Wednesday, January 18, 2012

What If?

Yesterday the sky was blue at the beginning of my walk, and darkening by the time I got back to our yard.

Everyone's talking about the cold snap; finally we've got "real" winter, with 35-below on the thermometer and the weatherfolks on the radio saying "Feels like 45 below, with the wind chill. Exposed skin will freeze in five minutes."

I haven't found it so terrible as they're saying, though it's crisp all right. I walked my usual two miles yesterday, and cut it down to slightly more than a mile today because it was windier. Yesterday I walked backwards quite a ways to reduce the biting wind in my face. Balaclava or no, the air can still sting.

Scott and I went to a lunch seminar this week to get information about retirement investing. The presentation projected possible income over the long term; and of course it would be easy to make investment decisions if you knew when you were going to die. I thought, "How would I handle my money if I knew exactly how long I had to live? What if I could know that I had, say, only five years left? What would I do differently?"

It would be wise to ponder that question seriously and not let it go till I've answered it. More likely I'll forget about it in a day or two. What about you? Do you take stock of your life in a serious way or do such thoughts flit through your head for a short time and simply disappear?


2 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about your cold spell; I'll bet it's not so bad 'cause it's "a dry cold." Heh-heh-heh! Uh, that's like what they say about the 107 degrees in Vegas; it's not so bad 'cause "it's a dry heat." Yeah, right!

    As for your retirement plans: my wife and I started our planning about 10 years ago, got really serious about it the following few years, and I retired in 2006/Ro in 2010. Once we knew when we were going to retire, we put all our money in "safe" places (fixed annuities, "Triple B" or "A" bonds, a few relatively safe real estate investment trusts, etc.) So far, it's working out as planned, as long as Social Security doesn't disappear for us.

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  2. Glad to hear things are working out for you, Ken. In my case, I've just got my last child out of the house and am only beginning to be able to save money; even then, I seem to get a little set aside, and then have to spend it on some small emergency that comes up. I expect to have to work till I die; hope I'm always able.

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