By adjusting your values
“So what would you like to do when you grow up?”
“I don’t know. I guess I should go to school. Try to get a good-paying job. Buy a house, a really nice house. Have some fun. Raise a family. Get a cool car. Help people out. Travel. Try to win the lottery. The usual.”
“Anything else?”
“Oh, I might want to mix things up a bit after a while. Sell the house and get an even better one in a nicer neighbourhood. Buy a really cool car. Try out a few different tropical destinations…Cuba, Barbados, etc. And relationships, they don’t always work out you know.”
“And then?”
“You mean retirement, getting old, and all that? Freedom 55?”
“Sort of.”
“Honestly, I’m not really thinking that far ahead. How many people do? Canada’s pension fund is going to be bled dry by the baby-boomer generation by then. And the U.S.A.? Unless something really weird happens, the entire country is going to be bankrupt. Might as well live for the present, and go out in a blaze of glory, as it were, early on.”
“And if you don’t?”
“Well, I’d likely try to slow down and downsize as the years wore on; that is what people tend to do. Sell the big house and get a fancy condo somewhere, maybe Florida. That’s it, I’d join the other snow birds and head south every October and return in May.
“After that?”
“Let’s see…the condo would have to be sold eventually. Don’t like to think about it, but I would probably check into a senior’s home at some point, play some Bingo, and watch The Price is Right every other day. Of course, I would also have to update my will and get my affairs in order to keep the kids from squabbling over everything. And if there is enough cash left, I might buy a real classy oak casket where my body can be stored when I pass away.”
“And your kids?”
“Oh, they are already working hard at good-paying jobs and trying to save enough money to buy a house, a really nice house…”
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