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I am a retired IT executive with 44 years of experience in IT. I am originally from Virginia and have lived in North Carolina the past 60 years. My wife Judy and I have been married 56 years, and we have 2 children and 3 grandchildren. I volunteer with my church and serve on the board of 2 retiree associations, one of which has more than 50,000 members. I still enjoy golf, travel and taking care of our home and 2 acres of land.
Comments
So true. My wife was my best friend and our new friends often came through her. I know this is something I need to work on.
Post: 70 years old
Link to comment from July 4, 2025
Good list. I would add one more, be generous with your family and friends. BTW, I turned 80 last year. If you are blessed with another 10 years, you will be amazed how quickly it gets here.
Post: 70 years old
Link to comment from July 4, 2025
Hallucinations are a big weakness with AI. What good is it if you cannot trust it and have to back track on everything it says? My wife had a cat scan 2 weeks ago on a Friday. While waiting on the doctor's response, we used AI to interpret the results. They were interesting and more detailed that the doctor's eventual response, but we trusted the doctor's response. The value of AI was to enable us to ask specific questions.
Post: The Jevons Paradox
Link to comment from June 28, 2025
Thanks Adam for an interesting article. I was in IT for 44 years and heard lots of predictions about how IT would displace workers. Some of it happened, but as you indicated, it often results in new jobs along with great efficiency. I go to doctors a lot more nowadays. Doctors bring their laptops into the room, review data and enter data through the course of our appointment. Years ago, I had a doctor who would dictate after our meeting and his staff would type it up. I wonder if this should still be the best way to utilize the valuable time and attention doctors have with patients? I believe this is also true of other professions where we are using high priced people to enter data rather than have lower cost staff do it. In addition, I wonder if this may sometimes distract the doctor from his primary job of diagnosing patients.
Post: The Jevons Paradox
Link to comment from June 28, 2025
One of the first things I noticed was when the markets dropped (as they often do). In the past, I would have said I will just work longer to make up for it. Without that option, I became rather anxious realizing that my pension, SS and savings were all I had. I have since gotten over that anxiety, but it was a surprise at first. The other thing I will say is the later you retire, the greater risk of your inability to do all the things you are planning for an active retirement. I retired at 66 in good health, but my wife's health and compromised mobility limited the things we could do together.
Post: The Fear of Letting Go
Link to comment from June 23, 2025
Great question and I am sure a dilemma for many Christians while raising their families. I too am a Christian. In our early years we did not tithe, but certainly for the last 28 years and probably longer we have given at least 10% to the Lord. We have also given our time and talents to ministries and church related activities. I routinely worked 60 hour weeks in my job, and often did not give back much in the way of time and talents. But God got my attention, and I got much more active in our church and its ministries and have continued doing that ever since. I feel blessed that I made enough to cover all of our expenses and Christian tithing/donations. I am sure it is difficult for those who do not have that privilege. I think they need to listen to the Lord and do the best that they can.
Post: Saving and Giving
Link to comment from June 22, 2025
Some of the happiest people I know are of modest means, and in their working lives were probably living from paycheck to paycheck. What is their secret? I do not know. We have a special needs granddaughter. She goes to a 4 week day camp every summer. One year, I took her to the church. We were a little early so we got to see most of the campers and their loved ones come in after us. What struck me was how cheerful their loved ones were. They all had big smiles on their faces and were very cheerful with everyone. Contrast that with my workplace or most workplaces when people arrive to work. You will be challenged to find one with so many smiling faces.
Post: Let’s Get Happy
Link to comment from June 21, 2025
We have been married 57 years. My wife has lymphoma and is not doing well. I suddenly realize that I may be facing the situation you describe. My focus now is caring for my wife. I will deal with that singleness issue if and when the time comes.
Post: Going it Alone by Dennis Friedman
Link to comment from June 21, 2025
Great article Adam. Betting the farm on any one of these models is fool hardy, but, as you say, they still can be useful in decision making. Perhaps a blend of several can somewhat clear our crystal balls.
Post: Good in Theory
Link to comment from June 14, 2025
I retired in 2010 with a pension and SS plus our investments. Our pension allows COLAs only from trust fund profits. It is an ultra conservative pension system. Before retirement it had kept pace with inflation. Since I retired, we have only had a 1% COLA. Despite a conservative AA, our investments have doubled during the past 15 years. We still have plenty of headroom in our spending, but our spending has declined a lot. We have 50% of AA in equity, 25% in TIPS and the reset in various fixed income allocations. Over 50% of investments are in Roth and only about 15% in TIRAs. So we are in good shape with the tax man. We do spend more on gifts and college for grandchildren and gifting to our 2 children. We have issues but I do not expect money to be one of them. Something we are very thankful for.
Post: How are you dealing with or plan to deal with inflation in retirement? By R Quinn
Link to comment from June 12, 2025