I worry a lot. I suppose that’s one of the reasons that I save. There is too damn much uncertainty in the world. There is not a very big part of me that wishes I’d been born one generation earlier, but there is a little. I mean hell, One generation ago they didn’t have:
-Personal computers
-Ipods
-Microwaves
-Cellular phones
-Cruise control
-Our level of quality health care
-Not to mention a ton of other modern conveniences
On the other hand, they also didn’t have:
-Current level of violence
-Indian call centers
-Chinese garment makers
-Extreme capitalism (returns at all cost)
-Soaring health care costs
-Declining pension plans
-Social security at risk
Which brings me to my personal worries. You probably got a flavor of what I worry about in the bullets above, but just in case you didn’t. Let me give you my list. I worry that:
I won’t have a long healthy life
I won’t be able to retire with enough money to have security
I won’t be able to keep my job long term (due to outsourcing, automation etc)
I won’t have a pension when I retire
I won’t get any social security
My children won’t even have the opportunities that I do today
Our country won’t be competitive globally
We’ll all end up working at McDonalds or Walmart
So, what do I do? I save, and then I save some more. Not to the extent that I’m not enjoying life now, but I do save a LOT. The higher my net worth, the more options I feel I have and the less I have to worry about the above. Every day that I see my net worth climb, I worry a tiny bit less. I can’t wait until I reach my magic number where I feel I have enough security to tell all my worries to go screw themselves!
This is a little nitpicky, but violence has actually gone down in recent years. At least according to the justice department (who knows how accurate this is…) the violent crime rate is down more than half over the past 10 years. Not exactly a generation, but still…
I think I’m probably half a generation from you, but I have completely different worries. I don’t worry about social security or pensions–that has never even been something I’ve had time to count on. I don’t worry about outsourcing–I watched it happening in college and entered a field that’s hard to outsource. I do share the worry that the country will no longer be strong by the time I’m retiring. I also worry about environmental factors causing major issues when I’m older (and causing even more problems for my future children and grandchildren).
Violence and deaths from war has gone down a lot. You are doing something about your worries. Being financially independent does give a person more options.
I’m supposing each generation has it’s worries. I guess I’ll use my father’s generation as an example… 1937-present day. I’m also going to take his class into consideration( middle class, blue collar worker) His generation would worry about…
-Another depression
-Another world war
-Nuclear war
-Communisim
-Working as a child (not many child labor laws)
-Getting work, keeping the job, and not getting injured/killed on the job.(not many workplace laws)
I can go on, but the point is we’ve advanced a lot in the past 100 years. We have previous generations to thank for what we have today.
Cruise control is not a recent invention. It became commercially available in the late 1950’s and was common on U.S. cars during the 1960’s.
Hey…just a quick note, when you click on your profile, it takes you to your old site, not your new one…
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