The reason for FIRE!

[cyclone6]

Last week, my sister and I had to go back to NY to deal with my 96/yo great aunts estate.* The money she managed to accumulate through all those years is one of the reasons I'm now lurking on this board.* (Thank you, Aunt Alma!)* Not being a prude, I found a sheet of paper going through all her things that seems quite appropriate to this board.* The reason for FIRE:

The Golden Years are here at last
I cannot see, I cannot pee
I cannot chew, I cannot screw
My memory shrinks, my hearing stinks
No sense of smell, I look like hell
The Golden Years are here at last
The Golden Years can kiss my ass

These discussions are wonderful and informative.* But whats going to happen tomorrow, or next year, or three years from now?* Being a meteorologist by trade, I feel pretty damn good if we are right 48 hours out.*

Greenspan.* Bernanke.* Inflation.* Japan 1990.* 1929.* 2000.* The dollar.

Whats next?* You tell me.* But I do know this...

In 3 years I will be 3 years older.* Approaching the Golden Years.

And they can Kiss my ass!

[2B]

I love the poem.

Nothing like the death or serious decline of a loved one to make you question your own priorities.

Good luck with FIRE and be sure to drink an occasional toast to Aunt Alma.

[Spanky]

Can't wait for the golden years.

[REWahoo]

Originally Posted by Spanky

Can't wait for the golden years.

The"Golden Years". Sounds nice... until you realize it's just a description of the color of your underwear.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i like aunt alma already and she didn't even leave me anything. getting old sucks. i haven't found a way to stop the process but i do manage to offset it--in my mind--with exercise & by refusing to mature. there were no less than 3 comments yesterday by my 16-year-old nephew & 13-year-old niece on me acting younger than my years. i'm not quite sure i knew what they were getting at but i'm pretty sure i couldn't care:::raspberries:::so there.

in my mind i'm still a kid but having inherited mom's arthritis, after a five mile walk along the beach in the morning my right foot foreshadows what's to come. at the gym my weights work is limited not as much by muscles as by arthritic hands & if i swim too hard i notice it in my shoulder as well.

though i'm otherwise in excellent health & while i love the idea of living on a sailboat, even with push-button winches, all those lines might be a bit much not far down the line so i'm considering a trawler instead. i'd also like to spend some extended time on adventurous land travels but i'm "already" 49 (yikes). how far off can my so-called golden years be?

i'm trying to figure out which to do first, which to save for later, all in an effort to match required abilities with what i suspect might be the rate and extent of my inevitably deteriorating body.

still, i do want to be careful with my cash. because if i wind up as old as aunt alma yet with the extent of the arthritis of my mom, it'll be nice to later stay at some good hotels and have someone there to hold open the doors.

[Toejam]

Wow! Your Aunt Alma sounds like she was quite a spunky lady. Maybe that's why she lived to such a ripe old age - I've heard that the feisty ones last longer. Can you tell us a little more about her (occupation, personality, marital status, family life, etc.) She sounds like she was a very interesting person. Thanks for sharing her very unique, albeit somewhat depressing, "poem". It might be just the thing needed to "nudge" a somewhat hesitant person "over the edge" to retire, provided they have adequate means.

[Sarah in SC]

LG4N,
We are leaning toward a trawler as well, the maintenance and hassle factor on the sailboat being the primary reason. But then you think of diesel prices and remember the sailboat uses so little fuel... We are 6+ years from the decision at this point, and just sold the little sailboat we cruised in the Bahamas, but my money is on the trawler at this point. If you can afford the fuel, by all means the trawler is a much easier traveler. And if you are handy with engine maintenance, all the better!
Sarah

[Texas Proud]

Just remember that you can motor around in a sailboat... not fast... but you will get there eventually.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i was raised in powerboating family though i've always loved sail. if i had more money earlier in life i probably would've bought a sailboat, but, alas, i've always been too lazy. so i've been saving for that future 7-knot trawler instead while hitching rides with others.

my understanding is that aside from ocean crossings, sailboats tend to power more than sail. as far as cost goes, it seems not much more maintenance wise. i'd get a single engine so that's almost a wash. no rigging to upkeep, no sails to changeout. i'd imagine that can get pretty expensive.

also i think boating sans that big stick and deep draft might open more opportunities for exploration.

even if fuel goes to $5/gal., i figure 1,000 gals at 6 knots gets me 3,000 miles. so $5k for a year around the great circle route or canadian summers and bahamian winters. that's pretty much what i pay now just for house insurance and property tax. and as much as i try to sail this landlocked thing, it just won't move.

point well taken on engine work. as i'm not planning to trade the house for a few more years, i've time for appropriate courses. i also need to relearn navigation and the rest of seamanship and generally get my sealegs back as it's been a dozen years since i've been on the water.

it will be good to get back.

edit: gr8 loop is 6,000 miles, good thing i looked that up before casting off huh. so 2 tanks or 3 knots and hope there's no current against ya. www.greatloop.com

[d]

i'd imagine that can get pretty expensive

you're talking boats, by definition it's expensive (def, boat: a hole in the water into which you pour money).* ex sailor here (too old and weak to continue) who wishes to remind you that if you're in a trawler, you're going somewhere; if you're in a sailboat, you've already arrived.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

how about a motorsailer? if i had a significant other i'd consider one of these. now that's a boat. woof.

[Nords]

Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum

if i had a significant other i'd consider one of these.

If you had one of those, why would you need a significant other?

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Originally Posted by Nords

If you had one of those, why would you need a significant other?

somebody's gotta go below and grab the beer.

really, that happens to be one of my all-time favorites, but 53 ft of sail is a lot of boat and bit much to comfortably & safely single-hand on a regular basis. this one does have twin engines so it would power ok single-handed. add a bow thruster for even better if not redundant control at the dock.

but that's a boat mainly for blue water. crew required. if i'm gonna be stuck single i'd be better off in a sail 42 ft max or a trawler anywhere from 36 up to maybe 50, 40-50 best for extended range (fuel capacity). even 50 ft can be pretty intimidating, especially when it weighs in at 50,000+ lbs. and every foot added is more money to buy & to maintain, more to haul & wash and, well, i'm just too darned lazy.

[HFWR]

Party barge... 8)

[cyclone6]

Originally Posted by Toejam

Wow! Your Aunt Alma sounds like she was quite a spunky lady. Maybe that's why she lived to such a ripe old age - I've heard that the feisty ones last longer. Can you tell us a little more about her (occupation, personality, marital status, family life, etc.) She sounds like she was a very interesting person. Thanks for sharing her very unique, albeit somewhat depressing, "poem". It might be just the thing needed to "nudge" a somewhat hesitant person "over the edge" to retire, provided they have adequate means.

Toejam,

She was a great lady - one of four sisters. Alma was the baby of the family (born in 1910), her sister Marie, my grandmother. First generation Italians all of them. Alma was a beautiful woman who was married only once. Her husband died in the early '60s, but she always, always had a boyfriend. No children - in fact of all the sisters only my grandmother had any kids, and she had just one. My mother.

Cleaning out her house was amazing. It was like stepping back in time. You would've sworn it was 1930 and not 2006. She had this bar downstairs, and you could tell that there were many, many parties thrown down there where a group of people just had a rip-roaring time. I mentioned that she was no prude - the nude and semi-nude pictures and paintings on the bar room walls attest to that. She was a woman who liked to have fun, and most certainly lived it up.

Which was why I wasn't surprised when I found that poem in her papers. I think it just shows that she was not all that thrilled at becoming old. Certainly those parties had to be more fun than going to the doctors office for the next ailment to come down the pike?

Turns out she ended up with both. An adventurious, fun filled youth and a healthy old age. She was just 2 weeks short of 96 when she died, and was still living in her own home with no assistance.

I hope I can do it as well....

[Jay_Gatsby]

My grandmother was the same way -- spunky until the very end (at age 96). She also had nudes, but not of herself. Rather, she painted them and hung them in her bathrooms. Personally, I thought they were very tasteful.

My grandfather on my father's side is the last of my grandparents still living (he turned 95 this year). He still has all of his faculties, as well as significant physical strength and mobility. The reason for this I think is that he had to take care of his wife, who grew more and more of an invalid over the last 20 years of her life. He did all of the physical tasks from cutting the lawn to doing the laundry. He also continued to work in retail until about 5 years ago. Doing so probably kept his mind sharp/stimulated and allowed him to spend time around lots of people all day long.

I strongly believe that none of us has to "grow old" mentally or physically. While our bodies will never be the same as they were as teenagers or 20-somethings, we have the power within ourselves to maintain, or even improve, every day.

People who let themselves go are often the first to go.

[SteveR]

Originally Posted by Jay_Gatsby

I strongly believe that none of us has to "grow old" mentally or physically.* While our bodies will never be the same as they were as teenagers or 20-somethings, we have the power within ourselves to maintain, or even improve, every day.

People who let themselves go are often the first to go.

I wish it were that simple.

You can't change your genes to prevent loss of some mental or physical vitality that seems to be built into our systems. Likewise, other diseases like cancer are not a matter of "maintenance or improvement" they fall into the class of "sh*t happens". Accidents, arthritis, macular degeneration, bone loss, Alzheimers etc. are not a matter of exercise. While some aging can certainly be delayed to a degree through moderate exercise there are just so many things we cannot yet control.

I do agree that those that do nothing seem to go quicker....my mother being the exception in our family so far. To here "move" is a four letter word. She has worn out more recliners than I can remember. She has outlived everyone in her family except her grandfather and her kids; yet is the most sedentary of any of them. She has never exercised or even moved all that much. It continues to amaze me the condition she is in despite her total lack of movement beyond walking 50 ft. to meals and then sitting "watching" TV or listening to books on tape all day. My dad never stopped moving yet experienced several heart attacks and eventual death. Ya just never know I guess.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Originally Posted by HFWR

Party barge... 8)

The perfect boat. Hell, 98% of boating activities are sitting in a chair and drinking beer.