I was discussing retirement with my DH the other day and told him,
"If we live just like this with a few new (used) cars and some newer clothes we will have X amount of money in our retirement when we are 40."
This time, he nodded in agreement. Last time I said this to him, he disagreed. He thought maybe a bigger house, some late model cars, some nice vacations, a new set of irons...
You get my point.
I pointed out to him that we were both raised by single parents and most likely have more now (at age 28) than they did. I reminded him how we both grew up--not getting most things we wanted, but things we needed. I reminded him of how happy we both were growing up in our small town. Without designer clothes, without I-phones (because they didn't exist), with a few hours of Super Mario Bros a week and no cable.
I reminded him that we have 1000 square feet on the main floor and barely use the basement. So why would we need more space? Except a home office or a child's bedroom someday...it just doesn't make sense to me.
I was thinking today as I was getting ready that rather than expand, we need to simplify. We need to consume less. It has nothing to do with a green movement for me (as anyone can tell you I'm not up on trends), but I do think we would all do well to consume less. Less food, less space, less emotional energy (facebook status abusers...I'm talking to you).
So you're thinking...she is making fun of facebook status oversharing and then coming here and writing all this in a blog. My excuse is that you have to actually seek out my blog in order to read it, my thoughts do not generally assault your facebook news feed.
Unless something funny happened. Which I think requires a status update.
So DH and I discussed retirement for awhile and slowly came to the realization that by the time we retire, we will have been generally frugal our whole lives.
And old habits die hard...so will we even spend the money we save?
I still think at retirement I'll sell my house, buy a ridiculously expensive motor home and drive to all the National Parks in the United States.