week.  We have also eaten healthy, stopped smoking, and stopped drinking alcohol.  We very, very seldom eat any red meat other than a pizza four times a year and maybe a bar-b-que sandwich.

At our age, 76 and 71 (almost 77 and 72) we are not without our ailments.  My wife and I have cancer, arthritis, lower back issues, hip and shoulder problems.  She has hip issues while I have shoulder issues.  Needless to say, it has limited our mobility but has not stopped us.

We are disappointed with politics in this country, and are concerned about foreign countries that want to destroy us, but we feel relatively safe in our area of East TN...  unlike some areas of the country that are loaded down with daily crime and violence issues.

However, politics does not influence our lifestyle nor our quality of life.  We basically do the same that we always have done except travel overseas...  we are fortunate to have gotten our European, Caribbean, Hawaiian, and Alaskan trips out of the way before COVID hit.  All total we took about 10-12 cruises on Royal Caribbean which we just loved.

No doubt, we will both live at least another decade maybe longer, so retirement will span two decades which we consider ourselves to be fortunate.

We will never buy a HYBRID vehicle nor will be buy an ELECTRIC vehicle no matter how much the government pushes us to do so.  Regardless of our desire to GO GREEN, gasoline will always be around since it is such an integral part of our economy.

I trust you will experience the same type of retirement life that we have experienced so far.