Quote:
Originally Posted by Phillies8008
I've come to the conclusion that though you can't ignore the future, you equally should not ignore the present. Over the last few years I've watched a lot of people have significant medical problems, including my parents. I drove "sensible" cars for decades, but I'll be damned if I'm going to continue to wait for the "perfect" time only to find out that I'm suddenly too old or in too poor health to drive the stuff I really want to drive.
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Balance is the key. Easier said than done.
I was a partner in an elite, international CPA firm, a senior officer in a NYSE company and consulting for decades, yet continued to play trumpet at a high level, I'm a photographer published in Travel & Leisure, etc and, oh, the cars. Coached girls soccer, was a leader in Indian Princesses. Always had nice, but not extravagant homes and moved for work several times. Alpha type.
If I limited anything, it was the cars in the early decades. (Craved Porsche, etc) I focused on high performance, but inexpensive. The only guy in the executive parking with a 5.0 'stang, modded for SCCA ESP as my daily driver. Parked between a Mercedes and a Lexus. (The women, loved the 'stang).
I had many years when it was a strain to save. Moving for work lost me money on three out of seven houses. I kept striving, but kept saving also. I was helped by a few BIG paydays along the way. (I hunted "deals" and some hit).
My youngest took a totally different path and is set for life before 40. She got her network engineering certs from Cisco, then was IPO at LinkedIn and Uber. Her husband was IPO at Square and they started their own blockchain development platform a few years ago and they are wealthier than me, drive a loaded Rivian and travel constantly.
Can 20-somethings still get pre-IPO stock these days?? In 2008, she moved to Silicon Valley with no job, hanging out in Starbucks and got that LinkedIn job off Craigslist. It's a path that my daughter followed, along with several of her buddies from Rochester Institute of Technology. All of her buddies have ended up well off before 40.
I wonder about software engineering these days. That daughter became a senior software developer at Uber before she left, but is spending more time as a network engineer now. When things go wrong, NE is hands on, replacing cables and servers, where software engineer is, "ask AI."
At least as a dentist, hands are needed, at least for now. Still, the higher your specialty, the better.