We need to live the life we have, not the life we want, or think we deserve. Life is cruel, nasty things happen to good people and throw off the neat plans we have for what we are going to have, how we are going to live, what we are going to do, and sometimes you can't change it. Just like a card game, you have to play the hand you are dealt, not the one you were hoping for.
About 40 years ago, my grandmother and I went to the funeral of one of my great uncles. It was the first and only paupers funeral I have ever attended. Herman, or Dutch as he was known, had led a colorful life, and died penniless. I remember being shocked my the meager coffin and modest surroundings. The young Salvation Army Chaplin spoke with me, asking how I knew or was related to Dutch. I commented about the modest casket. He said something I had not really thought of for the past 40 years, when you are dead, earthly wealth ceases. So my advice to my contemporaries today, you are saving for your last 10 years of life, not for beyond your life, use and enjoy what you have while you can, for when you are dead, money is of no value. The purpose of life is not to die with the highest net worth.
Any day that you wake up, can wiggle your toes, roll out of bed and move under your own power, is a WONDERFUL day. Enjoy it.
I want the very last check I write to bounce!
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-Andy
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DeleteExcellent advice! I figured this out several years ago. That's why I travel four times a year with Pat. Bill and I often mention a longtime friend of ours who died two years ago yesterday. He was a nortorious tightwad who died a millionaire several times over. We joke "Ed is probably still so mad because he couldn't take it with him."
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I try to remember each morning to say a short prayer of thanksgiving .
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