medianet

Monday, March 11, 2019

Saver to Spender Transition


I recently saw an article on Moneywatch about a dedicated retirement saver who was having trouble changing to a spender after retiring.  This is understandable: if you spent 40 years saving for retirement, you need to change to a spender after retirement.  Changing behaviour can be difficult.  I experienced this difficulty myself.

How did my spouse and I handle it?  At first, I kept worrying about the money and underspending our budget.  We had always lived on a monthly budget.  To fix my frugal ways, we ran our financial plan including budget by a Financial Planner, who said the plan was good.  For the next year, we spent according to this budget, making sure to spend all the money in the budget.  Then we checked our financial plan and budget with a Planner again, who said we were fine.  Having spent all the money, seen that the budget was fine, and having two checkups, we (I) made the transition from saver to spender.

photo credit: flickr

Disclaimer: this is not professional investment or retirement advice and should be used at your own risk. The author is not a licensed financial advisor. You should not believe everything on the Internet including this blog and should check multiple sources possibly including a professional financial advisor before making decisions.

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

I Don't Like South Florida

Hallandale HS (Not A Prison)


I have come to the conclusion that I don't like south Florida.  Granted, the weather is great in January, February, March and there are nice beaches, but it's not my cup of tea.

  1. Anyone with money lives in a gated community, because of the crime I guess.  You feel confined in your compound if you rent a condo or house.  You have to drive out of your guarded compound to shop, sightsee, eat..
  2. Traffic is bad and the drivers are terrible.  The roads are full of a toxic mixture of elderly drivers, lost tourists, and hotheads weaving in and out.  Texting while driving seems to be the state sport. 
  3. Inequality is everywhere.  You see lots of people sleeping on the streets or struggling to survive along with lots of Rolls Royces, Bentleys, huge yachts, and Ferraris.
  4. Lots of Trump lovers in Florida.  There is a huge billboard on the highway near our rented condo that says "God Bless You President Trump for Making America Great Again!"
  5. No one cares about the environment.  Our condo has no recycling facilities and no one seems to care about littering highways, streets, parking lots.
  6. High schools look like prisons with lots of concrete, no windows, big fences, and cops guarding the entrances due to recent massacres.  They do have big football stadiums - not sure what that has to do with education.
  7. The prime requirements to be a local TV news reporter or anchor is to be female, good looking, slim, and have large artificial breasts.  Feminism seems to have missed this state.
  8. This is the state for weird stuff.  If you don't believe me, follow Florida Man on Twitter, who reports on all the weird stuff happening in Florida.  Most recent tweet "Florida Man Seen Riding Naked on Bicycle Down I-95" , link here.