loosechickens
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2007
- Messages
- 160
We should probably remember that about 50 MILLION Americans have no health insurance. Lots of people drive beater cars, some have only the minimum liability required. If you have a small income, you don't pay any Federal income taxes, and if you're handy, ingenious, inventive and have skills, many of you would be surprised at how good a life you could manage to put together with very little money. We see examples of that every day in our nomadic life, examples that humble us.
For every person we know with a comfortable retirement living, we know several who have very little, yet satisfaction with life, interesting activities, good friends, and lots of fun and freedom seem to be as present in those with little as we see in those with a lot.
Not everyone thinks that a meaningful life can't be lived unless they have a cell phone, broadband internet, world travel and gourmet food.
It would probably be good for a lot of folks who lay awake at night worrying about their portfolios and whether their withdrawal rate from portfolios is "safe", to realize that huge numbers of people are getting along just fine with very little.
Money doesn't have a lot to do with your ability to enjoy life, although middle and upper middle class people in this country seem to think that life would be unbearable without their assets. It's just not true. Ya'll need to get out more and meet more people in different circumstances. It's a wide, wide world out here, and most of the folks don't have great big ole retirement accounts, but they manage and manage well.
If you did, and got to know some of the people we have been lucky enough to know and learn from, you'd probably sleep a lot better at night. There's a wonderful freedom to recognizing that even if your money mostly disappeared, you'd still be all right. That you'd still have a meaningful life.
I wish I could introduce you to such people as "Dumpster Diver Charlotte", or "Steve" the $400 a month liver, or our friend Richard who maintains a serious meditation practice as he caretakes a facility in a national forest on the tiniest of disability incomes.
People who would be flabbergasted to realize that there are folks out there who think that they'd have a hard time getting along with "only" a half million or a million or so in their brokerage accounts......
I'm glad we know differently. We have the nice big fat brokerage account, but we also have lived differently enough to know that if it all disappeared tomorrow, we'd be fine. And THAT is freedom and security. It almost seems a joke that our money has grown so, as we really don't need all that to be happy, and we were just as happy before it multiplied over the years.
I was floating in the pool last night with a 38 year old guy wanting to achieve early retirement. He works for a big corporation, has a six figure income, a paid for home and, as he said, about a half million in his 401k right now. He was talking about how he was hoping that he could manage to leave his job in about twelve years.
I didn't know quite what to say as I happen to know that the other two guys we were floating around with are younger than "normal" retirement age, already retired, and both are spending less than $1,000 per month.
So who's got the world by the tail? After the guy left, the rest of us had a good chuckle.
LooseChickens
For every person we know with a comfortable retirement living, we know several who have very little, yet satisfaction with life, interesting activities, good friends, and lots of fun and freedom seem to be as present in those with little as we see in those with a lot.
Not everyone thinks that a meaningful life can't be lived unless they have a cell phone, broadband internet, world travel and gourmet food.
It would probably be good for a lot of folks who lay awake at night worrying about their portfolios and whether their withdrawal rate from portfolios is "safe", to realize that huge numbers of people are getting along just fine with very little.
Money doesn't have a lot to do with your ability to enjoy life, although middle and upper middle class people in this country seem to think that life would be unbearable without their assets. It's just not true. Ya'll need to get out more and meet more people in different circumstances. It's a wide, wide world out here, and most of the folks don't have great big ole retirement accounts, but they manage and manage well.
If you did, and got to know some of the people we have been lucky enough to know and learn from, you'd probably sleep a lot better at night. There's a wonderful freedom to recognizing that even if your money mostly disappeared, you'd still be all right. That you'd still have a meaningful life.
I wish I could introduce you to such people as "Dumpster Diver Charlotte", or "Steve" the $400 a month liver, or our friend Richard who maintains a serious meditation practice as he caretakes a facility in a national forest on the tiniest of disability incomes.
People who would be flabbergasted to realize that there are folks out there who think that they'd have a hard time getting along with "only" a half million or a million or so in their brokerage accounts......
I'm glad we know differently. We have the nice big fat brokerage account, but we also have lived differently enough to know that if it all disappeared tomorrow, we'd be fine. And THAT is freedom and security. It almost seems a joke that our money has grown so, as we really don't need all that to be happy, and we were just as happy before it multiplied over the years.
I was floating in the pool last night with a 38 year old guy wanting to achieve early retirement. He works for a big corporation, has a six figure income, a paid for home and, as he said, about a half million in his 401k right now. He was talking about how he was hoping that he could manage to leave his job in about twelve years.
I didn't know quite what to say as I happen to know that the other two guys we were floating around with are younger than "normal" retirement age, already retired, and both are spending less than $1,000 per month.
So who's got the world by the tail? After the guy left, the rest of us had a good chuckle.
LooseChickens