Hi Gang:

I am in a serious dilemma! You work all your life with the intentions of building a nestegg enough to be reasonably comfortable when retiring. But, during your life you want enough money to do things before you get there. My physical condition at this age is still good enough to enjoy most of my favorite sporting activities, (hiking, backpacking, walking 18 round golf, biking) 2nd to boating. The wife has it in her mind we should do everything we can to save for the future! I say to spend a little more now where I can enjoy life and maybe go into debt with some trips and see more things like APBA, SBI boat racing. This is where we are starting to draw swords against each other and the older I get the worse it seems. What do I do? My answer, most of the time is the big D, anyone else going to give me a better solution!

are you talking about the big D and dont mean Dallas

My opinion on this matter would be biased as i just recently got annuled from the women i was engaged to for almost 4 years and then married for 5 months so my opinion is you only live once and i would much rather be 80 and say look at all of the fun stuff i have done than be 80 and say look at that pile of money lets go do some fun stuff. just my .02

yea ditto, i subscribe to the "spend it now" theory. Of course I will probably be pushing a shopping cart and retirement will not be an option, but I think ssherman said it perfectly.

It is a difficlt balance. Same at my house. Live today and pay tomorrow or pay today and live tomorrow. If you save it all and don't do anything until later you will be bored, and what if the worst happens to you. No good answer. Go see a financial planner. He will be able to tell you haw much you need to save for retirement and the rest it is ok to spend and enjoy. When you find the answer, Let me know.

This is kinda the attitude I have and I "totally agree" with ssherman and like the

"you only live once and i would much rather be 80 and say look at all of the fun stuff i have done than be 80 and say look at that pile of money lets go do some fun stuff."

I too subscribe to the spend now theory. I am putting money away every month for a modest retirement, while investing more on continuing to enjoy the things we love in life -OFFSHORES

Fortunetely my wife agrees with me, she has watched nearly all of her relatives die young. We both believe that we will enjoy life to its fullest now while we are both HEALTHY and ALIVE

Well **** "you can't take it with you" no one knows what fate has in store for us so it's been my goal to enjoy life while I can. Four years ago I rolled my quad ATV while hunting in the woods ended up with a 50% L1 compression fracture. I came dam close to being paralyzed. It takes something like that to help you adjust your priorities. My motto live and enjoy life while you can you never know when/if fate could take it all away. Remember no regrets! That brings me to the big "D". To me life is not worth living alone so use your 51% controlling interest in the marriage or that god given charm or what ever it takes to keep your life and hers alive while you are both able to enjoy it, but stay married if you can. I have been successful at this for 19 years now so I know it can work. Just my $.02 good luck.

I agree with your wife to a point. I don't think you want to be in debt in your later years as it will be harder to make the money you do now, but I also think that you should do the things you want now because you may not have the ability to so later. Don't let it screw up your marriage though, if at all possible. Try and agree on some sort of compromise between the two of you.

A while back I was talking to a young mother (18 yr old), and I asked her why her boyfriend and her had a child at that age. Her response is that we want to have a family early so that they will be out of the house while were young, so that they can go and do the things they want at a later time. I looked at her and said "You have your way of thinking, backwards". Do the things in life that you want to do that require you to be in physical shape for. I think I kind of got her thinking, Oh Well to late.

Anyhow I agree. If there are things you want to do now I think that they should be budgeted in to your life while you can enjoy them. Lord knows I'm going to be working at Taco Bell when I semi-retire.

Les

One of the wonders of the world COMPOUNDING INTEREST!!!!! Got to find the balance that allows you to save and have fun.

Jon

There is one thing about life that is for sure...Life is no dress rehearsal. I believe in playing today, within your means, cause there may not be a tomorrow. I would hate to be sitting in a chair at age 65 with bundles of money in the bank and thinking I wished I done things differently. Have fun now while you can cause regrate is a terrible thing!