Comments on: Could Thinking About Death Be Good For Us?

By: One Frugal Girl

One Frugal Girl — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 12:40:50 +0000

In reply to She's FIRE'd. I've tried to write my own a couple of times and only get a few sentences in before I stumble. I am determined to write it though. The one you sent me is a great starting point to thinking about the life I want to live.

By: One Frugal Girl

One Frugal Girl — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 12:39:47 +0000

In reply to Joe Nedib. I think this is where most people struggle. You need money to live a comfortable life, but at some point you have to recognize that you can't take the excess with you! Thank you for your comment.

By: One Frugal Girl

One Frugal Girl — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 15:41:53 +0000

In reply to Cheryl. Ha! Ha! Ha! Definitely not, but if you start at age 20 and you work til age 50 in a high paying job then are you working because you need to, never considered an alternative, or because you enjoy it? Thinking about death helps us consider what is valuable if you do have an option. We don’t all have this option in life. I would bet my former VPs and highly-paid engineers do.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 15:17:25 +0000

You think someone in their 50s is too old to work? What in the world?

By: She's FIRE'd

She's FIRE'd — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 14:24:30 +0000

I have not written my own obituary yet, but I have someone else’s ticked into a folder on my desk. I didn’t even know her, though a few of my friends did. She was unconventional and lived her life according to her own terms. The pressure to conform can be subtle but intense. I try to remember what’s important- my family, and living every second I have according to MY dreams, not what everyone else thinks I should be doing.

By: Joe Nedib

Joe Nedib — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 01:51:30 +0000

Remember that you cannot buy time and good health as much as everyone would want to. You can’t take all your wealth to the grave.

By: One Frugal Girl

One Frugal Girl — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 15:19:18 +0000

In reply to steveark.

Oh Steveark, I adore your comments. I love how you always point out the opposite point of view in my posts. If I hadn’t been laid off in 2011 I would definitely have been a lifer. I started working at 21 and planned to finish at 55 so I could collect medical insurance at the company rate for the rest of my life. Yes, that’s how far in advance I envisioned my future, even as a recent college graduate! I am so glad that you enjoyed your career and that you look back on it fondly. I wonder if I shouldn’t have searched for a more technical company sooner in my career. I worked in the banking industry where the focus was on business, not tech. I think that soured my views as the years progressed. I loved my early years of work, solving problems, learning new things, and working with great team members. I don’t know how many of my former coworkers are having fun or enjoying their careers, but I hope they feel the same way you do. 32 years can feel like an instant or a lifetime, depending on how you feel about your career. Thank you for reminding me of that!

I am sorry about your second CPR experience. It’s amazing that you were able to bring someone back to life and equally amazing that you tried to bring the second back to life too. Seeing the man on the beach reminded me that I should review these skills. I haven’t taken a CPR class in a very long time and I think some things have changed since then.

By: steveark

steveark — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 20:54:25 +0000

We are all so different. I started work with the goal of running the billion dollar company I interned at my last summer of college, which I did by the time I was 41. I worked there, for three different corporations who bought it out, for over 32 years and if I could go back I wouldn’t change a thing. Work was enormously fulfilling for me, it allowed my wife to do what she wanted, be a stay at home mom, and still let us live well while accumulating wealth. Some of my best moments were all about work, others were about my wife or my three kids but my life would have been diminished without the career I had. It was just mostly fun most of the time. I won’t look back on my death bed wishing I had worked more hours, but neither will I wish I had worked less. Your example sure brought back some memories, I was the only guy available to administer CPR on a dead person two different times in my life. One I brought back and he is still living 35 years later and one who was totally beyond hope, having been crushed by a tree. That one I try not to think about, it was beyond words.