Well this is the year. Way back when I used to think 65 was old indeed. Now, only a couple monthly pages on the calendar separate me from that magic number. Many reading this aren’t even close to 65 yet, and (come on, it’s all right, I’ve heard it plenty of times), there are a few out there who are saying to themselves |I can’t believe I am spending my time reading what this ‘old fart; has to say”.
Hey, no problem. Some of you, sadly, won’t be fortunate enough to join the over 65 club … for those who do get lucky, it will come sooner than you think. Bottom line, though, is you better plan on reaching it someday and figure out how you are going to handle certain things, because if you don’t give some serious thought to what you will do about certain life decisions, you may find yourself in a position of having decisions made for you by the calendar and you just being a passenger along for the ride.
My apologies in advance to my non-American readers because most of this article is very specifically addressed to US-specific issues and benefits. Those from other countries, though, can still use this as a springboard to know their own country’s rules and options.
One thing that has amazed me over the last decade or so of my life is how little most Americans know about the benefits/bills they are going to face and how little they do to plan for them. I include myself in a lot of that statement, so don’t get angry thinking I am talking down to you … this article is directed as much at me as anyone else.
My first and foremost suggestion for having a better than average life after 65? (and this will certainly be my most controversial I think). Let me put it as gently as I can … GET THE HELL OUT OF DEBT. I really had this driven home a few months ago when I made a rare visit back to the USA. Even though I was born in the USA and lived a lot of my life there, I can’t get my head wrapped around the attitude so many seem to have … “I deserve it … and … “It’s only so much per month”.
You don’t need a new car … or two. You don’t need $100 plus per month cell phone bills. For sure you don’t need a hundred a month or so to some cable company that provides you with hundreds of channels you don’t watch. You don’t need 55 different medical providers (as one lady wrote me about, telling me the reasons she couldn’t move to the Philippines). You sure as hell don’t need season tickets to spend a couple hundred a game on going to tailgate parties in order to watch a bunch of overweight so-called athletes kick a ball up and down a field while you freeze your butt off. You want all that stuff? Hey, it’s a free country, go ahead and sign up for it, but don’t come whining tome in your 60’s that “if only” you weren’t so deep in debt you would be able to move to the Philippines or whatever else it is you have now settled on as a life’s dream. The only reason you are in debt is you, and the person who can end the merry-go-round ride is also you.
One reason that I am having a very good 65th year so far is … I live simply, I don’t owe anyone money. I don’t ever have a sleepless night worrying about meeting payments and when I do die, my wife will not be saddled with a mountain of bills. You might enjoy learning how a large family can live their dream in the US on a tiny fraction of what you are probably spending per year or as a contrary thought, how you could come here to the Philippines and live for a few years and literally erase your debt … the honorable way, by paying it off.
My next though is going to be pretty unpopular with some too .. but it is by far he next most important item the majority of Americans need to address: START SAVING MONEY, Now! Today!
Oh, I can hear the moans and groans now. I’ve heard them for so many years, one excuse after another. They all sort of meld into a sad litany … a litany of people convincing themselves right into their own “hole” in life because they just won’t face reality and have enough vision to see how they cam construct their own way out of the bind they are in. America has a distinction I’m not proud of. It has the lowest personal savings rate of any developed country. Make it, burn it up and then beg for more is not the official US of A motto, but they way so many people act these days you would think it is.
The basic truth is, not only can you afford to save money, you absolutely must, unless you are planning to jump off this train of life before you reach that magic year you turn 65. Why do I insist you can save without even knowing your own personal situation? because I do, that’s why. I haven’t failed to learn something over the years, you know.
Think this through. Suppose the next time any money come in .. from your regular J*O*B paycheck, your pension account, your commission checks … whatever sources are paying your bills and providing electricity for you to read these words right now … suppose that source was reduced 10%, permanently, the next time you get paid.
Well you’d be pissed. You’d be upset. You might even be sick to your stomach worrying about how you’d make it through to the end of the month. But unless you are hopelessly mentally unstable, you’d live. You knuckle down and make the changes necessary. You’d cut back, you’d postpone, you’d make alternative arrangements … whatever. And you’d probably be thinking horrible thoughts about the person/persons involved in putting the pay cut into place, but life would go on.
So riddle me this? If you know, for sure, that an involuntary 10% pay cut would be endurable .. and you’d do what’s necessary to survive it,then why would you “do what is necessary” for the low-life blankety-blanks who theoretically cut your pay … yet you won’t take the action you need to, today, for you to benefit?
Save 10% of your income, starting now … this very minute. DO NOT make yourself the promise you’ll save at the end of the month when the bills are paid. There’s a huge chance you’ll cheat yourself more months than not. Take control of your own life this very minute and put 10% of whatever comes your way in a separate bank account right now, starting today. Then shift priorities, cut back, re-structure, whatever else needs doing to make it through to next pay period … where you will put 10% in the bank and start the process over again.
It will get easier and easier, I guarantee. And some day, if we “old farts” don’t vote you out of the “life” club, you’ll be sitting there thinking about the Social Security, Medicare, Long Term Care insurance, senior discounts and all the other issues that come along with that 65th birthday … and you’ll face most of the issues with a smile .. why?
Because you will have money in the bank and will be living your life for you … not dancing like a typical American “debt puppet” the way so many are today. There aren’t a lot of guarantees in life, but one I can assure you is true … you’ll be way happier out of debt than mired in it … and you can take that to the bank.
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WELCOME!!
We over that magic marker welcome you!!
The next mile stone is 3 score an 10!!
Thank you Fred, I’m looking for ward to that marker too … Lord willing and the creek don’t rise as they say..
Happy Birthday
I sold cars in St. Petersburg Fl., while waiting to go back to sea, I was amazed at how people bought cars, the price was never important, just the monthly nut. I was joking with my boss about that fact, when he smiled and said “We could sell the idiots, Lear Jets, if we could get the monthly payment low enough.” I’ll be 63 in July, I’m just a young whippersnapper.
@ Paul, Indeed, the monthly nut seems all that most people worry about. That’s why the US has such a huge cell phone industry. Have a phone made in China for $30 wholesale … the kind you can buy from ny mall in the Philippines for $30 to $60 … you should see the lovely phone Mita just got for $70 bucks.
The take that $50 phone to the US, and pout a price tag of $299 on it. A few dingbats will buy it outright, but the real money is in selling it for a dollar or even free, when they sign up for an $89 a month “unlimited” monthly plan for 2 or 3 years.
If you do the math you’ll understand the phone company is making way north of $50 a month profit out of that plan, so in a typical 24 month lock-in plan that Americans can’t wait to stand in line for, the Phone company has made way over $12,00 on that cheap $50 phone … and how many ever cancel the plan when it’s done.
Selling cell phones to Americans is a better deal, I think, than having a license to print money. Top print money you need expensive machines, costly inks an paper and you have to meat strict quality standards … cell phone carriers would have to look “quality” up in the dictionary to even understand what it means … and at the end of the process, you can only sell a hundred dollar bill for no more than a hundred dollars … selling cell phone to gullible Americans is a much better deal