[quote=temeculaguy]. . . I know and knew many people from the WWII and depression generation, I am a product of their wisdom in many ways . . . My idol, who worked his whole life and still volunteered daily until he was well past 90, bought himself a convertible t-bird, probably because he went without it when he had obligations as a younger man. He stopped rowing, he taught others to row for free for many years and he also did a few things for himself. He imparted wisdom on younguns like myself because it made him happy.
. . . I’m just like all of you in some ways, frugal in my current plans, but at some point you have to say “I did it, I’m good, I’m ordering the good wine and buying the car I always wanted.” I’m fairly close, about ten years left on the current plan and then I will not have to worry about money for the rest of my life. The hard facts are that I’ll be without debt, I’ll own my house, I’ll be low to mid 50’s and I will have income in perpituity more than what I live on today with half the expenses and none of the obligations. But I’ll have but a fraction of what the man in the story has. And if you catch me in an office, scrutinizing expense reports, punch me in the face, because I will need it. I hope I won’t even know what an oar looks like by then, I’ll never row again because I already did that. It’s great that people earn like a prince and live like a pauper, but when enough is enough and they are within sight of shore, will they have the ability to enjoy the spoils? I hope so. I know I will.[/quote]
Great post TG. In order of the bolded portions, my “plan” is the same as yours, with these changes:
-I still might work a little, consult and/or volunteer, just to remain in the business world (not because I will “need” to);
-eliminate “buying the car I always wanted” as I don’t care much about what vehicle I drive;
-change “ten years left” to 4 years left;
-and, change “low to mid-fifties” to 59-60.
Members of the “greatest generation” and “WWII generation” have been very influential on me :=)
