No Money Talk

Even though I say it isn’t everything, it seems every conversation involving retirement comes around to money. Anyway, let’s see how far I get today.

Like I said before, we needed to do some soul searching before we go much further and I’m glad to report that we (Harley and I) seem to have come to some kind of agreement as to how we want to spend our retirement years. Hallelujah! This is HUGE! I was getting very worried that we both had very different ideas of how we spend our golden years. Potentially, that could have been a very serious problem. Suppose Harley was adamant about selling everything and taking off on a sailboat with no plans of returning “home” and I wanted to buy a cabin in the woods, plant some roots, and live off the land. With that scenario it wouldn’t matter what type of financial plan we had. Simply put, it would have been a disaster.

Our plan, (a very loose term at this stage of the game) is to keep the house, sail for six months of the year, and summer here in Ontario. If Harley wants to do some more serious sailing he can sign up to crew in the “Caribbean 1500” or something like that….and…. I will be happy because I will still have my roots. We’ll likely leave the boat down south in the summer, and we may not be sailing in the boat we have now, but those details will fill in as the date gets closer. For now I am just thrilled that we agree on a plan.

And look at that….no money talk. I’d better sign off because I feel it coming on.

I need to stop complaining

So I was talking with a friend on the weekend and, of course, I was whining about how much I hate work. I was also mouthing off about how I feel most of us have it all wrong by thinking we need so much money. I went on to say, like I’ve said so many times, that money isn’t everything. Blah, blah, blah…… I’m beginning to sound like a broken record.

Anyway, this friend is a family physician whose patients are predominantly elderly or down and out. She listened to my rant for a while but then I guess she had finally heard enough. I was at the point where I was saying that while we were living on our boat we lived on very little and we don’t need much to live a full and happy life. It was then that she brought to my attention that it was money that allowed us to take a year off and live that wonderful life. The fact that we had jobs to return to was unbelievable. She didn’t have to say anymore.

Boy do I feel stupid. Of course we need money….lots of it.

I am thankful for that conversation. It has made me a little more thankful for what I have. Perhaps I should stop complaining and start counting my blessings. I actually tried to enjoy work today and you know it wasn’t so bad.

I’m still planning for retirement but hopefully with a new perspective. Life is way too short. We are dead for a long time. We need to make the most of every day and stop complaining.