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Many of us will continue to measure our retirement and the success of our PLANNING by our previously stated and planned for goals and objectives. Others not with a ten foot pole.
All is ok and all can be happy. Happiness is not as easy to quantify and measure as income and other things a numerical measurement can be attached to.
Even my wording of this thread starter is done in a performance measured language. It is hard to talk about and not use the language.
So hopefully we can all realize that we are wired differently and one persons stroke isn't a slap at another but just their way of measuring the success of their retirement planning. Just as with work having accomplished measurable goals doesn't mean you did or didn't enjoy the process.
Just because you didn't use measurable goals doesn't mean you didn't enjoy the process or outcomes.
It is in our individual hearts that we know our personal happiness with the outcomes whether they are measurable or not.
Thoughts?
Happiness and satisfaction cannot always be measured, in fact SHOULD NOT be measured. Because once you do that you are no longer happy or content, you start measuring again.
In any case what is the point of a post that merely seems to gloat in how efficiently one measured one's life. Measurements can fail if the market went the other way; if one loses his job and is unable to find another one because one is too old, too advanced in his career, many reasons; if one gets disabled or gets sick.
A little humility is a nice thing when luck was merely nice to us. It makes us understand how precarious joy is.
Happiness and satisfaction cannot always be measured, in fact SHOULD NOT be measured. Because once you do that you are no longer happy or content, you start measuring again.
In any case what is the point of a post that merely seems to gloat in how efficiently one measured one's life. Measurements can fail if the market went the other way; if one loses his job and is unable to find another one because one is too old, too advanced in his career, many reasons; if one gets disabled or gets sick.
A little humility is a nice thing when luck was merely nice to us. It makes us understand how precarious joy is.
That makes perfect sense. I had read that withdrawing 4% a year was a standard amount. Is that still considered a SWR?
I was fortunate to work for the State Of Oregon. My pension is fixed in general, but most years we get a 3% bump. I set it up so that my wife will continue to get my pension until she dies.
Assuming the State remains solvent we are in good shape. On another note, the pension I am getting is no longer available. It changed in 1993 to a modified but very similar 401K plan for new workers. There is some pension envy in Oregon and I totally get that. PERS Tier one is the gold standard in Oregon. Other pensions are not nearly as good.
very nice music room! Mine is significantly smaller, about 14' X 16', but it's really well insulated with 16" walls crammed with sound deadening insulation and when I was playing in bands we would practice in there all the time. Never had any complaints from neighbors. In fact some evenings we would leave the door open and never heard a peep.
We had a drummer that I characterized as a "Cro-magnon" drummer. He was very loud! Sometimes we made him use brushes tied together. Rick was a big guy, about 6' 2" and 280. Unfortunately he developed pancreatic cancer and we lost him in 2015. I will always cherish his memory, although we had disagreements at times about songs to play. Our band was called Backfire. Our other guitar player ran a private fire fighting company, hence the name.
I'm reliving those memories right now!
I do have quite a bit of equipment in there. A 16 channel powered mixer, 2 400 watt PA speakers, an 8 track digital recorder, an organ, my wife's bass rig, my rig and so on. I'm not interested in forming a band right now, but maybe someday!
brushes ... wow talk about a lost art .....
i recently got back in to my drumming after giving it up for decades .. my wife created a monstor by coaxing me in to picking up sticks again in retirement..
she gave the druggie drugs and now i am obsessed with my playing ... as i had mentioned earlier i am preparing to do the 50th anniversary tour with a well know group of recording artists .. can't wait until all the deals are worked
i recently got back in to my drumming after giving it up for decades .. my wife created a monstor by coaxing me in to picking up sticks again in retirement..
she gave the druggie drugs and now i am obsessed with my playing ... as i had mentioned earlier i am preparing to do the 50th anniversary tour with a well know group of recording artists .. can't wait until all the deals are worked
Man....got that right.
It took me weeks of futzing around with Hydrogen Drumkits, searching for brush sounds on kits digitized from Tama, Yamaha, Pearl, Ludwig...none of the kits had brushes digitized. I finally ran across some strange .wav site where a drummer actually knew what they were, and created some wave files that could be turned into a percussive instrument suitable for Hydrogen. They still don't have a good smooth timbre though; not like the real thing.
Aren't there any trios/quartets left that play soft/smooth jazz ? Used to be great to find some drum/sax/piano/bass group playing some obscure corner club for early evening relaxation from the grind...!
Happiness and satisfaction cannot always be measured, in fact SHOULD NOT be measured. Because once you do that you are no longer happy or content, you start measuring again.
In any case what is the point of a post that merely seems to gloat in how efficiently one measured one's life. Measurements can fail if the market went the other way; if one loses his job and is unable to find another one because one is too old, too advanced in his career, many reasons; if one gets disabled or gets sick.
A little humility is a nice thing when luck was merely nice to us. It makes us understand how precarious joy is.
Hmm, interesting concept. I had always assumed that most people measured happiness on a routine basis as they lived their lives. Accepting that every use of money has a trade off or alternative cost of what you are giving up when you spend it.
Examples:
A. The wife and I go out to dinner wanting to spend no more than $75 on our meal that day. Reviewing a menu with a wide variety of options we assemble a combination of appetizers, entrees, deserts and beverages that keep us within our limit. We evaluate in our minds those items we will enjoy the most and the dollar cost associated with them. In turn we compromise on perhaps what we get. At the end of the meal we look at each other and hopefully say darn that was good with a loving smile of happiness knowing we had done a good job with our assessments.
B. We decide we want to buy a new car. We want one that looks good, has a good ride to it, great safety features and we will be happy to own. We look at two vehicles one with a base price of 35k the other with a base of 45K. We evaluate is the higher price one gone to bring us 10k more of ownership joy or is it not worth the difference. Perhaps we decide it is. But then we realize the 35K is only a base price and perhaps with the appropriate options we could give it the same owner satisfaction rating for only 42k thus a savings of 3K. Eight years later we look back and say well done and we had that 3K for perhaps a trip to Aruba.
Wow Aruba and a nice car for the price of the other nice car. Well done dear we say.
WE are going to transplant and their are multiple housing options at various price points etc. We are going to pay cash and the remainder will stay in savings/investments. What ratio of home and investing with the money from the sale of our previous house is going to give us the greater satisfaction and utility value over the long haul.
Go to the supermarket and the same attribution of cost to satisfaction as we fill up our cart
Where to go on vacation and at what price and will the place costing more really make us enjoy it more?
My wife the happy grandma is walking through the store and sees cute toddler clothing for her grand daughters who have a ton of clothes but sees something that buying for them will make her happy. How much to spend on what is truly discretionary and how much is the joy of seeing the grands in them worth.
Building an addition or doing remodeling and meeting with the contractor. What of the options and possibilities will bring a lasting happiness and satisfaction with the project and at what cost. In hindsight will we be doing a high five or saying oh well we could have kept some of it saved etc etc.
Clothes and oh yeah all the little pop up advertisements and cosmetic endorsements she sees on her Kindle and on the web. Read the reviews and to buy or not to buy and at what price.
Just happened the other day she saw a skin renewal product with great reviews and wanted me to look it up on Amazon. Was $70 and she decided that was two much. I knew it wasn't because she was disappointed at the price when she said no. I ordered it anyway and she was happy when I told her. The smile was worth $70 so I was glad I did.
I appreciated your point and perspective and if that works for you great. However it would never work for me and others like me. So we shall each operate the way we are wired and since we are both happy that is a Bada Bing for both of us!
Hmm, interesting concept. I had always assumed that most people measured happiness on a routine basis as they lived their lives. Accepting that every use of money has a trade off or alternative cost of what you are giving up when you spend it.
Examples:
A. The wife and I go out to dinner wanting to spend no more than $75 on our meal that day. Reviewing a menu with a wide variety of options we assemble a combination of appetizers, entrees, deserts and beverages that keep us within our limit. We evaluate in our minds those items we will enjoy the most and the dollar cost associated with them. In turn we compromise on perhaps what we get. At the end of the meal we look at each other and hopefully say darn that was good with a loving smile of happiness knowing we had done a good job with our assessments.
B. We decide we want to buy a new car. We want one that looks good, has a good ride to it, great safety features and we will be happy to own. We look at two vehicles one with a base price of 35k the other with a base of 45K. We evaluate is the higher price one gone to bring us 10k more of ownership joy or is it not worth the difference. Perhaps we decide it is. But then we realize the 35K is only a base price and perhaps with the appropriate options we could give it the same owner satisfaction rating for only 42k thus a savings of 3K. Eight years later we look back and say well done and we had that 3K for perhaps a trip to Aruba.
Wow Aruba and a nice car for the price of the other nice car. Well done dear we say.
WE are going to transplant and their are multiple housing options at various price points etc. We are going to pay cash and the remainder will stay in savings/investments. What ratio of home and investing with the money from the sale of our previous house is going to give us the greater satisfaction and utility value over the long haul.
Go to the supermarket and the same attribution of cost to satisfaction as we fill up our cart
Where to go on vacation and at what price and will the place costing more really make us enjoy it more?
My wife the happy grandma is walking through the store and sees cute toddler clothing for her grand daughters who have a ton of clothes but sees something that buying for them will make her happy. How much to spend on what is truly discretionary and how much is the joy of seeing the grands in them worth.
Building an addition or doing remodeling and meeting with the contractor. What of the options and possibilities will bring a lasting happiness and satisfaction with the project and at what cost. In hindsight will we be doing a high five or saying oh well we could have kept some of it saved etc etc.
Clothes and oh yeah all the little pop up advertisements and cosmetic endorsements she sees on her Kindle and on the web. Read the reviews and to buy or not to buy and at what price.
Just happened the other day she saw a skin renewal product with great reviews and wanted me to look it up on Amazon. Was $70 and she decided that was two much. I knew it wasn't because she was disappointed at the price when she said no. I ordered it anyway and she was happy when I told her. The smile was worth $70 so I was glad I did.
I appreciated your point and perspective and if that works for you great. However it would never work for me and others like me. So we shall each operate the way we are wired and since we are both happy that is a Bada Bing for both of us!
Exactly what value are you adding to a forum like this by talking about how you spend your money?
Exactly what value are you adding to a forum like this by talking about how you spend your money?
I think he is trying to explain his thought process, using money allotment to balance how much to spend to achieve the most joy without overspending. Just giving examples from his life. I appreciate his posts. It is interesting to me how some people spend their money Personally I love dining out and always get whatever I want. Not really thinking about cost.
Also with vehicle purchases, we pay cash, get just what we want and keep them for a long time. Safety and comfort are most important to us over looks. I don’t think about what trip I couldn’t take because i spent more on my vehicle. My thoughts are more about being secure. We know far enough ahead of time when we will need a new vehicle to have done our research, and have the cash on hand.
I understand nana spending on granddaughters. I have only one and I spend. It gives me joy.
But everything is a trade off. To a point, if you do A, you may have to wait to do B, and may never be able to do C. So you have to decide what is most important to you. He is just explaining it with money.
Harder to balance in retirement is time and energy. If you have the funds you can pay someone to do many things that take your time and use up your age diminishing energy. To me that is very important.
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