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Starting anew

October 6th, 2019 at 04:46 pm

That darn hacker!
I lost several posts in the April through recovery time period. And, they had such interesting titles...Billions! Kids are expensive! Life is Expensive!

Oh well, it's not like I was creating great works of fiction. Smile I am reminded though of a Thomas Edison saying. "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God, we can start anew."

For just a quick recap, life has continued and it has been expensive and busy. My daughter A made the regional volleyball team and my son R is playing fall rec lacrosse. Sports mean equipment, uniforms, league fees and associated travel expenses. Fortunately, I am able to cash flow the costs. And, what I can't, comes from savings (life expenses sinking fund.) Yes, I know I am not doing sinking funds the proper way but most everything gets paid for through cash flow and when there isn't enough, I take from savings. I'm fanatical about saving so I'm not so concerned.

What does concern me is retirement savings and whether I will have enough. Work has me traveling to Charlotte and I will have the opportunity to meet face to face with my financial advisor. He always tells me that I will have enough money. He says my frugal habits won't disappear in retirement and I'm fortunate to have a pension and health care (at a government group rate) in retirement. I am just afraid that my husband and I will live longer than anticipated. So, really, when can you ever feel comfortable with what you have saved for retirement. Maybe if I had $2 million or more saved but I'm not there.

Oh well, that is my worries. Everything else is generally good. I did recently have to finally go on blood pressure medicine. Everyone on my side of the family tree is has taken BP medicine and I'm now there at 54 years old. I am sure if I lost weight - yes, I am curvy in all the right and wrong places - my blood pressure will go down. I guess, I need to start a "Me" project and take time to walk, drink water, eat better, etc. As a mom, everyone else comes first. As a traveling employee, it is easier to work long hours on the road, grab fast food and go back to the hotel room, eat, binge Real Housewives and go to bed, only to do it all over again. I need to realize that at 54, my genes are starting to have an effect on my health. And, if I want to see my kids graduate from HS, college, marry, and kids, etc., I need to take better care of myself.

So, how is that financially related? I guess I will be looking into cost appropriate exercise options. And, maybe spending more of my per diem to eat better. I just have to start, one foot in front of the other....21 days makes a habit....

Frugal Texan, I don't have your commitment to do a stepbet or weight loss bet. But between you and CB in the City, you will be part of my motivators. Keeping posting your activities!

6 Responses to “Starting anew”

  1. Jenn Says:
    1570384107

    We're about the same age and I also have occasional work travel. It's so important in invest in your health. I started considering it part of my preparation for retirement in addition to the financial focus. If you have trouble finding time to exercise, make your first new habits dietary. You're spending the time to eat anyway, so just change what you're eating. Ideas: replace soft drinks with water. Eat an organic apple every day no matter what. Have a salad or smoothie to get 5 veggies a day.

  2. rob62521 Says:
    1570389335

    You do need to take better care of yourself and I think the first step is to realize that it is a priority. Putting others first is great, but I'm sure your family would prefer to have you around and healthy. I will say when I retired, my BP did go down. Not perfect, but the stress of my job had it up there so I have been able to cut back on some of my medicine.

    Two years before I retired we went to see our financial advisor. He did a study based on what we spend and what we have saved and our pensions and he said that I would probably run out of money when I was in my 90s (DH is 14 years old than I am.) I've been retired 4 years and hubby has been retired 11 and we haven't touched any of our retirement savings yet.

  3. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1570399472

    Good foods to help with blood pressure are beets,berries (esp. strawberries and blueberries), leafy greens, old-fashioned oatmeal (or better yet, steal cut oats) etc. If your hotel room has a fridge and/or microwave, you could do oatmeal with berries - cheap and easy. Smile

  4. Stephanie Says:
    1570403700

    All, thank you for the good suggestions and reminders. I hope to start by cutting out carbs (darn breakfast bagels) as much as possible and working fruits and veggies. Y’all have a wonderful week.

  5. CB in the City Says:
    1570454852

    Well, I'm not dieting, so I suppose you mean my commitment to exercise. For me, belonging to a gym helps. (And it's free with my Medicare Advantage plan.) I do struggle to eat right. I love all the wrong foods! But I try to work in fruits and vegetables. If you have a Sam's membership, you can get good ones pretty cheap. I always pick up raspberries when I'm there!

  6. ceejay74 Says:
    1570554496

    You may be able to recover your lost entries if you google site:familycoo.savingadvice.com.savingadvice.com keyword keyword [I mean put actual keywords there].

    If there's a little triangle it's cached; if not, I don't know if there's a way to get it. But if you see the little triangle and click and choose "cache" then you should be able to pull up the blog post, and copy/paste the contents into a new entry.

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