[today’s run: 3.4 miles]
My wife posted on Facebook a picture of our little family 26 years ago when our youngest child made his appearance. I replied to her that next year, the 27th anniversary, it will have been 27 years since we were 27 years old.
I did a bit of calculating and in 27 more years after that we will be 81, a ripe old age.
Maybe I’ll live to 90, I don’t know. Whichever way you look at it, I am either at or approaching the two-thirds point of my life. (Who knows, maybe I’m well past that point.)
So then I was thinking about how I would really like to retire, which I can’t do for at least 10 more years. My retirement idea isn’t so much to quit working as to find something else, something where I help people and not just twiddle the days away.
I was taking stock of the situation and maybe what I might want to accomplish in the next 20 years before I’m a complete dodderer. My hearing is bad, I wear progressive bifocals, I’m not in bad physical shape but I’m too fat and I don’t sleep well because my digestion gives me trouble. None of that is a major impediment. I have debts, but they aren’t exceptional debts. I probably have a positive net worth, small but positive.
The only light in this tunnel at the moment is the radio station project. I’d like to see that get up and running.
And the wife is in great health, the kids are independent, parents are in reasonably good shape. If we were rich we could up and go. I’m not much of an up-and-go type.
I can see myself digging a well in Africa or doing some other kind of helpful work. Most of Africa is adept at digging their own wells. To be frank, I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing around here.
But don’t be distressed. I get in these moods fairly regularly. Things will come along and maybe we’ll latch on to something. Until then I have a list of projects to work on, sharpen up my mind if nothing else.
On a mostly-unrelated note: here’s a sign that they had posted all over the “pumpkin patch” place we visited a week or two ago.
4 replies on “Two Thirds Done”
Love the sign. How typical of the world we live in to be so careful around whiners with a lawyer. On the other subject, I think often of how far along Mike and I are in our lives and how quickly it has gone by. There are so many verses in the Bible about the brevity of life…I think one has to get to a certain point to understand they’re referring to oneself, not just the rest of the crowd. Flowers, grass, water vapor. Mike and I were talking the other day about how hard it is, when life is good and we’re surrounded by loving family and friends, to think there is something even better waiting. But there is, and I’m glad.
Kids are expensive! If your kids are no longer asking you for money I think you are doing well. Time to think about you as Social Security and Medicare funding probably won’t be 100% of what we are meant to expect. Or another option is to go to a pumpkin patch with no legal signage and a high hay bale pyramid and “fall” and break something and go on disability.
I have one of those “state and local government defined benefit plan” pension things.
As long as they keep producing electricity, I’m probably in better shape than most.
Yes! Pensions are great! One nifty trick that _might_ work for you is to save sick leave and vacation for last year of work – then use it all. For some pensions, benefits are based on _exercized_ payroll expense the last few years of working. Newspapers will sometimes mention how a fire chief or policeman is making six figures and golfing in Aruba after retiring by using this method.
I examined the 2014 annual report for your employer and see the defined benefit plan is well financed (zero net pension obligation!) – but I don’t see how they can use 8% investment rate of return. (But a lot of pensions use high rates like that. Where can _I_ get that kind of return these days???)
217 employees with $4MM annual pension expense with pensions no longer adding employees under the plan September 2010. Rough math is $18k/employee per year assuming _all_217 have a pension.