BC: ONE MAN's PASSION
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To: Mike Buckley who wrote (17917)
From: LindyBill Monday, Feb 14, 2000 10:13 AM ET
Reply # of 17950
RE: Retirement Planning
There have been a lot of posts from people on this thread about "retirement planning". I had my share of "retirement planning" when I was a sales rep for an insurance co in the '60s. Most of this planning comes out of a can, and the first thing it is designed to do is to make sure the planner gets paid, and does not get sued!
A lot of retirement planning is about doing things to maximize the amount of money you can leave someone else. In order to do this, you usually have to maximize the amount of complications in "doing as you please" presently.
I put Retirement Planners in the same context as I usually put Business Consultants:
"A guy who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is, and keeps your watch!"
I think that most of us are not going to have a problem with how to handle our retirement planning. Our problem is going to be Estate Planning!
I also think that most of us on this thread are smarter than the retirement planners we are likely to run into. We need accounting and tax advice, but we should get it, and then fit it to our lives, not do it because the Accountant or Lawyer tells us too. I think the most important thing is to enjoy what you have, not spend all your time figuring out how to leave it to someone else who did not earn it!
What I am saying is, run your life to maximize your enjoyment of your life. Don't spend much time trying to get out of paying taxes. Pay the bastards what you have to, and get on with your life!
I am fortunate enough to know exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life.
DANCE!
And I am arranging my life to maximize my enjoyment of it. I find people, who do not have a major passion in life, as I do, have a hard time really understanding that. Musicians understand it. Most people who pursue other artistic endeavors do also.
I already have plenty of money to indulge this activity, and I intend to have more. So what else will I do with it?
I have already financed the down payment, for my two sons, for homes. This has done more to enrich their lives, and their family's lives, than anything else I could find to do for them has. I will continue to look for things I can do to help. I will probably pay for some family vacations for them. But, I will not go along on the vacations!
Giving them money does not give you the right to tell them what to do, or to try to run their lives. Whatever I do for them, I am not going to set around and tell them how much I have done, or fish for "thank yous". Don't fall into the old trap of saying, "How can you treat me like this after all I have done for you!"
When you help people, you run the major risk of making them dislike you!
But I have 10 Grandchildren. Here I can have some fun. I have always found that children pay absolutely no attention to what you tell them, but close attention to what you do. So I do not plan to use my money to lecture them, but to have fun with them. I am not the type of person who plays with my Grandchildren when they are babies, or tells them stories. I would like to do things for them, as they become teenagers that they will remember. I like the line,
"If Mom and Dad say NO, dial 1-800-Grandpa!"
I find that that one of the most important things to have is a "passion" in your life. To have something you care about deeply, and pursue vigorously. So I look for things the grandchildren seem to have a passion for, and encourage that to the extent I can, without interfering with what their parents want.
For instance, I have encouraged the interest in dancing for two of them. One of them, my 12 year old Grand Daughter, has become the best swing dancer, for her age, in the country. Her parents love the fact that she is into it and doing so well, and I have the fun of taking her along with me to various dance events.
I have offered to, and will pay for, summer camps of their choice for any of them. As they get older, I will finance USA and overseas trips for them. As I detect any artistic interest, in any of them, that I can encourage, I will be happy to finance it.
Educational Trusts are an easy out. I don't like them because the kids control the money, and what they do with it is out of your hands. I will be forced to it, to some extent, because it is the only way I can make sure that they get extra money for school, if I die too soon to give it to them. The Schools use it to figure scholarship money, which I hate. If I slip it to them under the table, it does not count.
If they have the ability to handle a college education, I would like to be able to offer then the additional assistance they would need, to be able to pursue it without having to work their way though. Same thing if they want to go a non-college education, into business, etc. I remember the line from "The Richest Man in Babylon", and will make sure that they have some money left over to "jingle in their pocket" and enjoy! I want to make sure that they are doing well enough to have a good time while going though the years from say 18 to 22.
Those are my plans so far. I will await your answers that tell me what I am doing wrong! :0)
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