Follow up to living in RV by necessity

TurnThePage wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:

shelbyfv wrote:
Congrats to OP and thanks for posting the happy ending! Regarding the smug snipes, it's not uncommon for those of us who have it relatively easy in retirement to attribute our condition to our own genius financial planning, self restraint, etc, etc. The fact is luck plays the major part in how this aspect of our lives turns out. More specifically, the absence of bad luck. Illness, derailed family, an economy that changes on the whim of others.... These things can bite anyone who was not lucky enough to have been born into affluence.

I disagree that luck plays a major part in a person's success. While it is true that bad luck does befall a few, most of us make our own luck. You mention health, family, the economy as factors that change on a whim. I disagree. Your personal habits effect your health more than luck. Eat well, exercise, take reasonable precautions and your health will benefit. Family issues are often within your control. Divorce, alcoholism, drug addiction are all matters of choice, not luck. Live within your means and downturns in the economy are bumps in the road, not disasters of bad luck.
Successful people most often achieve that success through hard work, proper planning and making well thought out decisions. It is an insult to the millions upon millions of people who are financially successful to attribute that success to luck.

Spoken like one who's not been burned. It doesn't have to be YOUR health to trash YOUR plans. There are so many variables that play into life. You could do everything right but work for the wrong boss. So many things. Quit being smug.

I have paid for the right to be, as you call it, "smug". I have made the conscious decision throughout my life to sacrifice a bit of drinking and gambling money to pay for good health insurance and good disability insurance. I chose to put a portion of my income into investments, rather than take a month long trip to Europe. I chose to work long hours and do the things not everyone wants to do to secure my future.
The fact is I know many people who have had severe health crises. They had family disasters and yet they still are doing just fine financially because they took the same steps to mitigate what might happen. And these are people who were not high born. They didn't grow up with a sliver spoon, but they all had a work ethic and a commitment to not live only in the moment.