Goofy Retirement Plans

[ItDontMeanAThing]

I would imagine there are a great many unusual retirement plans. This is one I always have to shake my head when I read about it:

The Gentlemen Host Program - volunteer dance hosts for cruise lines

I knew a self employed man in his mid 40s who did this for a month about 15 years ago. Our paths crossed a few times a year on the dance floor. Didn't take me long to notice both how good he was and that he was usually with the prettiest woman in the room.

I joined a conversation where he was telling about his recent cruise ship experience. Someone asked if he'd hooked up with any of the passengers. 'Absolutely not.' was his answer. If the company even suspects a hired dancer is spending private time with a customer, he gets booted off the ship at the next port. Someone who knew him well asked in mock horror if that meant he went an entire month without a, um, uh ... date. 'Hell no.' he replied. The anti-fraternization rules apply to all the crew so they socialize within that small community. After they get sick of each other the new crew members arrive as if they had targets painted on them for the first 2 days.

 

[chris2008]

I know about a family who believed that their widowed father had fallen for a silver fox lady and that he financed their high life with his retirement savings and funds. His pre - retirement job had provided quite a high lifestyle for the family members.
They did not treat the lady too nice, even though they were frequently invited and received several gifts from the couple.
What a surprise it was when the father passed away: It turned out that he was the silver fox, had spent his savings long ago and was completely dependent on the lady's (significant) wealth.
She never mentioned anything during his lifetime to save his face.

 

[ChiliPepr]

It's more biological than social or psychological. Organisms are evolved to preserve their genetic lines.

Hmmm... would an adoptive child be more likely to want to help their adoptive family who raise an cared for them or their natural family they have never met?

The old Nature vs Nurture question....

 

[GregLee]

Hmmm... would an adoptive child be more likely to want to help their adoptive family who raise an cared for them or their natural family they have never met?

The old Nature vs Nurture question....

Adoptive. Adoption in the animal world even sometimes happens between species. You can fool mother nature.

 

[haha]

Adoptive. Adoption in the animal world even sometimes happens between species. You can fool mother nature.

Comforting to have a definitive, unhedged anwer on this.

 

[Moemg]

My biggest financial nightmare is that some day I'll get a call from one of our sisters saying "Our brother has a disease that will be fatal if he doesn't have the $200,000 operation that the government won't pay for. Do we pay up, or let him die?"

The problem with paying up is then being on the hook when the operation goes bad and ends up costing $1,000,000 for complications.

 

[MichaelB]

The difference is that (1) they're our sibling, and (2) society makes us somehow feel guilty for not "helping" family.

It's more biological than social or psychological. Organisms are evolved to preserve their genetic lines.

There may be some biology involved but there is also a great deal of social influence, it is different around the world, so it is cultural as well.

 

[pb4uski]

I know about a family who believed that their widowed father had fallen for a silver fox lady and that he financed their high life with his retirement savings and funds. His pre - retirement job had provided quite a high lifestyle for the family members.
They did not treat the lady too nice, even though they were frequently invited and received several gifts from the couple.
What a surprise it was when the father passed away: It turned out that he was the silver fox, had spent his savings long ago and was completely dependent on the lady's (significant) wealth.
She never mentioned anything during his lifetime to save his face.

I hope she mentioned something to his jerk kids after the gentleman passed and it was no longer for her to save his face, but from what you wrote it sounds like she was a class act, so perhaps she didn't.

 

[Zoocat]

The worst "plan" I've heard of is the one I hear way too often: "I'm never going to be able to retire." Unfortunately, retirement will likely be forced upon these folks. Employees get downsized, people lose their health, or just can't get a job that pays enough in their senior years. Then what?

I'm always agast when I hear someone say this and so never reply, just remain silent. It horrifies me.

 

[bbbamI]

The worst "plan" I've heard of is the one I hear way too often: "I'm never going to be able to retire." Unfortunately, retirement will likely be forced upon these folks. Employees get downsized, people lose their health, or just can't get a job that pays enough in their senior years. Then what?

I'm always agast when I hear someone say this and so never reply, just remain silent. It horrifies me.

Me too...

I guess it's a joke when I hear people say, "The day I retire is the day they wheel me out of my office with a toe tag." They laugh...hmmm, I'm glad they think it's funny. I sure don't.

 

[SJ1_]

Oof!! Yet another example of why counting on an inheritance is not a good practice, generally speaking. Had he not counted on that inheritance, he would have saved some of that money and he would have his own retirement nestegg.

I have seen counting on an inheritanceat fall thru to many times and sadly a number of people who do get an inheritance seem to have no financial responsibility.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I've got a buddy who said one day that they were going to probably dig him up for him to clock in, he's so far away from being able to retire. I just stood there slack-jawed when he said it, because he was pretty close to serious.

And I've seen that inheritance plan go awry as well. Waiting for it on a couple of other folks we know, who just don't see the dangers of expecting to spend someone else's money.

 

[Surewhitey]

I found my sugar-momma and her daughter some 15 years ago. Now we're ER this week and daughter is 25 & doing really great with her sugar-daddy.

 

[Surewhitey]

I've got a buddy who said one day that they were going to probably dig him up for him to clock in, he's so far away from being able to retire. I just stood there slack-jawed when he said it, because he was pretty close to serious.

And I've seen that inheritance plan go awry as well. Waiting for it on a couple of other folks we know, who just don't see the dangers of expecting to spend someone else's money.

Thanks for using "slack-jawed" in your post...haven't heard that in a month of Sundays when I was knee-high to a grasshopper going to momma-an-nems house!

 

[Sarah in SC]

But when you went to momma-an-nems, did anyone ask you if you'djeetyet?
If you were hungry, you'd say yes'm.

 

[Surewhitey]

But when you went to momma-an-nems, did anyone ask you if you'djeetyet?
If you were hungry, you'd say yes'm.

Yes'm and can I get motea too? And don't ask for sweet tea cause that's all they make, right?

 

[MichaelB]

Thanks for using "slack-jawed" in your post...haven't heard that in a month of Sundays when I was knee-high to a grasshopper going to momma-an-nems house!

But when you went to momma-an-nems, did anyone ask you if you'djeetyet?
If you were hungry, you'd say yes'm.

Community rules specifically state The language of this forum is English

 

[Telly]

But when you went to momma-an-nems, did anyone ask you if you'djeetyet?
If you were hungry, you'd say yes'm.

I never heard of "momma-an-nems". What does it mean?

"Djeetyet?" I heard and spoke at the Big U, when about to head down/off for lunch, and wondering if anyone else would go then too.

My retirement "plan" may have been foolish, as I didn't have one! And the thought to retire happened right after feeling the toe of Adam Smith's boot. DW said she thought we could do it. But it took a lot of thinking and calculating before I was convinced it was possible.

 

[Surewhitey]

I never heard of "momma-an-nems". What does it mean?

"Djeetyet?" I heard and spoke at the Big U, when about to head down/off for lunch, and wondering if anyone else would go then too.

My retirement "plan" may have been foolish, as I didn't have one! And the thought to retire happened right after feeling the toe of Adam Smith's boot. DW said she thought we could do it. But it took a lot of thinking and calculating before I was convinced it was possible.

Momma and thems...very slang southern talk. I can't say anymore as English is the official language here...

 

[GregLee]

"Djeetyet?" I heard and spoke at the Big U, ...

Is that Gee (as in "Gee whiz!") + Chet (as in "Chet Atkins")? That's my pronunciation of "Did you eat yet?"

 

[Telly]

Is that Gee (as in "Gee whiz!") + Chet (as in "Chet Atkins")? That's my pronunciation of "Did you eat yet?"

No, as heard and spoken back then by me and others, at least there, it was "djeet" as the accented first syllable, and the "yet" was really squished up against the "djeet", so if it was said a bit quicker, as it often was, it became "djeet-jet?"

Many years later, out of the blue, I asked my kids this, and they replied immediately as to whether they had or hadn't. It seemed natural.

And oh yeah, they all want to retire early, and understand LBYM!

 

[Purron]

This may help:

Bill Cosby, understanding Southern. - YouTube

 

[kcowan]

The cruise dancers are unpaid but get room and board. So they can survive on board provided that their legs hold out. Some do this to preserve their wealth for when they need it. Others just like dancing and shmoozing.

 

[TN_INVEST]

I think we have all heard retirement plans from other people that just make us shake our head in disbelief. Well, I have two that I heard of that struck me as down right goofy.

"My house is my retirement"

You don't hear that one quite as much anymore.

 

[REWahoo]

"my house is [-]my retirement[/-] the albatross around my neck"

fify.