Hobby? I’m on the wrong coast for it but would love to learn to surf. Pretty sure I don’t have time to get good at it. Music, I’d love to learn to play guitar or even to sing well. Not to perform. To be able to do it.
Lifestyle? Not sure, I think what I would change is stuff I can’t change without money or time I don’t have.
Give away 900 million dollars.
I agree with your premise though - too rich is just hoarding. There is no real lifestyle benefit.
I say this as a person with plenty of years. When the president is so ancient he is shitting himself at meetings, and congresspeople are dying in office - of old age- this has become a gerontocracy of the worst sort. One would hope that as people get older they have more experience, more perspective.
At this point I would very strongly prefer that people younger than me be in office and I’m not even 60 yet. We need people with more stake in the future. 40-60 then out, retire for the sake of the country. Write a book or something.
Yeah it’s crazy, when I was a teenager we had the lowest cost grocery markets in the US, corn was often 5 cents an ear on sale, maybe 20 cents regular price, watermelon you could buy on the roadside for $1, those are about 1.50 and 7.00 now and that’s pretty representative of the overall increase.
I’m counting everything that is consumed here, by humans (so including entertaining but not pets). Our total housing cost with electricity & insurance and taxes is really high here too (and is another thing that used to be cheap) , but again that housing is holding 5 people right now.
5 person household, all adults now, mostly physically active. Probably 4k a month all-in.
That includes some booze, not much eating out and is paid by all of us so average 800 / month per person, but not evenly spread, kids are more frugal and do meal prep for lunches and husband and I spend more, and feed all of us once a day at least. Not much junk food, buy ingredients not premade things and I do have a garden.
I agree. It doesn’t help me that people who work in my town can’t live in my town. It doesn’t help me when taxes go up on my house. I have the same house if prices crash lower than we bought. I have the same house if prices go up.
In fact - if prices bottom out and we can keep our jobs, maybe I have a better house because maybe we can afford to do some reno that is too expensive right now because housing is so expensive.
“Didn’t work so hard” WTF? Did Trump work hard? There seems almost no correlation between who works hard and who has money. Some who work hard have money, some don’t. Some who never worked at all have money, some don’t.
Mine don’t love this but sag paneer is heavenly, my kids would eat it by the bucket I think.
Ooh I love beans & rice. But we do eat other stuff, and I find the biggest $ savings comes from avoiding waste, not buying cheap ingredients.
My kids LOVE
Mapo Tofu (ground pork & tofu)
Bulgogi beef or pork with tofu
Cabbage in coconut curry with any protein - tofu, shrimp, chicken, or just veggies.
Rice bowls. This week we had one with chicken tenders, cabbage slaw (dressed in rice vinegar and sesame oil) wasabi carrots (dressed in wasabi and soy sauce), cauliflower (grown in garden, no seasoning), avocado. Sauce of mayo & Sriracha. But most variations they like - a rice, a meat, bunch of veg or sometimes even fruit, a sauce.
Breakfast for any meal, eggs, potatoes, refried beans, and some meat, with onion, cheese, avocado on the side.
Underwater welders, electrocution. You can imagine, all the risks of diving plus welding, plus combining electricity and water.
Seawall builders, the whole process is dangerous because of the water, they can drown or be hit by heavy construction materials.
I just always found it interesting that those were more risky than race car driving. Our highest individual claim actually was a landscaper hit by lightning, who died, but sadly, he did not die quickly, suffered in hospital for some days.
Most of them, I suppose. The list of jobs I could do well enough to be paid for is a shorter one than those I can’t.
I used to work at a payroll company and our highest workers’ comp rates were:
Underwater welders
Seawall builders
Race car drivers
In that order.
It’s funny that the first two right now are 'stopped eating meat" and “stopped eating everything except meat”.
For me it is getting up when I wake up. No alarm. It wasn’t always possible but instead of getting up early to run or be virtuous in some way, I sleep until I wake (not late! Usually between 7-730), have a short but indulgent morning, only water until I get to work (by bicycle) then coffee and breakfast. I wish I had always been able to do this.
And MHT, so glad I tried it - I had no idea I had menopausal symptoms because I never had a hot flash. But the MHT knocked out the migraines I was having, the UTIs, my thinking is clearer, and even though it put a few pounds on me I’m still inside healthy weight. That success convinced me to be more intentional and interventional about aging - I thought all that longevity stuff was about living longer (because of the word) but mostly it’s about staying healthier and that feels physically good.
I was my mom’s oldest kid, she let me drive without a license to learn, as she was not familiar with the rules. Then I took a written test and driving test.
Drivers ed here was in the summers and my friend and I traveled in the summer instead, worked in the school year to make $ so that we could.
My kids, insurance cost is so high here now, they have to wait until they can pay that, I couldn’t handle a $1,000 increase in the monthly budget for two teen drivers at that time. The older ones learned after college, my younger ones got the learner permits and learned earlier, one at 15 (she is the only one who likes to drive my stick shift car) and the other at 17 (that one still has only learner permit, can drive well, but usually takes bus or bike to get around town).
I think the reason kids usually learn early here is because the bus system has been systematically underfunded for so long. It’s really hard to have a job without a car unless you are lucky and able to arrange everything close to your house. Which isn’t gonna happen if your parents live in the exurbs.
Time is a luxury. Even on a small scale - I bike or walk to work most days, because I have the luxury of waking up when I wake up, having a morning and a slow human powered commute. That is privilege, yes? So many have to drive an hour or even more.
If I had the time to walk to somewhere far, I would take it.
I guess on the upside, a faster life means more stuff done in each life?
Well yes, of course putting motor oil or something completely unrelated to cosmetics is not going to be safe. I don’t use mosquito repellent on skin.
But makeup, foundation, does put a physical block between skin and sun, like a mineral sunscreen does. I was responding to the claim that it ages your skin. Most of them are emollient and protective, not drying and damaging.
I’ve been a lot more interventive than my husband with skincare, he’s mostly just kept his clean and sunscreen for outside. I do night cream of some sort since I was 25, now it’s , tretinoin at night, estrogen cream in the morning, mineral sunscreen every day. Yes a little foundation for work. Body lotion after shower. My skin looks so much healthier than his, and no way is it genetic, my mom had bad skin, delicate and quick to age. I truly don’t think “natural aging” is the best way to handle skincare. I do agree that you can’t put something on your skin and think it does not affect the rest of you, though.
I used foundation as sunscreen for years and it did, as far as I can tell, a pretty good job of it. I was allergic to the chemical ones available here. The mineral ones were like clown paint. Eventually the mineral sunscreens got better, that’s what I use now. But no I don’t think “makeup” generally ages your skin. Anything that puts a layer between your skin and the sun and car exhaust, probably more helpful than harmful.
Boing! Boing! Jumping off a roof so I can bounce bounce bounce, I can’t jump for shit IRL and I want to.
Also maybe some NSFW stuff I am not about to detail.
Looks-wise hair is good, but bald is by far my practical preference, or very short shorn. Much more pleasant for more activities.
I love the poetic typos in this question.
Bescribe? I suppose I would bescribe myself by offering to write something for someone.
Asentence? What a magical sounding word. An asentance sounds like it means a non- sentence or something that transcends sentencing.
Not quick to anger
Been around for awhile
Tall (for a girl)
Oh yes, with the leek!