2017 Fall October 4 Wednesday

 2017 Fall October 4 Wednesday

74 degrees this morning, rain, no walk.

Rain resumes again.  Definitely means the sprinkler system is off until next Spring, meaning we won’t continue wasting water on keep grass unnaturally green.

Speaking of “aging”, I am always surprised at the advice provided to “older people”.  I consider “older people” about 10 years older than me, but I think the advice givers are thinking in the range of 62 years or so.

One is to pay off your house and don’t have a mortgage.  If you live in the same house, that is great, but I really don’t see the problem with a mortgage with guaranteed house payments (well, for the principle and interest anyway).  Insurance and tax etc. are sure to increase no matter what you do.  

Frankly, I don’t understand the reasoning why you should stretch to pay off your mortgage, especially when interest rates are low.  Nothing wrong with paying off your mortgage or renting, just don’t see the reason for the “special” advice for older persons.  

Another weird recommendation is maintaining  a certain “percentage” of your investments in bonds.  Obviously, I understand the need to have enough in some type of steady investment that you own’t have to sell at a loss in the event of a down market.  However,, saying a certain percentage should be in “bonds”  (which really can vary a lot in value) doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless you are using them for income and plan on holding them to maturity.

However, for the average person over 62, 65 or whatever it doesn’t make  lot of financial sense to have “40% bonds” or whatever just because of your age. 

Several years ago, I saw a question by a City Manager about “what do you do about employees health insurance when they reach 65 years of age”, basically saying we qualify for medicare when we are 65, so somehow that is different want employees over 65 years old should be screwed and have inferior insurance because you can do it.

Only one person said the “correct” answer, “treat them like everyone else!”  Everyone else had some pet formula for treating employees “different”  when they become 65 years of age, meaning save money by providing inferior benefits, even though they expect the same work!  For the first time, I felt ashamed of City Managers

Fortunately, I haven’t worked for any employer who believes that a person becomes a second class citizen when they reach 65 and so should have some kind of “special” (read cheaper for the employer) treatment on health insurance.  We are expected to work just as hard regardless of our age!

Anyway I guess age is one thing that, if you’re lucky, everyone will eventually become older, so it is “karma” when someone who has discriminated based on age etc. becomes older and is in turn discriminated against.  

This came to mind when a person about 20 years younger than me told me “getting old isn’t for sissies”.  It is difficult enough without discrimination and “special” treatment and advice to make it worse!

That’s it for now, Wednesday, October 4, 2017.