One of the folks in my writing group told us that their mother just recently found out that she had stage 4 bone cancer. The prognosis is not a good one.
What was more impactful for me to hear is that she is only two years older than I am.
In between piecing together some income to go with the social security check, one of the things I have spent time doing lately is calculating how long my retirement savings will last. Between the OMG market drops and the IRS life expectancy tables and my family history, I'm guessing that there's enough, but it is hard not to have a little scarcity mentality.
My relationship with money was shaped first by parents who really screwed up. My mother's brother spent years running down her debts after she died. My father... well if he ever had anything he pretty much lost it down a bottle. I left home at 18 and came into young adulthood during the inflation years when debt was rewarded. I didn't really begin to flatten things out until the nineties, and then put together what I have in the last 15 years.
My wife has started talking about taking several weeks to travel in Europe next year and my first reaction was mild panic. I think I've shifted since hearing about my friend's mother. Only two years older! Of course I had my own bout with prostate cancer about seven years ago.
So it makes you think. We'd joked about cashing in the IRA to buy a Tesla if it looked like my last months were immanent. They'll stop production on the Tesla this year. Guess I have to consider other options.
We started planning the trip this week.
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