Some more grumblings. Some on retirement.

I have described this blog as being the grumblings and musings of a wayward sailor and I suppose that it is a decent description of it as I piss and man about anything that pops up.

Still, you have to realize that the perspective I write from is  not that of a young man in mid career, but of an old man nearing retirement.

As time passes we look at things differently. A lot of things that meant something when we were younger now mean little if anything.

Other things seem to matter.

Retirement isn't all it is cracked up to be if you think about things and look into the future. While I suppose if you are Bill Gates it is a little easier, but in this day and age there are a lot of things to think about.

First of all if you plan on using Social Security for even a part of your retirement you are taking a pretty good sized risk as the money for it isn't there and has not been since the LBJ administration when the Democrats plundered the fund and blew it on the failed Great Society programs.

The money for it comes from the General fund and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to be able to see that we are deep in the hole and something's gotta give.

Then you have to watch inflation which is the Great Silent thief of a person's saved earnings. Inflation can make a lifetime's worth of savings disappear overnight by simply devaluing it.

In short, the future of retirees is a case of looking into the unknown. 

Some retirees have gotten pensions from various unions and governmental jobs and when you look at the way they are funded they are financially unsustainable. Somewhere along the line something has to collapse there. Most likely thay will simply keep the retiree at a fixed pension and let inflation whittle it away down to nothing, but nobody knows.

I suppose that in my case I am simply going to just keep working until I can't anymore but I do have to admit that when I am at the point where I can retire I am going to simply relax a bit. I will then be working because I can and not that I have to.

It very well may even make me a better employee.

Still, as I age I see a lot of things change and I start looking at purchases I make as being more solid and based on the long haul. My newer pickup, for example, was based on long term thrift and reliability. There really isn't a whole lot of bling on it.

Hopefully I can get 20 years out of it if I take care of it, but we'll see.

Anyway, take a few minutes out to think about retirement.



I posted my first sermon here. Father Piccolo's first sermon


To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html