A close family member of mine had to go into assisted living, there was no choice. She was in bad shape. $8,000 a month. Her husband, a smart man, had been paying for long-term health insurance for a long time. They paid $0 of that $8,000 a month, only paid for extras. I would recommend getting it. As far as the mental health crisis goes most people just need to toughen up.
LTC insurance is not usually worth it. my mother had it and she could only use it when she was so bad, she only had around one year to live and it was limited to something like 3k per month when she need much more support. a better option would have been to invest the same amount she put away every month for 25 years into a mutual funds.
The whiners here, it's amazing. What a weak generation.
Get a good job and do it well. Work overtime whenever you can. Save your money instead of blowing it on experiences and material garbage. Max your 401k for about 20 years. Only then you get to relax. But you will relax all the way to the end.
If you are unselfish and leave most of your money to your kids, they will have it easier than you. Die with the good feeling that you gave someone a good life.
If your children do the same, and their do the same, in about 3-4 generations your great great great grandchildren will be the 1%.
You didn't even list the complicated stuff. Everything above can be figured out. None of it is complicated.
The hard stuff is:
* what diet should I follow
* how should I train
* what health metrics should I track and what do they mean
* which media outlets lie less
* which politicians are grifters
* which social media influencers are grifters
* have any social media or trad media actually thought about what they are saying or are they just repeating talking points
* am I following for propaganda and will I know it when it happens
* which political party if more evil
* am I being duped
* have I just picked a team and am rationalitizing everything so I don't have to consider that they or I might be wrong some of the time
* is modern technology making my life better, or just contributing to all the above
* how to make a list without duplicating ideas
Or I could have just said living in a post truth world, especially one where we have seen things we've taken for fact flip-flop, is hard. Which might be why we stick to our tribe. Living in a world of ever changing nuances is hard.
The whiners here, it's amazing. What a weak generation.
Get a good job and do it well. Work overtime whenever you can. Save your money instead of blowing it on experiences and material garbage. Max your 401k for about 20 years. Only then you get to relax. But you will relax all the way to the end.
The problem is that you may not live long enough to enjoy what you've worked for. I know quite a few people who've died before 50 and never got to enjoy that 401k. Some risks like car accidents, heart disease, and murder can be reduced but not eliminated, and there are an awful lot of things that are completely unpreventable like brain cancer, nail melanoma, ALS, and so on.
You work hard, do lots of overtime, stockpile cash, and forgo experiences and material things. A month before you retire, that stomach pain you've brushed off as something else turns out to be incurable pancreatic cancer, and you have less than a year to live. The cancer treatments will leave you too worn down to cross off the things on your bucket list, and if you seek palliative care instead, you'll die even earlier.
Is that how you want to go out? F*** that, I'd rather do the things I want to now and throw myself off a bridge at 80 (with zero cents to my name at that time) if I live that long. And I'll do that with a big smile on my face because most 80+ year olds are in long term care and can't do anything aside from watching TV, playing bingo, and going to doctors appointments. For me, that's not a life worth living.
I got a pamphlet the other day about long-term disability insurance offered through my workplace. Leaving aside the fact that being disabled for life is something depressing to think about. Does it make sense to get this insurance? Impossible to really know. This made me think about how complex modern life is.
Long-term disability insurance
Whole life insurance
Term life insurance
Car insurance
Home insurance
Health insurance
401(K)
Roth 401(K)
IRA
Roth IRA
Health Savings Account
Employee Stock Purchase Program
.....
Hunter-gatherers or ancient Greeks didn't have to think about any of this stuff
I had great grandparents live past 100 and they never had any of those things. But one died with cancer at 40, leaving his wife with 5 kids + pregnant with a sixth. His wife pretty much lost her mind, leaving her daughter (my grandma) to look after her siblings. My grandma took her dad’s gun & shot what she could, so they would have something to eat. She was 11. While grandma never said a word to me about those days, I’m sure life was very stress free.
The whiners here, it's amazing. What a weak generation.
Get a good job and do it well. Work overtime whenever you can. Save your money instead of blowing it on experiences and material garbage. Max your 401k for about 20 years. Only then you get to relax. But you will relax all the way to the end.
The problem is that you may not live long enough to enjoy what you've worked for.
You have been taught to quit instead of thrive. Try LIVING for today while planning for tomorrow. It's one thing that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.
So many Darwin cases. Probably better off letting them go to survive the species that will thrive. Natural selection. I choose not to give handouts but rather handups. If they refuse, so be it.
The problem is that you may not live long enough to enjoy what you've worked for.
You have been taught to quit instead of thrive. Try LIVING for today while planning for tomorrow. It's one thing that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.
So many Darwin cases. Probably better off letting them go to survive the species that will thrive. Natural selection. I choose not to give handouts but rather handups. If they refuse, so be it.
You strike a balance. Put a little aside for tomorrow, but also spend a little on experiences and material goods today.
Most importantly, don't work a super stressful job or pull lots of overtime. It's not worth it. I chatted up some locals on my trip to Europe last year, and you know what one of them told me?
"I don't know why so many of you Americans talk about freedom but work like slaves."
They work 35 hour weeks and have 5 weeks of vacation a year.
And now you know why the Nordics consistently rank as the happiest countries in the world, even with their very long and dark winters. Everything on the OP's list is handled by social welfare programs run by the government. And that is all just for starters. There is free college, free child care, paid family leave for parents, 5 weeks paid vacation for everyone, clean, efficient and affordable public transportation and housing assistance.
What the Nordics do not have that we have is huge disparities in income. In the Nordics, people do not worry about not having a fancy car, a big house, etc. because no one has that stuff. Instead of spending all their time chasing material things and fearing financial ruin, people in the Nordics spend their time enjoying being with friends, going hiking, skiing, exercising, etc.
wrong. most people would be dead by 40 due to the lack of antibiotics. It's just a simple fact. >90% of the population would not be around now without antibiotics and modern medicine.
I got a pamphlet the other day about long-term disability insurance offered through my workplace. Leaving aside the fact that being disabled for life is something depressing to think about. Does it make sense to get this insurance? Impossible to really know. This made me think about how complex modern life is.
Long-term disability insurance
Whole life insurance
Term life insurance
Car insurance
Home insurance
Health insurance
401(K)
Roth 401(K)
IRA
Roth IRA
Health Savings Account
Employee Stock Purchase Program
.....
Hunter-gatherers or ancient Greeks didn't have to think about any of this stuff
absolutely
get away from losers all which is the majority
make a plan, work 7 days a week and spend nothing but on good food.
then travel to SE Asia and go back packing for 6 months or so.
then hole out in a cabin for another six months
and think of nothing
don't get too drunk ever
don't become friends with anyone with drama, period.
your mind will repair by itself
whenever you think of something annoying, go for a run or bike ride or meditate at a temple,
which is to do nothing except absorb nature
you being will gradually know what to do, asking nobody
i did this for a couple of years, went back to complicated business, it took several years to wipe the smile off my face.
losers and losing situations will gradually make you ill again.
if that happens go to the top of this advice schedule.
I got a pamphlet the other day about long-term disability insurance offered through my workplace. Leaving aside the fact that being disabled for life is something depressing to think about. Does it make sense to get this insurance? Impossible to really know. This made me think about how complex modern life is.
Long-term disability insurance
Whole life insurance
Term life insurance
Car insurance
Home insurance
Health insurance
401(K)
Roth 401(K)
IRA
Roth IRA
Health Savings Account
Employee Stock Purchase Program
.....
Hunter-gatherers or ancient Greeks didn't have to think about any of this stuff
Not too complicated.
Too simple.
Too easy.
Too safe.
And too full of all the dumb dehumanizing scam crap on your list.
You have been taught to quit instead of thrive. Try LIVING for today while planning for tomorrow. It's one thing that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.
So many Darwin cases. Probably better off letting them go to survive the species that will thrive. Natural selection. I choose not to give handouts but rather handups. If they refuse, so be it.
You strike a balance. Put a little aside for tomorrow, but also spend a little on experiences and material goods today.
Most importantly, don't work a super stressful job or pull lots of overtime. It's not worth it. I chatted up some locals on my trip to Europe last year, and you know what one of them told me?
"I don't know why so many of you Americans talk about freedom but work like slaves."
They work 35 hour weeks and have 5 weeks of vacation a year.
My parents lived during the Depression, World War 2, Cold War, Vietnam War, etc. and they worked their tails off every day and never whined about it. Gird up snowflakes, life is hard. That’s what makes it so satisfying, if you can navigate it. Everyone wants to be financially comfortable, economically secure, happy and not overworked, and wake up every day with the world by the b**ls, but that’s a fantasy. Work hard and maybe you’ll get some things coming to you. If you don’t want to work hard then you’re soft and making the world a lesser place.
Yea, it's why more and more people are deciding just to drop out of society
Nope, more like:
Video Games
Porn
Social Media
Drugs
Alcohol
"Parents".....
50%+ babies born out of wedlock
Social-Emotional-Depression
Homelessness or not leaving the home.
7 million+ able-bodied men choosing not to work and not even seeking employment. Why would they want to do more than just ask for government handouts? It's all part of the plan! Prepare yourselves for being more financially responsible for these deadweight, useless contributors.
Agree.
At the same time the folks pushing the things on your list are the same ones having massive wealth funneled their way through IRAs and 401ks. And they use the taxman as a stick to get you to put resrouces into their system.
It is all connected. Both lists are valid. The same folks benefit from all of the above.