Growing Older
Retirement Impossible? Lack Of Money Stretches Working Lives.
Retirement
To assuage my guilt on spending so much on the lift kit on my truck, I, maxed out my Roth IRA today for 2014.
I had been contributing monthly but not the maximum. I had some money left over from the lift kit and figured I would not waste all of it on stupid shit like my truck.
My goal is to retire in 2050 at age 67. If my $5,500 investment for the year grows at the rate of the S&P 500 between 1980-2015, I will have $100,000 tax free just from 2014. I adjusted my budget to do that again in 2015 with automatic bi-weekly withdrawals.
If you can find a way to budget $460 a month or $115 a week between age 25-35, you’ll retire a millionaire. Save when your young.
15 Years Old
It annoys me to see articles describing a “15 year old” as a child. A “15 year old” is a person whose physical age is very close to “16 years old”, which we have decided is old enough to entrust driving 2-3 tons of steel at high-speeds down the highway, at legal speeds up to 65 miles per hour (or in excess of a mile per minute).
A single mistake or misjudgement by that “16 year old” driving can have deadly consequences to dozens of people, including permanently paralyzing themselves or others, including burning the skin off of whole portions of their body.
Some states allow even younger individuals to drive automobiles, and certainly younger individuals often operate farm tractors. It should also be noted in NY State, one can take the hunting safety course at age 11, and can hunt starting at age 12.
Thirty One
Today, January 29, 2013 is my thirty-first birthday. It is exactly one decade since I turned 21, which is mostly a date on paper. In that past decade, I’ve seen some of the most troubling and exciting times in my life, and most of the experiences that have created my modern self have occurred in those ten years.
People say the teenage years are more important then the years in one’s early 20s. I don’t know. Graduating from college then starting work at my employer of almost 7 years now, had a vastly bigger impact on my life then anything I learned or didn’t learn in High School. I almost feel like those earlier 10 years were consequential compared to the past ten.
I was digging through the deep archives, trying to find interesting old essays to repost in celebration of my 31st birthday. But I really couldn’t find much that I could agree with or represent my viewpoint on the world, which has evolved greatly over the decade.
Thirty one, for all it’s indignities of life, really is a good life, with most of the rewards of living and working a good middle class life. I can afford most of the toys I want, if I am so inclined. I can travel when I want and can get away from work. It really is kind of nice being 31.
Some brief thoughts on turning 31 today.
Good Morning! Happy Wednesday.
Farmers Market day down at the Empire Plaza. Also my 31st birthday. It is chilly out, but with minimal wind and a bright sunshine, it is a pretty nice morning today. Taking the Route 719 express bus downtown, which is such a refreshing break from the local, even if in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t save much money. But with it’s light ridership, I am sure it’s short in it’s tooth – so I am enjoying it while I still can.
The Hudson River is largely thawed out north of the port, but also it looks like an ice breaker has cut a channel North of the Port of Albany, at least to where the tug boats dock. It’s a remarkably pretty wintery day, even if the mercury continues to insist that it’s pretty chilly out.
Today is my 31st Birthday. It's a rather sunny and bright morning outside, despite the cold.
The Age of the Fun Suckers
The other night, I was an event when the speaker lamented the modern era with all it’s problems and how much fun they had in the “innocent” 1960s. My thought was that’s pretty darn unfair.
Why shouldn’t we — the young — be able to have some fun like they had in “olden” days, and wait to be ultra-conservative and have no fun like the old folks?