Many years ago when I first began a Master's program at NCSU, a professor asked us to record on index cards what we planned to be doing in five years. I was stuck. Up to that point, our lives had been year to year. I really had no five year goals or plans.
That memory has come back to me as the various financial planners we have been working with try to have us set goals for the next ten years or twenty years. How much money will we need? What will we want to spend it on?
And then the talk about our legacy--and how it is not just money. We are being encouraged to spend. It's our "behavior pattern" of saving which concerns a particular planner. I truly think, however, that we spend what we want to spend. However, extravagance is not a part of who we are. We should give more away and make that a bigger part of our "legacy."
The first shocker was when one planner figured out what our house would be worth in 2036. What an exercise in futility! I can't imagine we would be in this house 20 years from now and in charge of selling it. I hope the house will still be here even if we are not. Sadly the house we left in 1991 in Raleigh, North Carolina was struck by lightning and was a total loss.
The next sobering thought was when another financial planner told us that my life expectancy is 93 years but Jim's is only 91. I said that at that point we would probably both be in "assisted living." Jim contributed the thought that he was looking for me to "assist" his living! Mavve I already do!
Yesterday a Facebook friend posted the story of a Dutch couple in Platte, South Dakota, who were married for over 63 years and died within 20 minutes of each other in the nursing home room they shared. Now that seems like a good way to go!
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