No! You Are Not Going To Die Tomorrow!

[Singuy]

Sigh....

Lectured a young early 20s tech today about her ways.

My co-worker and I were talking about Trump and the I was saying how the average credit card debt is 11k per citizen. The tech quickly acknowledged that she owes way more than that! And she boast about "and I just came back from a Washington DC trip..and now I'm going to Miami this weekend".

I asked her "why are you going on trips and not paying off your credit cards"?. Her response..."there's too much of it..it's over..and what if I die tomorrow?". Then she continued to argue how I think certain material goods are "stupid" like diamond rings and flowers so what do I know about appreciating life.......

You have a 0.0022% chance of dying tomorrow based on your micromorts calculation. You have a 85% chance of living till 65 (and that's 85% since BIRTH)..your chances are way higher now in your 20s). You are 35,000 times more likely to live till 65 than to die tomorrow! So no..you will most likely NOT GOING TO DIE TOMORROW!

Rant Over!

[disneysteve]

I always love that argument. How depressing it must be to go through life with that mindset - "I might die tomorrow."

I find it far more uplifting to plan for the future, talk about things we'd like to do, think about retirement, toss around ideas of trips we'd like to take or where we'd like to live, etc. I'm not blind to the fact that something could happen to one or both of us that makes those plans impossible but I'd much rather focus and plan for the good, not the catastrophic end.

While this is probably not relevant to your 20-year-old coworker, I also save and plan in case I do die. I want to be sure that my wife and daughter are taken care of financially if I'm gone. If we spend all of our money today and something happens to me, where does that leave them?

The really sad part is that I know just as many people in their 50s and 60s who share the exact same mindset. Why bother saving? I might die tomorrow. Then I've got the folks in their 70s and even 80s who are still working full time jobs because that's how they lived their lives. They didn't die prematurely and are stuck busting their butts every day because they did absolutely nothing to prepare for their old age. It's sad to see and know that it was 100% avoidable.

As for material goods, I don't think anything can truly be said to be a waste of money if it brings you pleasure, but only if you can actually afford to purchase it.

[FLA]

I had 2 hospice patients who gambled away everything when they knew their time was up. One guy took one last trip to Vegas, he had no family and didn't care that he lost his house and ended up in low income housing. the other was married to a retired man and her mentally ill DD lived with her. She took a reverse mortgage and spent all the money online gambling. When her fifth husband asked, "what about me?" She said, "I'm not selling the trailer."

these are aberrations among people about to die, 2 stories in 11 years. Even when you're about to die, you're unlikely to spend it all or leave your family with massive debts.

[97guns]

americans live for today and work for the next day, i reached enlightenment when i heard a coworker tell me he can't afford to take a day off