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Old 10-14-2010, 11:12 PM   #61
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I love this thread. There are about four different conversations going on.
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Old 10-14-2010, 11:13 PM   #62
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I was at a BJ auction. DW told me not to buy anything I couldn't live in.
I might just have come up with $65K for a Ferrari if I had known that I would be faced with more death (I'm sure my deceased friend would have bought one a year ago if he had known).
Sorry if I offend anybody, but...

If I was told I had a year to live, I would not know what I wanted, but a car, any car, would not be what I wanted. It's just a car!

I don't know what I would want. Life is more than just one thing, or two things, or even ten things. Life is not things, is it?
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Old 10-15-2010, 06:26 AM   #63
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Sorry if I offend anybody, but...

If I was told I had a year to live, I would not know what I wanted, but a car, any car, would not be what I wanted. It's just a car!

I don't know what I would want. Life is more than just one thing, or two things, or even ten things. Life is not things, is it?
I absolutely agree and I'm reasonably sure most others here do as well.

The sad truth is some of us only have a year or so to live and don't even know it. Yet many of us still concentrate way too much of our time and energy on "things" - I know I'm certainly guilty in that regard. We may try to resist but end up justifying buying an RV (nolo contendere) or adding a pool, or sports car, or that vacation home on the beach.

Trying to find the right balance between overconsumption and deprivation is a life long battle.
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Old 10-15-2010, 08:24 AM   #64
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nice, a Sunbeam Alpine, and what's the other one? s600?
Hillman Minx
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Old 10-15-2010, 08:52 AM   #65
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I absolutely agree and I'm reasonably sure most others here do as well.

The sad truth is some of us only have a year or so to live and don't even know it.
True, and what an upbeat post to be reading first thing in the morning.

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Yet many of us still concentrate way too much of our time and energy on "things" - I know I'm certainly guilty in that regard. We may try to resist but end up justifying buying an RV (nolo contendere) or adding a pool, or sports car, or that vacation home on the beach.
Well, if you had only one year to live, there wouldn't be much sense in saving for the future.

I'm not sure what I would do if I only had a year to live and knew it (other than update my estate planning). My father loved travel, and when he found out he had terminal cancer he did some international traveling while he was still able, as well as visiting each of his children. Other than that he spent a lot of time staring at the ocean.

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Trying to find the right balance between overconsumption and deprivation is a life long battle.
So few of us in the U.S. are truly deprived. We live in a culture in which overconsumption is the norm, though. Besides, it's fun. Did I really need my new Venza? Not really, but I love having it even so, just as you enjoy your RV.
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Old 10-15-2010, 09:04 AM   #66
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I absolutely agree and I'm reasonably sure most others here do as well.

The sad truth is some of us only have a year or so to live and don't even know it. Yet many of us still concentrate way too much of our time and energy on "things" - I know I'm certainly guilty in that regard. We may try to resist but end up justifying buying an RV (nolo contendere) or adding a pool, or sports car, or that vacation home on the beach.

Trying to find the right balance between overconsumption and deprivation is a life long battle.
I think my post was unclear, hence was misunderstood.

A nice car is, well, nice. I no longer care about cars, because I am interested in RV now , but I understand other people's happiness to own one, and not trying to knock it at all.

Most people agree that money spent on experience is bound to bring more happiness than possessions. That too is ambiguous, because possessions are sometimes needed to get the experiences. But if I know I have only 1 year left to live, I am not sure if I would even care to travel. I just don't know what I would care about then, but a car is the last thing I would want. Or an RV. I would enjoy many things and activities in life when I am healthy, but in sickness?

Yes, the right balance between consumption and "having to work another year" is hard to define. And exactly because we do not know if we even have a year left means we need to "live for today", like this thread title says. And if that means "working for just another year", hey, it is not so bad, is it?

Talk about working to death, I once repeated to an older colleague, a former boss actually, the statement that no one would wish to spend more time at work on his death bed. I said that was the reason I wanted to travel now. He shook his head and said that on a death bed, most patients would just wish the pain to end. That left me speechless. It is sad, isn't it?

Another thread with the title "I've Arrived" by Kyounge1956 brought to my mind the song "J'arrive" by Jacques Brel
J'arrive j'arrive
Mais pourquoi moi pourquoi maintenant
Pourquoi déjà et où aller
J'arrive bien sûr, j'arrive
Mais ai-je jamais rien fait d'autre qu'arriver
I arrrive, I arrive
But why me, why now
Why already and where to next
I arrive for sure, I arrive
But I have done nothing other than to arrive
It has nothing to do with financial, and the song poetic lyrics are ambiguous but hint of the end of life, and it is more appropriate to post that here than in the other thread.

PS. Few people know that the popular hit songs "If you go away" and "Seasons in the sun" were English translations of Brel's "Ne me quitte pas" and "Le moribond".
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Old 10-15-2010, 09:20 AM   #67
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I absolutely agree and I'm reasonably sure most others here do as well.

The sad truth is some of us only have a year or so to live and don't even know it. Yet many of us still concentrate way too much of our time and energy on "things" - I know I'm certainly guilty in that regard. We may try to resist but end up justifying buying an RV (nolo contendere) or adding a pool, or sports car, or that vacation home on the beach.
I agree that it's all about experiences and not about things. But even that is not a bright line. While it is clearly a "thing," we bought and use our RV to experience new places, new people and a new lifestyle -- not because it's a big, intimidating, expensive item. I think that goes for every RV owner I have seen post on this board. A Prevost Rock Star bus, not so much (for me, at least).

Eye of the beholder, I guess. Or maybe the "thing" has to pass the Frankfurter test: can't define it but know it when you see it.
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Old 10-15-2010, 09:35 AM   #68
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I'm thinking if I knew I had only a year to live I'd be investing in experiences; also, for sure I'd start smoking again if I'm just going to die anyway and hello, facelift and other cosmetic surgery, so I could be the best looking corpse ever. I might line up DH's next bestwifeever for him, too--lots of great available women out there.
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Old 10-15-2010, 10:18 AM   #69
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And exactly because we do not know if we even have a year left means we need to "live for today", like this thread title says. And if that means "working for just another year", hey, it is not so bad, is it?


Yes, it is!!! Why spend your fleeting moments left on earth that way if you really don't have to? Who would enjoy being another megacorp slave with lots of cr*p stuff to maintain and no time to enjoy it, more than the freedom of being at nobody's command but your own, free as the wind, without as much stuff?
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Old 10-15-2010, 01:34 PM   #70
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+1

What W2R said.

Ditto.

Couldn't agree more.

Took the words right out of my mouth off my fingertips...
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Old 10-15-2010, 01:58 PM   #71
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Once we do retire and know that all is set there are many things DW and I want to do and will do but there is one thing different we're going to do and this is it. Go to local church/charity/whatever and ask if there is a young family that does everything right, works hard, lives right, plans ahead, etc but is still down on their luck and struggling. Vet them carefully and if all checks out, anonymously give them something like $10-20k. Somebody else posted a thread here about whether or not we believe in karma and this is one way to provide a little karma for somebody that deserves it.
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Old 10-15-2010, 02:16 PM   #72
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Once we do retire and know that all is set there are many things DW and I want to do and will do but there is one thing different we're going to do and this is it. Go to local church/charity/whatever and ask if there is a young family that does everything right, works hard, lives right, plans ahead, etc but is still down on their luck and struggling. Vet them carefully and if all checks out, anonymously give them something like $10-20k. Somebody else posted a thread here about whether or not we believe in karma and this is one way to provide a little karma for somebody that deserves it.
There was a TV show back when I was but a mere lad called "The Millionaire" in which a guy named Tipton did something similar... every week.
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Old 10-15-2010, 03:03 PM   #73
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I have been giving money to individuals I thought deserved it.
They didn't come to me asking, and I have asked them to keep it quiet.

Am I hoping for 'karma'?
I don't know.
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Old 10-15-2010, 04:14 PM   #74
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Once we do retire and know that all is set there are many things DW and I want to do and will do but there is one thing different we're going to do and this is it. Go to local church/charity/whatever and ask if there is a young family that does everything right, works hard, lives right, plans ahead, etc but is still down on their luck and struggling. Vet them carefully and if all checks out, anonymously give them something like $10-20k. Somebody else posted a thread here about whether or not we believe in karma and this is one way to provide a little karma for somebody that deserves it.
Good idea, but may I make a suggestion? Give them up to the IRS maximum, so it doesn't have to be reported. I think that is somewhere around $12K-$13K.
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Old 10-15-2010, 04:43 PM   #75
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I'm thinking if I knew I had only a year to live I'd be investing in experiences; also, for sure I'd start smoking again if I'm just going to die anyway and hello, facelift and other cosmetic surgery, so I could be the best looking corpse ever. I might line up DH's next bestwifeever for him, too--lots of great available women out there.


'My, my...she shore does look purty'.....
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Old 10-15-2010, 05:19 PM   #76
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There was a TV show back when I was but a mere lad called "The Millionaire" in which a guy named Tipton did something similar... every week.
I've done okay but am nowhere near in that league.

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I have been giving money to individuals I thought deserved it.
They didn't come to me asking, and I have asked them to keep it quiet.

Am I hoping for 'karma'?
I don't know.
I've always tried to be charitable but really do strive to give where I can more closely see the results.

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Good idea, but may I make a suggestion? Give them up to the IRS maximum, so it doesn't have to be reported. I think that is somewhere around $12K-$13K.
Good point. Thanks
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Old 10-15-2010, 05:46 PM   #77
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I watched my brother who was living on borrowed time .He had a heart transplant . What he did was spend as much time as possible with his kids .He was a great Dad and his kids who were in there late teens at that time adored him . Other than that he just did what he enjoyed a little travel , gourmet food & good books .He also continued to work despite being FI many times over .
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Old 10-15-2010, 07:17 PM   #78
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Why spend your fleeting moments left on earth that way if you really don't have to?
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+1

What W2R said.

Ditto.
Ah, but that is easy for the geezers senior citizens who "have arrived" to say that.

I was thinking of the younger folks in their 30s and 40s, who, unless they have very well-paid jobs, if they think about FIRE'ing, will have to run FIRECalc to see if buying a nice car or taking a foreign vacation would cost them another year of work. This kind of thread keeps coming up. Yes, they have to find the balance between enjoying the fruit of their labor now ("Live for Today") vs. beefing up their savings in order to have margins against the vagaries of the market, the uncertainties of their medical care costs, etc...

It was that kind of "shall I plan to work another year" decision that I was trying to describe, and it was my fault for not being lucid.

We keep preaching delayed gratification, and to keep our SWR low because projection of medical advances shows that we will live to 100. Yet, we also have posters like meadbh telling us how a friend of hers expired a mere 2 months after the diagnosis of a terminal disease. I myself have seen so many people dropping dead from heart attacks or strokes while in their 50s. Well, at least they did not have to linger to ponder the question of what if, to ask themselves what they could have done differently.

I do not know the statistics, but suspect that those sad situations occur far more often than the chance to win the lottery grand prize. People often buy lottery tickets hoping to get that prize, but sadly, their chance of an early meeting with the grim reaper may be several orders of magnitude higher.

I have often said here that my younger brothers and their spouses are bigger spenders than we are. We were a bit worried and did once hint to them the danger of job loss, or illnesses that may keep them from continuing to earn that high pay. To that, one of my brothers said that if it came to that, they were ready to downgrade their lifestyle, to lose their McMansion and move into a trailer. If that happened, they could say they had been there, done that, and would not regret it.

So, I see their "instant gratification" philosophy as making some senses too. Who is to say what's right or wrong? And by the way, they occasionally complain about their work environment, but it was no more than people complaining about the weather. Obviously, their jobs were tolerable, else they would have thought differently about spending.
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Old 10-15-2010, 11:09 PM   #79
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Ah, but that is easy for the geezers senior citizens who "have arrived" to say that.
The grass is so much greener on our side of the fence because we spread copious amounts of fertilizer on it. And we keep those dang kids off the lawn, too.

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I do not know the statistics, but suspect that those sad situations occur far more often than the chance to win the lottery grand prize. People often buy lottery tickets hoping to get that prize, but sadly, their chance of an early meeting with the grim reaper may be several orders of magnitude higher.
Obviously, their jobs were tolerable, else they would have thought differently about spending.
I think you've called it. The grim reaper may be handing out free lottery tickets, but there's no way to survive a soul-killing job...
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Old 10-15-2010, 11:31 PM   #80
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For stevewc In Texas you can get snow and sleet in Late Dec Jan, and early feb, So I would say visit in oct-nov-dec or feb,march, april (April adds the appeal of wildflowers along the highways often entire roadsides covered, thanks to Lady Birds idea.
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