Volume 7, Issue 3

March 2013

 
"Buy the Damn Trailer"

February was a pretty crazy month for me, traveling the entire month, into March and then promptly after arriving home - got sick. Like in bed for a week sick. Yuck. I have to add though that those five weeks were my favorite EVER in my career. Just so much fun.

I met a gal after one of my sessions who told me a wonderful story. She emailed me sharing more of the back story. Here is part of it. 

Hubby and I have been planning for retirement for a long, long time.  He has been retired for 5 or 6 years now, and I'm looking at pulling the plug in the next year or two. One of the things we like to do together and with friends is go to places where we can camp and the guys can fish, but I'm one of those gals who considers it "camping" if a hotel doesn't have room service.  So, we figured out early on if we were going to go camping, I would need something more than a tent in order to be happy.   

So, we dream of a new trailer.  We've been putting money in a little savings account for the last 20 years to buy the "trailer of our dreams" so we can travel in style once I retire. But, now that retirement is becoming more of a reality; we've been discussing back and forth the merits of buying a new trailer. By "discussing", I mean "arguing". They cost a lot, but we've tucked away enough to buy what we want....but I started getting nervous about all the other post-retirement costs and risks. I started obsessing on "what if we need that money for something more important, like medical costs when we are old(er)?" Blah, blah, blah. I could come up with a hundred reasons why we should not spend the money.  I couldn't come up with one reason why we should take the plunge.

So, to make a long story short, I went to your presentation. I listened to your message and I had an ah-ha moment. The part that resonated with me is the "life is short" message - we simply don't have any guarantees, I could have 10 minutes or 30 years left. Who knows if I'll even be around when I'm 80 to worry about medical costs?  I also reflected back to when my dad, who was a police officer like yours, was in his 30's and one of his friends had a fatal heart attack on the job. My dad had his "life is short" moment and liquidated his small savings account to buy camping gear, and we began taking family camping trips several times a year, which were fabulous fun. My dad died years ago, but I still look back on those trips and am so glad we had those times together because of the great memories. My final trip with him was just a year or two before he died at 63, and we traveled the Eastern states in his motor home, which was really special. He loved traveling, meeting new people, and having adventures. We ate lobster in Maine, bought apple butter and shoo-fly pies from Amish farmers, got lost in Providence finding his grandfather's family home, toured the FBI in DC, and visited the Smithsonian to look at all the cool stuff.  In thinking about your message and those fun vacations, I realized how much potential fun and joy I would be putting off if we quit camping with our friends and didn't have these times together NOW.  So, I went back to the office and was having a really crummy rest of the day when it sunk in that I'm in control of how the rest of my life turns out, and that I was the only one blocking my own way. I sent hubby the message: "Just buy the damn trailer. Life is too short and I want to get the most out of what we have left.  If we have to eat beans-n-weenies while camping, at least we'll be camping together."  

So, my March advice? Life IS short.

Buy the damn trailer.