Quote: (07-16-2013 07:03 PM)Samseau Wrote:
Would Soros trade his billions to be 18 again?
I would think so. Bob Dylan in about his 60s had a song where the narrator is observing a group of young men, and he says "I'd trade places with any one of them."
It gets more interesting if you're, say, 40, and you can work the next 10 years and be wealthy but be exhausted all the time, or take it easy and enjoy yourself but face working until 70.
That's a more realistic choice.
I chose working just enough to retire somewhat early in my 50s, but the trade offs were (1) I fucked off all through my 20s and had a ball playing in bands and avoiding work (2) I only have enough to just survive, no luxuries at all.
I called up Social Security one time to calculate my benefits prediction, and it was kind of funny when the clerk was looking at my records and asked "You only worked about ten years?" Haha. Yes, that was exactly the point.
This always triggers a barrage of "Oh, don't you wish you had more money?". Yes, I'm sure. But I've told the story of the hospice nurse, who in all of her encounters with dying men said ALL of them --ALL-- said they thought they had worked too much. You can never get one minute back from the Machine.
I plan on going back to work if I feel like it when I am really getting old and don't want to travel anymore. I advocate "giving them the shitty years"; after all you don't KNOW you're going to get them at all. I did make sure to get a professional license that doesn't go obsolete, so I will always be able to get pretty good paying work.
People worry about being 70 and broke, they never think they can die at 62-- many people do, or become disabled-- ESPECIALLY if they smoke cigarettes. Cancer, stroke, and COPD city. I had a patient who was 45 and looked 70 from smoking-- he had COPD; and wasn't getting enough oxygen. There is no real treatment.