In my case, I overestimated how high my retirement expenses would be.
During my working years, my goal was to save or invest $1k each month (over and above my 403-B), and I was able to do it… most months.
Now, 13 years past retirement, my mortgage has been fully paid-off, and I can usually save or invest ~$1.5k per month.
I have never lived extravagantly, and that clearly helped me to build-up a good nest egg, but now that I’m getting… a lot… older, I am no longer depriving myself of anything–within reason–that I want.
And yet, I’m still able to save/invest a decent amount each month.
@VDCdriver You planned better for retirement than I did. I didn’t save for retirement. When I was teaching, Mrs. Triedaq gave me $2.50 a week so that I could have coffee with my friends. Coffee, at the snack bar on campus was 50¢ a cup. One of my buddies found out we could, with our senior citizens’ discount, get coffee at McDonald’s for 25¢ a cup. This put an extra $1.25 a week in my pocket. However, every Friday I was so happy to get through the week, that I would blow the $1.25 on a cinnamon roll instead of saving the money. Now I have to go to the mission if I want a cup of coffee.
I guess my behaviour is typical of a lot of folks who get a little bit ahead and then blow their good fortune on an immediate pleasure.
Well, you just have to find out what “the Missus” did with all of your money.
When you locate her secret accounts, you just might find out that you are a millionaire.
My conspicuous consumption is how much cat food, cat litter, and vet care I spend on my pair of furry felines. But when car shopping the several times I’ve bought a new buggy I’ve always made certain the cats’ carriers can be gotten in and out of the car easily and secured by the seat/shoulder belt run through the carrier handle for those occasional protested car rides to the veterinarian.
After all, I do need a car that supports my Crazy Cat Lady lifestyle.
[quote="Marnet,
My conspicuous consumption is how much cat food, cat litter, and vet care I spend on my pair of furry felines.
After all, I do need a car that supports my Crazy Cat Lady lifestyle.
If you think about it as I do each one of the furry pair has 9 lives do you know how many might have been used up yet? I think that the one’s that claim me for their human add instead of lose lives.
Cats have owned me most of my life to my delight. They seem as crazy about me as I am about them. Except when they have to ride in the car. Several have endured being moved cross country and complained themselves meowed hoarse over the Dreadful Car Ride.
Speaking of animals makes me think of the forum regular of past years who worked with horses as a blacksmith / farrier. We haven’t heard from @Yosemite in quite awhile, at least I don’t recall seeing any posts from him in some time.
Oh, very good. I hadn’t seen that. Always good to have long time members still active! There have been many who have disappeared over time for various reasons.
When I was a stockbroker in Florida, I went to a trailer park to see a client. He had a very nice trailer, not that it matters. He was also worth at least $7 Million that I knew of. His Rolls was parked a few miles away in a garage he rented for his cars (he had over 25). He was a simple guy who made a lot of money and didn’t feel comfortable with “the uppity muckity mucks as he put it”. Guess you cannot judge a book by its cover.
Love the name! I can relate. The cat in my profile picture and his sister littermate both developed diabetes despite not being at all overweight. For some years my daily schedule revolved around twice a day insulin shots for both cats.
These days I am owned by a pair of young, healthy felines who keep me laughing. But, as with all my previous cats, these two simply won’t abide car rides without pathetic sounding complaint.
We took our 2 cats and 2 dogs up to the cabins every year, they got used to it. My mother put her cat in a pillow case for the trip to the vet, worked for her!
When we moved 8 years ago 1200 miles away, we had 2 toms and an old lady cat that tended to get motion sickness. We drove non-stop so we didn’t have to wrangle 3 cats into a hotel room. The boys rode fine. We sedated the old lady and put diaper pads in her travel box.
The sedation lasted 700 miles. The sound and smell told us what just occured. The boys were disgusted. A quick stop for a wipe down and fresh pad got her to 6 miles from our new home when it happened again. A bath at 2 am got her all cleaned up. She spent the rest of the night exploring while the boys slept.
@Mustangman Poor old kitty girl. And poor you humans. Glad the trip ended safely despite the smelly mess.
I’ve been lucky that none of my cats have ever (yet!) been carsick. Several have wet themselves but that’s why I have a folded towel inside their travel carrier.
Years ago when moving cats cross country several times we didn’t have pet carrier cages. I’m grateful I do now as it is much safer for my cats to each be in a hard sided carrier secured with a seatbelt. They get secured in the back seat to avoid the potential of airbag deployment just like the reason small children are not supposed to be in the front seat.
And this is one of the many reasons why I have never had any pets, and never will. Too much hassle and expense, too much responsibility, and I would rather spend my time and money on other stuff than caring for animals. My ideal pet would be carved out of stone, or a painting on the wall.
My “rock” through the worst of the pandemic was my incredibly-intelligent Labrador Retriever. Being isolated for the most part from family & friends caused him to become even more important in my life than he had been pre-pandemic.
He was diagnosed with cancer in June, 2020, and with state-of-the-art Stereotactic Radiation treatments, he lived to late February, 2021. The cost of those treatments was–all told–over $20k, but because I had gotten a very good medical insurance policy* for him when he was a puppy, close to 90% of those costs were reimbursed.
Even if I hadn’t had the foresight (or the dumb luck…) to have taken-out that insurance policy, I would still have made sure that he got that pricey treatment. Even though it–ultimately–didn’t save him, it did extend his existence–with a good quality of life–for about twice as long as dogs usually live after that type of diagnosis. And, in the process, I like to think that I enriched his life as much as he enriched mine.
*If any of the pet owners in this forum would like the name of that pet insurance company, just send me a private message. I have had other pet insurance companies over the years, and most of them would never have reimbursed me for such a large percentage of his medical expenses.
