Forced to Live in the Present

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

-Luke 12: 16-21

We almost got there, eh? Made it through storms and divorces into our 60s, and had managed to save a little money, carefully invest it in retirement funds and real estate, and this very year started making plans to slow down and enjoy this last truly healthy chapter of our lives before the senescence really takes hold. Hadn't we earned that pause, that interregnum of leisure before doctor visits dominate our calendars and our world starts getting much smaller?

Does anyone really "earn" anything? If we'd been financially on our backside, I wouldn't have been self-flagellating and suggesting we'd earned our penury. So much of it is just dumb luck. We're two tall, white professionals. We started the game already on second base, or maybe even third.

Regardless, we weren't quite ready for what's happened over the last couple months, and the last couple weeks in particular.

These photos were taken in 1922, during the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation. The kids seem to be having fun, because they have the rest of their lives to recover (although the young man likely doesn't survive past 1945). The old guy is us, gazing at his stack of now worthless accumulated wealth.

What to do?

Well, it's time to stop making plans. Tomorrow's always been uncertain, let's face it. But the cataclysm of what comes next appears unprecedented in this country. MAGA has wiped us out, I suspect on purpose so we'll have no other option but to don the red hat and live off the patronage of Dear Leader.

So with our retirement savings dropping by up to 3% a day, and a basket of properties in the midst of a frozen real estate market, the best we can do is keep peddling at work until folks aren't able to pay us anymore. That's a very real risk in my line of work; less so for Peg, because people are always going to need surgery. Suing and being sued are sort of a luxury.

With no plans for the future

He still seems in control

From a bronco ride to a ten foot tide

He had to learn to roll

Roll with the punches

Play all of your hunches

Make the best of whatever comes your way

Forget that blind ambition

Learn to trust your intuition

Plowin' straight ahead, come what may.

Jimmy Buffett did have his prophetic moments.

First call is in five minutes, then another, then eight or nine hours of depositions, then home to my beloved P and a couple hours of unwinding together before bed. A better thing than whatever used to be in our IRA.