Another friend gone too young

[street]

Getting ready to walk out the door to go to a good friends funeral. I look back in the last 10 years of the young people I have known well that have passed away is unreal. I'm talking from early 50's to 65 years of age. This man was 58 year old and in great shape never abused his body.

Always sad and it makes me even more grateful for the health I have even though it isn't perfect.

 

[Dtail]

Getting ready to walk out the door to go to a good friends funeral. I look back in the last 10 years of the young people I have know well that have passed away is in-real. I'm talking from early 50's to 65 years of age. This man was 58 year old and in great shape never abused his body.

Always sad and it makes me even more grateful for the health I have even though it isn't perfect.

Sorry to hear.
This die young reference is probably mentioned most by me to explain why retire young.

 

[FreeBear]

My condolences. A related aspect is how friends in their 60's and early 70's usually seem to loose the ability to enjoy physical outdoor activities like biking and kayaking. Big reminders to not take time and physical health for granted.

 

[MuirWannabe]

I just learned of my cousins passing yesterday. He was 61. He’d always been a big and tall man. He loved to eat and physical activity was difficult for him as he had bad knees and stints from prior heart surgery. We are all shocked at his passing even though we understand his body was probably a ticking time bomb. He was a good guy, and I’ll miss him. He had retired two years ago, and seemingly was very much enjoying his time. At least he had a couple years of that. But still, so young.

 

[Carpediem]

So sorry for your loss. I recently learned that one of my close high school friends (59 years old and still working) has Acute Erythroid Leukemia, which is a rare form of cancer and does not have a very high survival rate. We are going to visit him this weekend. He will be getting a bone marrow transplant next month (his son is the donor) at MD Andersen. We're praying for a good result.

 

[WestUniversity]

An all too vivid reminder that none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. Sorry for your loss...

 

[street]

I look at the obits a few times a week and so many in their 50's you see weekly that have passed away.

I was talking to a young man after the funeral today that I knew and he asked how retirement is going and if I made the right decision. I said this funeral is just one more reason if you can you should retire and enjoy life. He said that is true.

 

[joeea]

This die young reference is probably mentioned most by me to explain why retire young.

True. But in all honesty a lot of that is confirmation bias.

Most folks wouldn't be here in the first place if they didn't want to retire young. Hearing anecdotes of relatively young people passing reaffirms that predilection.

We tend to ignore the anecdotes about the hard-living, drinking, smoking acquaintances that live into their 90s, since they don't support our narrative.

 

[Bigdawg]

True. But in all honesty a lot of that is confirmation bias.

Most folks wouldn't be here in the first place if they didn't want to retire young. Hearing anecdotes of relatively young people passing reaffirms that predilection.

We tend to ignore the anecdotes about the hard-living, drinking, smoking acquaintances that live into their 90s, since they don't support our narrative.

If I could somehow be guaranteed to live until I was in my 90's I would still want to retire early.

 

[street]

True. But in all honesty a lot of that is confirmation bias

We tend to ignore the anecdotes about the hard-living, drinking, smoking acquaintances that live into their 90s, since they don't support our narrative.

So True >>>> I know many that smoked for 70 plus years and lived well into their 90's or late 80's. Not sure I knew an alcoholic that lived well into their 90's but I knew/know of many that drank pretty hard and lived a long life. Not saying their last years were easy but lived long.

 

[harley]

True. But in all honesty a lot of that is confirmation bias.

Most folks wouldn't be here in the first place if they didn't want to retire young. Hearing anecdotes of relatively young people passing reaffirms that predilection.

We tend to ignore the anecdotes about the hard-living, drinking, smoking acquaintances that live into their 90s, since they don't support our narrative.

Not me. I plan to be one of those hard-living, drinking, vaping fellows that lives into his 90s, and I retired at 50.

 

[6miths]

So True >>>> I know many that smoked for 70 plus years and lived well into their 90's or late 80's. Not sure I knew an alcoholic that lived well into their 90's but I knew/know of many that drank pretty hard and lived a long life. Not saying their last years were easy but lived long.

Not true in my experience. Personally, I can't really think of any friends that are/were significant smokers and few that I would consider hard drinkers. All of those that I knew were of my parents generation and most died prematurely. There are just so many ways that smoking can shorten or worsen your life and many people don't recognized several of them.

 

[Chuckanut]

True. But in all honesty a lot of that is confirmation bias.

.

I agree.

But, if it works, who cares?

I lost a close relative and several friends to disease in their mid 50's to early 60's. A few more were so disabled by sickness that their lives have been drastically altered and their plans for the 'Golden Years' went down the drain. That forced me to take a deep dive in what it would take to retire, and, to my surprise, I found out that my years of saving, investing and LBYM had paid off and I could do it. So I did.

 

[street]

^ I grew up in a very small rural community people worked very hard each and every day and almost every man smoked. My dad smoked and all his friends smoked and thinking of the dozen or so I knew all lived well into their late 80's and early 90's. I'm just saying I witnessed it and knew these men and their kids well.

I'm not saying it is the thing to do and I know it isn't healthy in many ways but they lived a long life.

My dad smoked for 70 plus and died when he was 88. No lung problems but I'm convinced that his smoking cut him short on life. If he would not have smoked he would of been 90 plus years old I would guess. My mom lived around smoke all her life and passed away at 92 year old. She might be still living if not for second hand smoke but who knows.

 

[Rustic23]

The average age for most on this board is about 85. That means 50% of us will be gone prior to reaching 85. So it is not surprising that you begin to see 50-70s as a death age.
The table at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr53/nvsr53_06.pdf gives you a good picture. At 50, 92% are still with us, and at 70, it is down to about 72%. So 20% of the folks out there are expected to die between the age of 50 and 70.

 

[6miths]

The average age is 85?!! That surprises me. Do we actually know the stats.

 

[street]

The average age for most on this board is about 85. That means 50% of us will be gone prior to reaching 85. So it is not surprising that you begin to see 50-70s as a death age.
The table at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr53/nvsr53_06.pdf gives you a good picture. At 50, 92% are still with us, and at 70, it is down to about 72%. So 20% of the folks out there are expected to die between the age of 50 and 70.

Interesting article and data thanks for sharing it.

 

[MRG]

^ I grew up in a very small rural community people worked very hard each and every day and almost every man smoked. My dad smoked and all his friends smoked and thinking of the dozen or so I knew all lived well into their late 80's and early 90's. I'm just saying I witnessed it and knew these men and their kids well.

I'm not saying it is the thing to do and I know it isn't healthy in many ways but they lived a long life.

My dad smoked for 70 plus and died when he was 88. No lung problems but I'm convinced that his smoking cut him short on life. If he would not have smoked he would of been 90 plus years old I would guess. My mom lived around smoke all her life and passed away at 92 year old. She might be still living if not for second hand smoke but who knows.

I remember the same, everyone smoked. More so in the 1960s and early 70s. I remember my uncle smoked Camel non-filter well into his 80s.

My DF was a 2-3 pack a day guy. He quit cold turkey on his way back from his mother's funeral. After he quit he became a serious anti-smoker and hated them. He'd told a story about a co-worker who was dying of lung cancer while DF was still smoking, 1960s. He said the man begged him to tell their co-workers that cigarettes were the cause of his untimely death. The old man never told that story till after he quit.

I have a dear friend still smoking at 63. His smoking DF passed in his early 50s from cancer. My buddy thinks since his DF didn't die from lung cancer he's safe. [emoji23]

 

[Nemo2]

More and more this echoes my 'philosophy:

 

[big-papa]

So True >>>> I know many that smoked for 70 plus years and lived well into their 90's or late 80's. Not sure I knew an alcoholic that lived well into their 90's but I knew/know of many that drank pretty hard and lived a long life. Not saying their last years were easy but lived long.

A good approximation of a bell curve. There will be people at both ends of the curve regardless of how they lived their lives. Within the restrictions of the DNA you were handed out, best you can do is to do those things that push yourself to be on the right hand side of the distribution.....

 

[HI Bill]

I'm from a high school class of 1985. Out of ~250 people, 27 have already passed. The first, in 1985. Automobile accidents took some, cancer others, one with suicide. You never know how long you'll live, and the calculators will only give you averages. My mom was hit in the head by a falling tree branch around age 75, and the resulting brain damage seemed to hasten her dementia. So, live life to the fullest, and retire as soon as you comfortably can, if that's what's important to you! To paraphrase someone else, when you're lying on your death bed, taking your last few breaths, none of us will say "I wish I had worked longer". (Except, maybe those who ran out of money early!)

 

[ncbill]

I'm from a high school class of 1985. Out of ~250 people, 27 have already passed. The first, in 1985. Automobile accidents took some, cancer others, one with suicide. You never know how long you'll live, and the calculators will only give you averages. My mom was hit in the head by a falling tree branch around age 75, and the resulting brain damage seemed to hasten her dementia. So, live life to the fullest, and retire as soon as you comfortably can, if that's what's important to you! To paraphrase someone else, when you're lying on your death bed, taking your last few breaths, none of us will say "I wish I had worked longer". (Except, maybe those who ran out of money early!)

I'm about your age.

The most shocking thing to me was when one of my high school classmates was murdered a decade ago.

She was shot to death by her boyfriend (after telling him she was going back to her husband & kids) in a rental house across the street from my aunt's home - while my cousin was visiting with her newborn.

 

[folivier]

Heading to a funeral today for an old college friend and frat brother. Hadn't seen him in quite a few years but reconnected last year on facebook. He left us and his family way too soon.

 

[kcowan]

Two good friends passed in April. One a smoker of heart attack, the other of cancer. 71 and 75. My Dad lived to 95 and he stopped going to funerals.

 

[gamboolman]

Street,

Sorry and condolences. Your friends passing, and many similar folks I knew going way to young - is why that God Willing come 30-Dec-19, Ms. gamboogal and I will board the flight from Lagos to Texas for last time. I hope to never get another stamp in my/ours passports again.

gamboolman....