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It's surprising what is happening with the baby boomers, given this is the first group that was really into eating organic food and fitness. The people of my parents' generation pre-baby boomer and the greatest generation, many are making it and have made it into their 80s and 90s. Yet, so many of my 60ish baby boomer friends are dying often from cancer. I don't really understand it at all.
Those generations died of those maladies younger and more often than you realize. Heart attacks were common killers, as were various cancers.
Since made my last post yesterday ,a babyhood friend of mine lost her husband of 30 years to a heart attack right in the driveway . He was my age also .
It's surprising what is happening with the baby boomers, given this is the first group that was really into eating organic food and fitness. The people of my parents' generation pre-baby boomer and the greatest generation, many are making it and have made it into their 80s and 90s. Yet, so many of my 60ish baby boomer friends are dying often from cancer. I don't really understand it at all.
Uh, maybe that's the case in the rich big cities.
My local area has finally started getting some drips of organic and healthy food in the mainline grocery stores. The older natives are satisfied with Food Club and Great Value. We have one "healthy supermarket" and a couple of small food stores catering to health and organic food.
Retire as soon as you can afford it. I retired 6 years ago at age 57 and do not regret one minute of it.
Lou
I agree.
I hated my career, the stresses, and pressure that it put on me. I put up with it, because of the pension. I retired the day that my pension started. When I was 42.
17 years later, I do not regret any of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 495neighbor
It's surprising what is happening with the baby boomers, given this is the first group that was really into eating organic food and fitness. The people of my parents' generation pre-baby boomer and the greatest generation, many are making it and have made it into their 80s and 90s. Yet, so many of my 60ish baby boomer friends are dying often from cancer. I don't really understand it at all.
I am all about the organic food. As a young retiree I was able to reinvent myself into an organic farmer.
But organic food and fitness is not the whole picture. I think that at 'best' cutting the pesticides and herbicides in your food is only a small part of the complete picture.
I have prostate cancer. When it first appeared I had my prostate removed. Now, 4 years later, my cancer has returned. From all of my researching, I have not found anything known to be a causing agent in this cancer. Not foods, and not chemicals. This cancer simply happens. Nobody knows why.
I am all about the organic food. As a young retiree I was able to reinvent myself into an organic farmer.
But organic food and fitness is not the whole picture. I think that at 'best' cutting the pesticides and herbicides in your food is only a small part of the complete picture.
I have prostate cancer. When it first appeared I had my prostate removed. Now, 4 years later, my cancer has returned. From all of my researching, I have not found anything known to be a causing agent in this cancer. Not foods, and not chemicals. This cancer simply happens. Nobody knows why.
Oh, absolutely. You can be a health nut and come down with some rare, incurable, and virtually untreatable disease, while the guy who parties through life lives to 100.
Either case is rare and it's all about probabilities. Eating well and taking care of yourself will reduce the risk of something bad happening.
I am in my late 50's and last year I reconnected with a best friend I grew up with, we had become separated when his parents divorced in our teens and he moved. Six months after reconnecting he was dead from health issues, I realized its just the age bracket I'm in and there will be more to come with the coming years.
Friend, I'm 65 so I understand! I'm afraid we're getting old.
Back when I just got out of college, I worked at a newspaper typing up obituaries (one of a cub reporter's duties). Anybody 50 or under, we were to ask the cause of death because anybody dying that age was considered unusual. When I got to age 50, I thought anybody dying that young was unusual and they should be asking! It wa also unusual to have somebody live to 100, but now it's not unusual at all.
Personally, I think it's because of better health care, of course, but also because of all the preservatives in the food we ate!
There are NO guarantees in life, so I believe in living mostly for today while keeping in mind that I might live for another 20 years. So, in short, I do not postpone doing what I want to do now (I'm 64) as long as I have enough to at least "get by" for the next 20 years. After that, I really don't care what kind of quality of life I will have because I know that people like Dick Van Dyke and Betty White in their old age are rare. Most people over 85 are not very healthy and they do not have much joy in life (or at least that is true for the very old people I have known).
The last thing I would voluntarily do is to die in my 80's (or older) with more than $100,000 in savings, not counting house equity.
She is a depression baby (born 1920/21) so never complains about anything.
She had a episode of something or another and was in the hospital recovering. After a few days the "social worker" shows up to talk to her...they do a lot of that these days in hospitals and rehabs. She asks the MIL if she wants to talk about anything...MIL says NO. Then she asks MIL if she socializes and/or has any friends.
MIL answers "All my friends are dead".
End of conversation.
The last thing I would voluntarily do is to die in my 80's (or older) with more than $100,000 in savings, not counting house equity.
Can only assume you don't have a couple kids and grandkids....
Also, imwith skilled care running about 100K a year, it would be prudent to have a couple years of savings at the end...unless you are brave enough to "do the deed" and go to Switzerland or use some other method...
That's probably why the government is so down on "death with dignity". Just imagine the lost revenues!
I have a aunt who ended up divorced and fairly poor. But she did have total of 250K and was in poor health (had been very obese at at various times. So she went into a low priced nursing home figuring there was not way she was going to live 5 years. Well...it's now 6 years later. Medicaid pays it now (the 50K per year), but she cannot - for example - even send a $50 gift card to her children or grandchildren.
Another cousin had a stroke - she had a nice estate, about 500,000. Her care costs about 100K per year. She is largely paralyzed and just lays in bed - no quality of life. All h er money is not gone (been 5 years).
Maybe I can too much...I know a lot of people who say "I don't care about what happens after I die".....but I certainly enjoy giving money to my children and grandchildren for important things (houses, education) and hope to have plenty left to leave to them on my (our) demise.
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