doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Retirement Strategy

Clapper's comments are very rational - one should distinguish between "toys" and "investments" and investments should have the sole or principal function of providing income or generating wealth. Toys should be principally for fun. If they spin off money that's very nice but income from your toys is a bonus not the real reason to own the toys.

In addition to guns a lot of my toys are art and antiques; they total more than 5% of my net worth but I don't worry about them nor do I care what they might sell for. I don't buy and sell guns or antiques as a business or a hobby and I really do not care what any of this stuff fetches after I'm dead. I suppose they could be considered stores of value but that is a very secondary function.

Now if only I could hit something with my DR!

I can agree that assets broken into toys(collectibles) vs investments makes sense.
I have never collected firearms with the goal of treating them as investments. However; I have made money doing this over the years and,as far as I'm concerned, if you can make money and have fun doing something you're in the best of both worlds.
Interesting point made above about being done spending by the time you're 75. I had never thought about aging in this manner.
Jim

Jim- the 75 bit is probably approximately true overall. I am allmost 71 and really quit spending (defined as buying "stuff") a long time ago. I have collected art and antiques most of my life and enjoy what I have and don't go all over the world chasing stuff anymore. Never wanted a truck and still don't; I may get one m ore shotgun, maybe not - I really like the ones I have already; my wife and I may build a new house but that's sort of different - relatively few serious collectors keep going in old age; there just isn't enough time left to worry about acquisitions.

How about this?:

Your "toys" represent wealth. Your investments are just money...Geo

Gnomon:

I not there yet and the thrill of the chase is still very much with me. I just got back from a couple of sales about an hour ago. My collectibles firearms,militaria etc. are slated to go to the grandchildren.
Jim

Guys, it is a statistical fact. The spending patterns of the elderly were compared with their cash accumulations during the last 10 years of life.
They stop spending, and cash accumulates.
Where this caused quite a stir, was that almost all retail retirement planning was based on compounding returns until the end of life. (Excellent sales pitch, Stick with us and you'll be a multi-millionair!) Leaving healthy, middle aged people slavishly working, but cash poor, during their final years of vitality, and awash in cash (to fight over,or remit to the state for reimbursement)at end of life. Look at the mail of the elderly. 5-1 come-ons for charity.
It was assbackwards.

Newer strategies were devised to wring more cash out of life from 55-75, and accomplish greater enjoyment while you are able.

So, the focus evolves to cash flow from asset accumulation.

Within all this is what I have always called, "The leopard cannot change his spots." or, "You are who you are". Whatever means you have lived with through your adult life leaves a mark. A conditioned pattern of spending. One that you statistically will not change in retirement. You won't become the life of the party. (Sigh)
The example above is, "I don't want a new truck." The desire is truly not there. The leopard cannot change his spots.
Has little to do with money. Everything to do with conditioning.

The question we all struggle with is, When to dispossess ourselves? And by extension, how to do it.

I can assure everyone reading this, that your mental abilities degrade considerably after you have received notice of your impending demise. It is better to have a plan (relatively easily managed) in place before you get such lousy news.

In the interest of levity, my oncologist presented to me perhaps the most comical diagnoses I have ever been a party to hear.
I sat in the chair, (I wish I could say ram-rod straight, but alas, I am a sloucher,) and as he entered the room, I used my normal greeting. "Hey Doc, How's it going?" It's a common greeting in the mid-west.
Without slowing down a bit, he looks me straight in the eye, and he says, "Me?, I'm doing fine. You?, well, not so hot."

I actually appreciated the candor.
These unending rainy days make me quite maudlin.
If anyone takes any advice from me, it should only be that 1. We don't have forever, and 2. Life can turn on a dime.
Use your resources to live with that belief. Everyday, until you can't. Do good, don't hoard.

Removed....

Well, clapper, you seem to have it right. The best advice I know is from Pasternak and if you don't have it, my gift to you:


IT IS NOT SEEMLY

It is not seemly to be famous,
Celebrity does not exalt;
There is no need to hoard your writings
And to preserve them in a vault.

To give your all---this is creation,
And not---to deafen and eclipse.
How shameful when you have no meaning,
And be on everybody�s lips.

Try not to live as a pretender,
But so to manage your affairs
That you are loved by wide expanses
And hear the call of future years.

Leave blanks in your life---not in your papers,
And do not ever hesitate
To pencil out whole chunks, whole chapters
Of your existence, of your fate.

Into obscurity retiring.
Try your development to hide,
As autumn mist on early mornings
Conceals the dreaming countryside.

Another, step by step, will follow
The living imprint of your feet;
But you yourself must not distinguish
Your victory from defeat.

And never for a single moment
Betray your credo or pretend.
But be alive---this only matters---
Alive and burning to the end.

I recently hit the 70 mark. I thought it would be a water shed event but it was just another Tuesday. My wife "retired" from her law career ten years ago due to her ever invasive Parkinson's disease so I decided to join her. We've had 6 or 7 good years since then but the last few have been harder. When I stopped making the big bucks I moved all my retirement $$ into things that were very low risk and insured when possible. After all, if things took a nose dive I had no way to make it up. I decided then that I would also start to "use up" all my toys .... so they came out of the safe and into everyday use. The more I use them the less I have the need to acquire more. I have also been giving some away .... to my children and extended family. I am hoping that when I go toes up everything will be gone. (It's hard to decide what I'll keep for last ..... nothing grand ..... my old NID and the Omega I wore in S.E. Asia I think).

Last year two of my Army buddies died ..... After what they went through it's ironic that both had heart attacks while doing nothing more strenuous than pressing the remote. I think that event, more than anything renewed my promise to myself to try to fill up every day. These days I still do some consulting and have been lucky enough to have some six figure paydays. So far I've been able to pay Uncle Sam and give the rest to the kids ..... After all, why should they have to wait ..... and why should I?

Al

Bouvier, our parents gave us what they had when they felt they could be of assistance without disadvantaging themselves, when we starting raising families early in our career. When they died they owned a little yellow Corolla and some clothes, having given us everything else, properties, money, everything, when we were young. They wanted for nothing, had enough for trips, a tight roof and all they desired in food. I remarked once when visiting them that they always laid a good spread for a prodigal son. "You don't think at our age," my father said, "that we worry about the price of food." Same for my kids, too.