Heading Towards 2021

[AndrewP]

Was reading an article in the WSJ about retirement, and was struck by this paragraph: 'To prompt clients to clarify their goals, Mr. Kinder asks three questions: What would you do if you had all the time and money in the world? How would you live if you knew you had only five to 10 years left? And what would you most regret if you died tomorrow?"

In my own mind this is rather a moot question. Personally I have no intention on dying but do have plans in place in case that happens.

I was actually offended with the advisor from my pension plan was pushing for us to convert what we have in our defined benefit plan (which pays out forever) to a defined contribution. His argument was that - well - if you are expecting to die soon this will give your beneficiaries a larger payout

I recall joking with my life insurance agent as he was writing me a new policy that it was a gamble I was making. I was betting that I would die in a sudden and possibly embarrassing fashion in the near future and he was gambling that I wouldn't. A couple of weeks later I was at the beach with my family testing out a home-made boat and he waded through the surf to check to see how I was doing True story.

I'm especially riled up because I read a story this morning about a bunch of stupid parents in Missouri throwing a secret homecoming dance for their high school students. They purposefully hid it from the local authorities because it was an illegal gathering. No masks. This was on Nov. 7th and already now 7 attendees have Covid plus a number of other faculty and students at the school. They can't contact trace adequately because the parents deliberately did not keep a list if attendees.

There's a lot of crisis fatigue going on out there perhaps made worse in your part of the world where it doesn't seem to be taken as seriously as elsewhere.