vtsnowedin
Elite Member
True enough.
Are you "lucky"if you have a secure retirement?
- Thread starter JDgreen227
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In some cases but there are a lot of people who don't always have choices or don't have the information to make good choices. Also people make it through but they usually get help from somewhere. It's not just all about good old American fortitude, sorry. It's not just about choices. A friend choose to go into the military and he's an invalid and has mental problems now and will never work again. Lucky he has some help now but was that a bad choice to go into the military? Well I don't know but it was a choice. Some people might think it was a bad choice. That's just one example. People can choose and make the wrong decision. It's quite easy. What I don't like is smugness and I'm not saying you are but If you have what you need and more thank your lucky stars or God or whatever you believe in because it's not just due to our amazing shrewdness and all the smart moves and choices we made. If someone is not capable of making good choices then I hope they will still be able to get help so that they can but the way things are going I'm not so sure it will always be like that in this country.
newbury
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A quick glance at the map indicates MISSISSIPPI IS #1!
Having lived there about half time since 2009, and been invested by marriage there since 1984, I have to say that's one of the few times Mississippi comes out #1.
It's good for retirement but it's no place to raise children and expect to use the public education system. We've a niece who was an elementary teacher in Fulton and she moved to Hawaii, teaches there and loves it.
And low cost of living often goes along with low wages and high unemployment, something the average pensioner isn't too concerned with.
But then I'm selling out of the DC area and moving to Mississippi.
You're not listening. I'm not saying it's all about choices. It's just like almost everything else out there. It's about balance.
What I'm saying is that planning well and making good choices allows you to take advantage of opportunity (good luck) and weather adversity (bad luck).
Obviously, if you're dealt a very bad hand and have nothing but bad luck you will not succeed no matter how smart/diligent/etc. you are. On the flip-side, there are people out there with so much luck (huge inheritances, for instance) that they can do tons and tons of stupid stuff and still have what most of us would consider a dream life.
But suggesting that it all comes down to luck strikes me as both amazingly cynical and terribly demotivating. It's exactly the sort of attitude I see most in people that make long series of poor choices. Because why work hard, plan, sacrifice, etc. if it's all going to turn out however it's going to turn out no matter what you do?
I have known a bunch of people that have smoked and when they've talked about quitting they say that they don't see the point because they could get hit by a bus tomorrow. Well, that's true. If you get hit by a bus tomorrow then the smoking didn't matter. But if you don't get hit by that bus then you might not get to take the same advantage of that "extra time" as everybody else the bus misses.
A friend of mine grew up in a very modest home and ended up an unwed teenage mother. She didn't have much support and things were hard for her for a lot of years. Most young women in that situation resign themselves to a life of just scraping by. She realized that she was starting with a big disadvantage and worked extra-hard in school, did the legwork to find grants/scholarships/loans/etc. to get her through college and then worked hard to advance professionally. Now, she is a great provider for her fantastic daughter. I understand that in a lot of ways she was very lucky, but she went looking for that luck. Do you see what I mean?
timswi
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I pay $5500 in prop taxes and don't have a paved road, gas, sewage or water...Electric and cable are my only public utilities, the rest is on me. I have a decent place but it ain't Biltmore. :smiley_aafz:
Went though the ringer and back to make certain we wouldn't be mortgage poor when we built this house (succeeded there) only to find out they'll get at least $500 a month for the gubment ransom as long as I'm above room temperature.
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JDgreen227
Super Member
Maybe I should re-post the story of my cousin who lives in a 5,000 square foot home on 80 acres in southern Michigan and is a multimillionaire with a huge company, while I have another cousin the same age who lives in a run-down 110 year old farmhouse on a half acre a half mile down the road from him. Guess what? These cousins grew up in near-identical households. But one wanted to work and advance and one wanted to coast along and get by. Guess my rich cousin only had good luck, and the lazy one only had bad luck? What a crock of s***.......
riptides
Super Member
So the rich guy coasted into a lucrative career with a huge company? Wow. Good for him.
murphy1244
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Sounds like a Rich Dad, Poor Dad story.
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JDgreen227
Super Member
So the rich guy coasted into a lucrative career with a huge company? Wow. Good for him.
He didn't coast...he and his father (my uncle) built it up from their hard work and one half-ton pickup truck....they worked 6-7 days a week for twenty years to build up that business. I resent your insinuation that he coasted into his career.
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