Lifestyle, Time, Money, the Southern, and Parker shotguns

[MrBojangles]

Originally Posted by Pete Lester

Ian I don't think anyone can answer this for you. However, you forgot to add a third variable, your health and your mobility. The risk you may still be alive, have a pile of money and not be able to enjoy much of anything.

Go back and look at the meme I posted, each of us has to find a comfortable balance between money and time. We all face the risk of running out of one or the other or both. Retirement is really a question of do you believe you have really good odds that you can be both secure and content with what you have and what you can do before time runs out.

For me the main reason I am not going to the Southern is I just don't feel like making such a long trip requiring me to skirt through several heavily congested areas. I am content with just going to Hausmann's which is much closer to me and much nicer drive.

Good luck to you going forward. Perhaps this will help with your decisions around retirement. I have been a member of this forum for around 25 years and found helpful information in it along the way.

https://www.early-retirement.org/

Thank you for the link!

For me, it’s simply a matter of living within my means, which I will do, but, hopefully, there will be enough to do a fair amount of fun stuff along the way. If there isn’t, so be it. But, that would be a disappointment.

I’m definitely not going to work until a grizzled old age—I want out of the rat race. I have somewhat of an idea what I’ll get in retirement and it’s LESS than I am getting now, but then I’m not saving for retirement anymore as well. (What a stupid idea it was to move away from pensions and towards workers saving for their retirement in 401ks!). The variables are how much will my retirement funds increase over time and will that be enough to account for inflation.

I think around the year 2030 I’ll make it to the Southern. How many years after that depends on funds and health, I suppose. And, admittedly, I’m not a particularly good shot—a combination of too many hours at work and not enough time on the skeet field and being right handed and left eye dominant.

[Scott Smith]

Learn to shoot left-handed. It’s not that difficult.

[24 grams]

I’m not a particularly good shot—a combination of too many hours at work and not enough time on the skeet field and being right handed and left eye dominant.

Look into a dot matrix made with a sharpie on the left lens. That is what a friend who is both an ophthalmologist and a Master class shooter does.

[Keith Sirmans]

Oh wow who had the shooting shirts there? I like the Yellow one

[Victor Wasylyna]

Originally Posted by Ian Civco

Okay, I’m jealous…

https://www.southernsidebyside.com/

How do you all do this? It’s a lifestyle, for sure.

The comraderie, meet good folks, hang out with old friends, handle nice shotguns, perhaps buy one or a few.

And it’s not just this event, but several throughout the year.

It seems to me it’s conducive to being retired after having a well above average income throughout one’s career.

The problems I have are good luck getting any appreciable time off from work these days, when you do, the wife won’t have fun at something like the southern, not to mention the costs of getting and staying there, and, being I’m still working, I’m probably younger than many on this forum and never experienced the appreciable wage growth of some of our older members.

Which means attending several events of the year is out of the question as is purchasing a handful of fine Parkers at these events.

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered: "Man! Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.

- Victor

[Mike Franzen]

I’ll never forget visiting my uncle in the hospital while he was recovering from a stroke about 15 years ago. He was my hunting buddy from the time I was a very young boy. We were talking about hunting and he was asking me when I was going to go again. I started making the usual excuses about time and money. He looked at me and said, “ You better stop putting things off or you’re going to regret it.” I decided right then I was going to start saying YES instead of making excuses. Once I made that decision it seemed the universe aligned with what I truly wanted and my life just took off. Have the courage to say yes!

[J. A. EARLY]

I retired at 62, received a package to get rid of me and I couldn't be happier. Now eight years later at almost 71 and due to a brainless urologist that let cancer grow in me for a decade and the subsequent treatment, I get up and go hunting turkeys every day at 5 a.m. now as if I was a teenager. I watch the clouds go by and pretend I am still young. I tell people I'm in the ninth inning with two outs but the game isn't over until the last one. Yes I could have worked until now, had seniority over everyone, thirty-seven holidays and vacation days, a larger retirement income, but no one can tell me I can't have off. I quit to do what I wanted to do. Would have been at the Southern this year but the two guys who go with me said they have enough guns. They missed the point but the one guy was an artilleryman in Vietnam and says the continual firing gets to him. I can understand that. I still buy guns, fix them, hunt with them a couple of times,and put them away. But using a gun that was in the family or just a hundred plus year old gun is therapy.