As another year comes to a close, I think it’s only natural to look at your life and figure out what you want to do differently next year.  Review what you accomplished and think about what the future brings.  It blows my mind to think that two workaholics have seemingly achieved happiness despite having nothing to do.  Pretty amazing what a brush with death can do.  Add to that; a case of COVID and two months later, still neither of us are feeling any too ambitious.  We started to feel better and headed to the Bahamas for a week after Thanksgiving Day.  I must say that if you can, you should.  It was the perfect time to get away for a little sun therapy; right before the busy holiday season. 

We returned and I started my Christmas decorating.  That led to some minor redecorating in the living room to freshen things up a little.  Fearing I would miss cooking for hundreds of people like I have for the past six years, we did a little dinner party for Scott’s siblings and a few neighbors.  It was a real mix-up of age and personalities and it was great to see everyone mingling and in some cases reconnecting. 

Having sold our business, it was important to send things over to the accountant for some tax planning and also meet with our financial advisor.  I still can’t believe that I am retired and that we should be able to sustain our desired life style until we turn 90 without depending on our children for financial help.  Conversely, we are not looking to hand them large sums of money at our death.  I say this not to brag but to encourage.  I didn’t have the funds or opportunity to save for retirement before the age of 30 and both Scott and I took considerable financial hits when divorcing at 50ish.  Yet by working hard and saving, we are in a position to do what we want to do for the remainder of our days and we were able to weather the storm of cancer.  Someone once told me; watch your pennies and the dollars will follow and I think this is sage advice. 

After 30 years of working with people on their finances, I can’t help but offer some unsolicited financial advice.  I encourage you all to set a goal for 2024.  First, follow Dave Ramsey’s advice and make sure you have put away 3-6 months of expenses in your emergency fund.  Then, choose a single item on your bucket list and figure out what it will take to do it.  Maybe it’s something that you can’t manage in 2024 but you can research and start saving for.  I think it was almost 20 years ago that my friends started taking annual vacations to Mexico.  I had school age children at the time so something like that seemed impossible.  Still, it was something I really wanted so I had to figure out how to make it happen.  At my next pay increase, I sent that increase to my new vacation fund.  I didn’t miss the money because I never had it.  I think it took 3 years to save for that first all-inclusive vacation.  When we returned, I immediately upped that draw to the vacation fund so we could go every other year.  You get the picture; make a plan and make it happen!   One thing for sure; if you don’t plan it, it won’t happen. 

Speaking of money, we (ok I) decided that I wasn’t going to run around spending money on things that I thought the kids would like. No matter the time and effort put into these purchases; reality is these items were likely going home to sit in a closet or be instantly put in the Goodwill box.  To fill the time usually spent oohing and awing over such gifts, Scott and I created some fun games and this year we launched the first annual Christmas Olympics.  Games included Christmas song trivia, a shooting game, family feud, ring toss and whiffle ball toss.  Money typically used for the useless gifts, was used to fund prizes for the games.  Overall, I’m happy with how it went and we already have ideas for next year’s games.

Like so many, our greatest source of pride is our children.  What makes it even better is knowing that we can have Christmas with all our kids at the same time and they enjoy each other’s company.  Seeing all four adult children and their spouses sharing laughs together is priceless.  Now adding to that are the grandchildren.  My son’s daughter is a little more than two years old and she was quite the entertainer this year.  Announcing with each gift she received that she needed a knife to open the box.  I’m currently in the market for a plastic pocket knife; but like Scott said, she won’t be happy with anything less than the real thing.  Like all grandparents, I’m pretty sure she is much smarter than her peers.  They also announced that she will be graduating to big sister next year so we have that to look forward to.  At almost five months, Scott’s son’s little man just sat around smiling and looking cute in between feedings.  I think it’s safe to say that everyone had a great time and certainly no one left hungry.  I still can’t believe that while we took individual pictures, we didn’t remember to take a group photo.  Unfortunately, I think that would have been as successful as herding cats at the time.    

The Christmas long weekend included several stops and seemed like one never-ending feeding frenzy.  As we work our way through all the remaining goodies; cookies, Chex Mix, both purchased and home-made caramel corn and chocolates, the panic sets in.  Eventually this needs to stop.  Reading my mind, my Facebook feed is full of ads for the newest Keto weight loss gummies.  Waking with nothing on the docket again today, I decide to look into the claims of all these no effort weight loss options.  I need to find out, did Pfizer really develop this new miracle drug that was brought to life on Shark Tank and seemingly endorsed by so many, including superstar Kelly Clarkson?

Despite every third item in my Facebook feed being an ad or article about these amazing new gummies, nothing on YouTube or Google verifies that any of it is true.  I watched the episode of the Today Show where she supposedly came out about her weight loss secrets; only to learn that she never mentioned how she lost the weight and clearly never credited the Keto gummies.  Most clips about Kelly Clarkson related to weight loss are from five years ago.  I found nothing to verify that they were discovered on Shark Tank either.   I did find a few episodes of Dr. Oz that talk about weight loss but none promote these miracle Keto gummies. 

Was my research a total waste of time?  Time will tell.  It did lead me to some weight management tools that I’m willing to check out but more importantly reminded me that social media is such a dangerous thing.  Whether we are lured into on-line games that either suck our time or money, or believing that people are living the dream lives they like to post on social media; we need to make sure we are keeping all this in perspective.  I found little to no truth to the claims I was being bomb-barded with on Facebook; showing just how easy it is to manipulate information.  Very few people have the time or inclination to step back and do a little fact checking.   Sadly, so many sit glued to their phones, believing what they read and feeling like they are failing in comparison. 

Rather than trying to keep up with the Jones’s; focus on what is most important to you.  As I look back over the past few weeks, I find pleasure in thinking about the opportunities Scott and I gave to others to enjoy food and fellowship.  The amount of laughter shared with our good friends.  My greatest gift was a hand-written letter written from my son.  These are the memories I will take with me into the next year.  One of the greatest advantages of retirement is being able to choose who you spend time with and greatly limiting the amount of time you have to spend with toxic people.   I’m excited to know that I’m starting 2024 spending a week in January with a great group of ladies in a beautiful place.  I’m sure there will be a lot of laughter and story-telling.  It feels pretty good to be know that my schedule will allow time for things that I have always wanted to do; even if I don’t yet know what they are.