What was your greatest epiphany?

[Aramis]

When I realized I understood the difference between fact & opinion, and subjective & objective, and that recognizing them would change my life.

 

[NW-Bound]

PS. The life expectancy of a 55 male is 25.7, and of a 55 female is 29.1, according to a 2021 government publication. That's more like the 2/3 point, not 1/2 point.

Based on that info and my age, I need to increase my WD rate, a lot...

I am already way underspending what FIRECalc says that I can, when I run the program for the default 30 years of retirement. And I am older than 55, and I wish my life expectancy were still 25.7. I won't bother to run FIRECalc again for my life expectancy. It's too sad.

But here's one of my epiphanies: I've got to pay attention to what I spend money on, because it may bring me more undesirable work than pleasure.

I find it harder to please myself with "stuff" when I get older. And I believe that this mentality is not uncommon among geezers.

 

[Markola]

My initial college major was economics, a subject that I thought I “should” major in, because it would get me into into business school, which I thought I “should” attend. I wasn’t very good at economics. However, I loved history and aced every course, so I changed my major.

Since then, I’ve tried to place more weight on what I most “want” to do than what I “should” do. It’s worked out.

 

[Time2]

If you cant s0ot the idiot on the street. Well, you know the rest.

Must not be me!


Or one on each side of me! Although idiot may not have a wide enough meaning. Drug abusers, city has to tell them to mow their lawns. One had so much junk in their back yard that the city hired a contractor to clean it up and put a $4,000 lean on the property. The other neighbor, 3 years after the Hurricane, was finally told to clean up their damage or the city would. This one had DEA agents attack the home and throw in Flash/Bangs to get everyone under control. I won't expand much on the number of ODs when firetrucks, ambulances, police and on occasion the coroner have showed up. Or how many times the electricity has been cutoff or the water, when the water was cutoff and they would push a cart with coolers and water jugs to the neighbor to get them filled.

The good; the son's have aged out and now aren't at the house much, one of the women that lives their has been in jail for quite a while, so she's no trouble and the other neighbor has said they are moving, I can only hope, they said in two weeks, it's now been three weeks.The house is in such bad shape, the stated sale price was close to $100,000 less then the going house prices in the neighborhood.
Rant over.

 

[Rianne]

I've had a couple of epiphanies later in life. One is too personal to get into here.

The other has to do with forgiveness. Some people say that you should forgive for your own sake, not necessarily for the sake of the forgiven - that forgiveness is healing. I've learned that in some cases it's OK NOT to forgive - that not forgiving in itself can be healing. It's OK to feel anger, hatred and disgust for someone who has tried to break you.

Sadly, this can be the case with those you grew up with, family members, and those once-respected. I've wrestled with this one and I think you're right.

 

[Time2]

Along those lines, it was early in my career at MegaCorp, that I learned that some extremely bright and capable people, way beyond my own level, could be so absolutely stupid in some other areas of life that seemed almost obvious to me. Often, that stupidity was in the area of personal finance. It struck me as very odd - this person is so bright (and I don't mean in a 'Rain Man' way, I mean generally bright), how can they not 'get this' simple concept?

And I know it also applied to me in someway - I could 'get' some things, and other things that I guess were easy for others to see, I had trouble grasping.

-ERD50

I worked with a physicist that was extremely bright he could do 4 pages deriving some math formula before reducing it to one line and putting numbers in it. But he had little common sense. He was the guy they stuck in the back room to do his magic.

However I will say he was smart enough to understand that in his interpersonal relations he had to work on his people skills every time he spoke with someone.

 

[FindingForward]

When I realized I understood the difference between fact & opinion, and subjective & objective, and that recognizing them would change my life.

The ability to understand and vet what one reads, sees and hears based upon this important difference is almost gone in today's world. So many people - particularly those who consider social media as their best source for news - genuinely do not realize there's a difference.

 

[John Galt III]

Person X works very hard and earns $30,000 a year. Person Y hardly works at all, and earns $250,000 a year. I'm not saying that's morally wrong, just saying that as a youth, I assumed the harder you worked, the more $$$ you earned.

 

[travelover]

Person X works very hard and earns $30,000 a year. Person Y hardly works at all, and earns $250,000 a year. I'm not saying that's morally wrong, just saying that as a youth, I assumed the harder you worked, the more $$$ you earned.

Very true and the guy making the $250K is SURE he is worth every penny.

 

[John Galt III]

A quote from my fourth grade teacher, which can be debated, of course: "The most important word in the English language is the word 'I' ". I think she meant that you were supposed to take yourself seriously and be the best person you could be.

 

[Car-Guy]

My 8th grade history teacher has this quote on a sign in his classroom. "A smart man knows to only believe half of what he hears and reads. A wise man know which half to believe." I think that still applies today although I think rather than half, it's more like 25%, at best.

 

[CaptTom]

Person X works very hard and earns $30,000 a year. Person Y hardly works at all, and earns $250,000 a year. I'm not saying that's morally wrong, just saying that as a youth, I assumed the harder you worked, the more $$$ you earned.

I had an epiphany that was almost opposite this one.

I was working hard, struggling to keep a roof over my family's head and keep my little old boat running. My boss's boss had bigger salary, a bigger, nicer house and a bigger, nicer boat. His was the job I could aspire to if I played the political game and climbed the corporate ladder.

My epiphany was when I realized he seldom saw his family, spent very few waking hours at his house, and almost never got to take his boat out. I decided right then that I didn't want his job badly enough to give up all those other things.

Fast forward about 20 years. I was making more money, but had never sought a promotion which required me to put in the hours he had put in, so wasn't making as much as I "could" have been. He died young, before retiring. I think I made the right decision.

 

[Music Lover]

Person X works very hard and earns $30,000 a year. Person Y hardly works at all, and earns $250,000 a year. I'm not saying that's morally wrong, just saying that as a youth, I assumed the harder you worked, the more $$$ you earned.

Very true and the guy making the $250K is SURE he is worth every penny.

Some people earning $250k might be overpaid, but some could be underpaid. The same thing applies to those earning $30k.

 

[John Galt III]

Some people earning $250k might be overpaid, but some could be underpaid. The same thing applies to those earning $30k.

Very true. That's epiphany #2.

 

[Dtail]

Person X works very hard and earns $30,000 a year. Person Y hardly works at all, and earns $250,000 a year. I'm not saying that's morally wrong, just saying that as a youth, I assumed the harder you worked, the more $$$ you earned.

Many times though there is some truth to it.
As one possibly anecdotal example perhaps, the 4 of us senior managers in our general area all had at least one extended time frame of 70+ weekly hours at some point in our careers.

 

[justlikebike]

You can judge a person by the friends they have. If their friends are pricks, chances are really high this person is too. If their friends are kind, chances are high this person is too.

 

[travelover]

Another epiphany I've had is that for most jobs, a degree isn't really necessary. While proper training is certainly necessary for highly technical tasks, a lot of the degree "requirements" are more socioeconomic nepotism and rent seeking.

In my years at mega, I'd gladly have traded a couple of unmotivated PhD employees for a high school educated go-getter.

 

[kumquat]

Greatest epiphany: Lime juice improves almost everything

And Tequila makes it even better.

 

[JRon]

Everyone here knows this and it was many years ago I figured out “It’s ALWAYS about the money”.

 

[cyber888]

I have not aged much as I see my high school buddies have white hair and I still have dark hair. After doing some research, some people in Asia have lived to 140-150 years old, and a China man hitting 200+ years old with proper documentation that even the Chinese government celebrates his birthday with him. I only compute my retirement to 100, and I realize what could happen beyond 100

 

[RobbieB]

Tequila Rocks!

 

[Winemaker]

When positions came open in my organization that i always qualified for, or heard I was in line, I always prayed for what would be good for the family. While at times I thought $$ would be best, it proved otherwise. A lot of my "competitors" for those promotions are still w*rking, have had heart attacks, or are dead. DW and I are retired for almost 8 years now, and have more $$ than I think we will be able to spend. And another year to Medicare!

 

[street]

Tequila Rocks!

 

[jollystomper]

When I was in grade school, among the first poems I read and had to memorize was "If" by Rudyard Kipling. That poem, particularly the first stanza, came back to me as a young adult and was another epiphany.

 

[CaptTom]

..."If" by Rudyard Kipling..

Had to look that one up. Good one! I should have had it framed when I was going through divorce court:

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: