One life to live...
I recently read somewhere that the first person in recent history that will live to be 200 years old, has been born. That is amazing, don't you think? We are living longer and longer.
It does create some challenges as we need more money for retirement. Not just because of rising costs but because we have more years in which to spend our retirement funds. What do we do when our money runs out and we are too old to go job hunting?
Over the years I have encountered many retired people wrestling with this fear. When you stop earning money you have a finite amount of money and an undetermined number of years to use it in. How do you budget?
In earlier years, budgeting is the simplest of things that just about nobody gets right. You simply spend less than what you are earning. You either do it preemptively and stay in control. Or you do it later, under duress and somebody else then controls you. You end up working for money that already belongs to someone else. The greatest evil of our time is not drugs or wars or foods that cause cancer, as evil as they are. The greatest evil of our time is short-term credit!
Spend less than you earn and live free!
As challenging as budgeting might be (even though simple), there is something that you should be wrestling with more than you wrestle with your budget.
Time is impossible to budget! Simply because we do not know how much time we have!
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Today is all you have and what you do with today, that is your life. Not what you used to do, nor what you are planning to do.
I think you should be HIGHLY intentional in how you live!
When your money runs out, you can stop spending. However, you cannot stop spending time. It runs without a pause, day after day.
You can only decide WHAT you spend your time on.
Are you making good decisions in this regard? Are you being intentional?
After many years of pastoral ministry, there are two things I would like to bring to your attention that will help you make good choices in how you spend your time and in due course, your life.
The harsh reality is that once an hour or a day or a year or a life is spent, it is spent. There are no refunds. No rehearsals. When it is done, it is done...
These two things may not be relevant to your thinking if you are not of the Christian faith. However, I will find your response very interesting if you are not of my faith. Please feel free and welcome to respond.
I discovered these two things on many journeys with people. In many conversations with individuals in their last moments. In years of ministry to students dreaming about great lives and significant accomplishments. In witnessing the choices people make at important crossroads in their lives. And I discovered them in the words and story of Paul, one of my heroes, who wrote most of the New Testament of the Bible.
Do you want to know what these two things are?
I hope so, but I'm not telling you today.😁
I will tell you over the next two days and hope you will contribute to the conversation. You may disagree or agree. Mostly, I'm hoping you will share your own insight that may be very different from mine.
Thank you for joining me on this journey as I share with you two of the most significant insights from my life's journey.
What a teaser, @reonlouw! Now i can hardly wait for de 2 things!
In my experience, we kind of know what is important in life, but you don't follow through.
Every time we say "yes" to work een extra hour, we also say "no" to spending time with our loved ones.
Every time when we buy something unnecessary, and most of what we buy is unnecessary, we also choose "work" (to pay for it), instead of "time with loved ones ".
I know we sometimes buy stuff in order to feel good then and there, but the will to have more time should dominate the little ego.
I think, from time to time, is useful to ask urself "what is important to us and do we, realy, follow through with our priority list?"
Greetings from @Kryptonia, @nexit!
Thank you @nexit. I so agree. The rat race catches us all and it just makes rats of us. It is not a one-off decision to prioritise better. We need to pause every now and then and check where we are. Thank you for a very useful contribution. I'm glad the teaser worked...
The one most useful information that I would like to know is when is my last day on Earth. I certainly don't want to leave till 200 years old. I would rather have a short but quality life. One life to live, but if you live it right, one life is enough. Cheers! :-)
Thank you @quotes-haven. I love this:
You are welcome. I am pleased to hear that.
Longevity will equal working more years to sustain life, too many people are being born into the world to sustain life as it is now, no I don't ponder too much about living to 100 let alone 200 years.
Three score and ten is sufficient to do what you should be doing, that is living a balanced life, more than that is a bonus, but humans are pushing it too far.
Reach for your dreams when you are 15 work hard, play hard and save, save, save! Invest as much money/coins/tokens as possible to earn from earnings, plan a project to have retirement in sight by the age of 50 to enjoy some time with that money/coin/token or what is living?
Thinking aloud.... @kryptonia
Sound advice as always @joanstewart. I agree that longer living is not the goal. Better living should be. And you seem to have that under control!
My aunt lived to 100 years, we were pretty close with her being a spinster. When visiting her on her 100th birthday, she told me in her confident way (that was serious), I will not be here for another one! To which I retorted, well I didn't come all the way from Durban to Johannesburg not to celebrate, I don't do funerals, so let's go have some fun with the living....
Moral of the story, she did not make the next one (I also did not attend the funeral) I remember her enjoying a 'tipple' (a drink), riding my bike (and falling off laughing), having fun even thought she was 50 years older than I am (she was born 1905) - I shared her name (until I married) here she is with her "Madiba" wishes for reaching the big 100. Never wish for something, never look back with regret.....
I always believed in not making any debt, (Except for my house and later on I added my car)
I also believe in that one should do the right choices in life, as you say, you only have one life.
(Hopefully steem will help in our old age for some additional funds)
Yes! We need to fight the culture of living in debt. Thank you @rynow for contributing.
I do hope Steem will add value to our lives in the long run. Long may it last.
@reonlouw excellent post and gonna see who will be that first person to live for 200 years.. hahaha
Haha. I hope you are there to congratulate the first 100 that turns 200, @kmayegaindia
@reonlouw hehehe.. it will be great for me if i will congratulate you.. i am hoping you will be first
I've always said, "no one of their death bed ever wishes they would have worked more". And my dad was the one who taught me to spend what you have. Period. So if he bought a car, he saved up forever to get it and never believed in credit, except for his mortgage. He still doesn't :)
Great advice. Thank you @lynncoyle1! So few people today are willing to save up before buying.
You're welcome @reonlouw! We live in a world of instant gratification. It's too much work to wait!
Good Post and Good Project @kryptonia
Thank you @yadyasir!
Excellent Post
Kryptonia ID socialmediaseo
Thank you @socialmediaseo. Appreciated.
we must be financially educated, nice epost, im ryan in kryptonia
Thank you @buuroots
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This sounds great @yandot. Appreciated. I'm enjoying eSteem.