Don't have a bucket list, do it now!

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
My daddy always said there were two sides to a coin and here is the other side.

My FIL had the same do it now and never wait attitude. He made a lot of money and spent it as fast as he made it so he could do his bucket list while young. And he did. Fast cars, tons of guns and toys. He did a lot of cool stuff and did a lot of cool things in his life.

He is 70 now and all of the cars and guns and toys are gone. He lives in assisted housing because he can't afford to pay rent and live. He lives on something like $800 a month. He can't really make ends meet because he has no money. Sad really. I don't think he thinks it was a great idea now. Maybe he does, I don't know?

Remember; Morgan Freeman could not do his bucket list without the wealth of Jack Nicholson. There is a lot of Morgan Freemans but not so many Jack Nicholson's.

My daughter had a great idea when she was only 8 years old. She told me one day; dad, the world is backwards. I asked, what do you mean? She said, people should be born old and then go backwards in life. I asked why? She said when you're old you can't do anything because you're old. You have all this money that you made in your life but you can't really enjoy it. When you're young, you have your health but no money so you can't do anything.

She went on the say, that way when you are young you have a bunch of money and your health and you can do all of this stuff and have a lot of fun!!

Wow, she is now 17 and on her way to being a dentist. I thought this was pretty astute thinking for an 8 YO.

I always thought it would make a great Stephen King movie. :B

See "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"--Brad Pitt does exactly that; born old, die young.

As for your FIL, that just horrifies me! My dad was the same way--spending on every pyramid scheme and get risk quick thing you could imagine. He died over his head in debt.

Thankfully, my DH is a saver and an investor. We started out small and we started out late, in our 30's just adding a little along (like $50/mo--not going to get rich on that~) I came into a small inheritance and immediately socked it away. Now were in our late 50s, facing down the barrel of retirement. I think we've done as well as we could, considering our circumstances. I don't think we'll end up in the poor house, at least. We won't be living high off the hog, but we should be able to afford senior housing and not be living destitute on a minimal SS check.

I agree with you that it's important to save. But I still say there are things that anyone can afford to do. We don't need a big diesel pusher or a BMW in the driveway. We don't need a McMansion to be happy. We're not interested in the country club, nor do we have many vices. DH & I are pretty frugal and we do a lot of free or low-cost things, and sometimes we'll spend money on a nice vacation. And I'm glad we were able to do that, especially now that DHs health is in decline.