I’m still thinking about life.   I’m thinking about chunks of time.  I think decades seem to be a logical chunk of life-time even though planning 3, 5, 7-year chunks seems easier to plan for. 

So here I go with more random thoughts:

At 25, maybe you were working a good job.  Your life was rolling along.  You had things figured out. 

15

Think back 10 years earlier when you were 15.  You knew a lot about life at 15.  You were well into high school.  You had friends who were or were almost 18, practically adults, maybe even 18, and full-on official adults.  You were able to talk with them intelligently, geez you were almost a legal adult yourself, almost.  You knew things!

25

Now back at 25, you have lived thousands more days since 15.  You’ve had so many more experiences and lessons since you were 15.  You are truly an adult—living an adulting life—being a productive member of society…you really do have things figured out, now.

35

Now think about being 35.  Whoa, there’s so much more you’ve experienced than by the time you were 25.  This is really the adult phase of life.  You’re in the middle, the mist of “30 something.”  It’s almost unbelievable how long ago school was.  How long ago it has been since you knew so much at 15, or even 25.

55, 65, 75, 85, ??

While it’s great to be smart and aware of the things around you at each age— giving you a great perspective on life—do not for one second of your thousands of days in the past and believe you have more figured out than an older person.

While I’m not sure if the knowledge growth rate/curve is so steep into 45, 55, or 65, there is no doubt the experience(s) add(s) up.  The experiences of adult life will differ from youthful experiences.  It’s possible some of the adult experiences may duplicate those of your past but you handle the issue in a different way.  It may be possible that you handle a similar issue in the same way and realize it was incorrect decision/action BOTH times.  That’s life.  We make mistakes, we learn from mistakes, and it may take a few tries at the same mistake to get it right/better.  “Be better”

Spock

It’s not easy to learn from all our mistakes, and extremely hard to learn from other’s mistakes unless we’re very thoughtful and logical in our processing, but remember, Spock was an alien from Vulcan and most of us do not have the DNA (he has DNA right?) to be “only logical” in all decision making.

People

I always find much to learn from people, as long as I’m paying attention.  The learning is often from people older than me or more experienced in areas, but it can also be a younger person with more experience, or insight, in an area, or many areas.   [I’m thinking of a future post idea now, brilliant]

Before you think “OK Boomer,” it may be wiser to think “hmmm, Boomer may have experiences I don’t.”  I guess it’s also the same that older people have not experienced life/adolescence the way a young person has.  There’s plenty to learn with another decade of experiences.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

Sometimes my head just starts thinking.  This thinking can head down many paths, and frequently calculations are involved.  I don’t know why, they just are. 

In one recent brainwave activity pattern, I realized that one day you’re 25 years old, and then the next week you are 45.  That is almost how the decades happened— without thinking about it too much at the time, but looking back, it is definitely a “whoa” moment.

It seems life gets in a routine, or more specifically a groove, and the time passing by turns into larger and larger chunks, almost instantly.

In our case, we do not have children—life’s natural time gauge—marking schools/school years/height charts/birthday parties, the sort of life events that mark time into chunks.  I never took Physics, so I assume there’s more applicable terminology than “natural time gauge.”

To make time flow even more seamlessly, we live in Arizona, where looking out the window every day reveals the same sunny blue sky, day after day.  I often say the only way to tell the season when looking out the window is to touch the glass and feel its temperature.  Cool, hot, or super hot.

In looking back at my lifetime, I see that everything flowed along in the groove/routine year after year.  Knowing that flow now, I realize how important it was to have a smart structure of saving, living nicely, living wisely, giving, and having a network so that as the years went by that structure remained mostly constant, or in many cases improved naturally. 

Our financial saving, and tracking of our expenses became more fine-tuned and optimized over time without too much additional effort.  There was no need for us to have that “oh man, we’re so far behind, we really need to get it together” moment.  We tried to structure for the future, which is the now, and the upcoming decades.

We lived smallish lives.  For example, we never had the too-nice-for-us cars that required thought about changing to less expensive cars.  We tended to buy at least 3-year-old cars and drive them for 10 years.  This ownership strategy gave us plenty of time to really figure out which car we wanted to purchase next. We did research and used price optimization, even avoiding sales tax buying from private parties.  All of which saved SO much money over the decades. 

Our vehicles were a large example of the delayed gratification that allowed many years of future daily employment to be eliminated.  No need for a paycheck since we already saved the funds that those work hours would have earned.

An even bigger example is our home.  It’s a “starter” home.  It’s a whopping 1026 square feet.  It’s a nice but small home.  It happens to be in an almost perfect location.  We’re 3 houses from a 10,000 acre (20×3 mile?) mountain preserve with running, mountain biking, hiking trails, and a lot of privacy.  Speaking of privacy, our home is on the uphill side of a large (100’ across?) mountain drainage wash.  Our backyard is almost totally private.  During the day (yes, we get to use our house/yard up to 168 hours per week) there’s almost nobody around, especially with regard to our backyard viewing area.  The decision to stay in our starter home decades ago helped us stay in our home these days (rather than in the office these days).

Not only is the starter home size small, but so was the purchase price and loan payments.  It’s interesting that the standard mortgage is 30 years if so many people move every 7 or so years.  (from articles I recall, I could be wrong)  Another good thing, a small home/yard is easier to maintain as the decades pass.

Heading further into our retirement I’ve been mentored by friends and cohorts who have mentioned making things easier to do, easier to manage, and easier to process.  Mark Trautmann told me “reduce the friction” of activities if you can.  He’s just brilliant.

I’ve taken this advice in bill-paying.  I know, I know-finally getting more modern than.  No longer do I have to be staged in front of a screen on/around the first of the month to give my money away.  I simply built the automation required to reduce the time-friction I had endured for decades.  Let’s be clear, my manual online bill-paying process had far less friction than the older days of driving checks to some of the local companies you owe money to (Bob do you hear me?).  That’s how my dad trained my mom to pay the bills almost 20 years ago.  Now, I get a notification telling me a payment will be made in a couple of days and the amount, then a notice when the payment is complete.  I let the bits and bytes work for me.

I’m now working more towards the “Set it and forget it” mentality.  Or maybe a “set it and just check on it” process.  Or even…improve it as you go. 

The point of my thought here is; you have structured your past to be where you are, good or bad.  You have the option to structure your activities and lifestyle now for the decades in the future.  Isn’t this a great time to try and put a nice, planned, well-tuned structure into place?  This may allow more time for you to enjoy your life, because you reduced the friction of everyday tasks.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.