On turning 63

[cgrab]

I thought I would take this time to pass on a few things I learned along the way...

1) Learn everything you can, when you can, not only from books but also skills. Scott Adams calls this adding to your "talent stack" but my Dad always said education is the best investment.
1a) Use your skills to save money. Fix things instead of buying new.
1b) Even when you are the smartest person in the room, you don't have all the answers and can learn from others.
1c) Your brain is connected to your mouth and your ears but not at the same time.

2) Finances
2a) Buy the least expensive house in an expensive neighborhood. Incremental changes give you a greater percentage change.
2b) Keep track of your expenses and eliminate the little ones and reduce the big ones. Coffee from home is as good as coffee from the drive through. Dining out is a luxury not Tuesday.

3) Helpful hints
3a) Get your own tube of toothpaste and use it often. Change your brush when you get a new tube.
3b) Take the stairs. Put physical activity into your day, everyday, even when you don't want to.
3c) Buy a house that is East of your work. You will not have to drive into the sun on your commute.
3d) Don't use high density filters in your house HVAC. They choke the system. Use lighter weight filters and change them often.
3e) Carry your wallet in your left front pocket and your gun in the right (vis-a-versa if you are left handed). Sitting on your wallet is bad for your back and makes it easy to loose.
3f) Finally, force yourself to be happy and you will be. Listen to happy music, smile as much as possible and greet everyone you see cheerfully.

 

[RyanB]

Happy birthday and many more!

 

[Chip Sylverne]

Your wallet maybe...mine seems a bit thinner.

Many happy returns. I'm right behind ya.

 

[Weekend Warrior]

The old-timer life hack thread. I like it!

 

[kayoh190]

Happy Birthday!

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I hope I can handle my liquor like you apparently can, at 63!

 

[Kenny Phillips]

I thought I would take this time to pass on a few things I learned along the way...

1) Learn everything you can, when you can, not only from books but also skills. Scott Adams calls this adding to your "talent stack" but my Dad always said education is the best investment.
1a) Use your skills to save money. Fix things instead of buying new.
1b) Even when you are the smartest person in the room, you don't have all the answers and can learn from others.
1c) Your brain is connected to your mouth and your ears but not at the same time.

2) Finances
2a) Buy the least expensive house in an expensive neighborhood. Incremental changes give you a greater percentage change.
2b) Keep track of your expenses and eliminate the little ones and reduce the big ones. Coffee from home is as good as coffee from the drive through. Dining out is a luxury not Tuesday.

3) Helpful hints
3a) Get your own tube of toothpaste and use it often. Change your brush when you get a new tube.
3b) Take the stairs. Put physical activity into your day, everyday, even when you don't want to.
3c) Buy a house that is East of your work. You will not have to drive into the sun on your commute.
3d) Don't use high density filters in your house HVAC. They choke the system. Use lighter weight filters and change them often.
3e) Carry your wallet in your left front pocket and your gun in the right (vis-a-versa if you are left handed). Sitting on your wallet is bad for your back and makes it easy to loose.
3f) Finally, force yourself to be happy and you will be. Listen to happy music, smile as much as possible and greet everyone you see cheerfully.

Last Thursday was 63 for me. #3d is my favorite! For #3e, I usually wear a vest with a handy pocket.

 

[Eric Brunelle]

Are you a dentist?

 

[denverpilot]

Jokes...

1) Learn everything you can, when you can, not only from books but also skills. Scott Adams calls this adding to your "talent stack" but my Dad always said education is the best investment.

Scott Adams left engineering to make fun of it. He’s done nothing but write cartoons and make lefties cry on YouTube for over a decade.

1a) Use your skills to save money. Fix things instead of buying new.

Get even better skills and more money and pay someone else to fix it.

Or just move to a third world country like the retirement thread, where your dollar pays for a fleet of man servants.

1b) Even when you are the smartest person in the room, you don't have all the answers and can learn from others.

Which is why Doctors love it when they’re surrounded by a group at dinner who diagnosed themselves on the internet.

1c) Your brain is connected to your mouth and your ears but not at the same time.

Clearly this guy has never worked a dispatch job. It’s a practicable skill.


...

Not jokes...

3c) Buy a house that is East of your work. You will not have to drive into the sun on your commute.

This advice is the real MVP right here!

3e) Carry your wallet in your left front pocket and your gun in the right (vis-a-versa if you are left handed). Sitting on your wallet is bad for your back and makes it easy to loose.

Do not carry guns in pockets. Carry guns in holsters. You’re going to shoot yourself in your femoral artery and die. Cover the trigger and trigger guard.

3f) Finally, force yourself to be happy and you will be. Listen to happy music, smile as much as possible and greet everyone you see cheerfully.

If you’re always smiling they don’t know if you’re plotting revenge or you actually like them.

 

[danhagan]

Are you a dentist?

No, he invests in tooth brush companies

 

[chemgeek]

Youngster!

 

[Everskyward]

3c) Buy a house that is East of your work. You will not have to drive into the sun on your commute.

I actually did this. It wasn't the only reason, but it was a consideration.

Also, if you live in a place where it snows, buy a south or west facing house. The snow will melt off your driveway quicker.

 

[LongRoadBob]

For me the biggest thing is attention to detail. Realizing that between not having my glasses (ok, that’s another...make sure I have my reading glasses on me) and being too quick to assess things and jumping to conclusions because of long experience is now leading me to mistakes I didn’t used to make.

Hard to explain, but it is a real concern regarding things related to flying, like checklists.
It also comes up because of impatience on reading and filling out forms, etc.

I feel like I am as quick as I used to be, but I’m not, and also it’s kind of a “Yada yada” feeling when reading forms, schedules, etc. or writing.

Just one example, that is the kind I’ve been experiencing more of, I am training in a health center, and the schedule is different each week, but I have training where I go and am doing it on my own, and where there is a personal trainer. Last week, I show up on Monday, check in, they even tell me the trainer is not there that day, but has a substitute, but I say “oh that’s ok, this is just training on my own”.
Wednsday as I prepare to go to the center I realize Monday WAS the personal trainer day, wed. Was my “own training” day.

Mitigating factors, up until now had been training with my trainer on Wednesday’s, and also it’s in Norwegian and even now that can trip me up as with the trainer it is called “individuell trening” (individual training) which I hastily thought meant “by myself” since the personal trainer usually has four or five others at the same time and goes between us, and then saw that the wed. was “egen trening” (personal training, “your own training”) which meant by myself. Still, I should have caught that. It’s really the same as pilots mention about “seeing what you expect to see instead of what the instrument is showing”.

Taking the ground school exams helped, as I quickly learned to not assume I understood the exact question. So I can compensate and force myself to be exact, read carefully when I know it is important, but in everyday situations I am too quick to assume I know what is written, etc.

So I experience getting older makes me a little more sloppy generally, and also assume from experience I trust myself to evaluate when I should not, have to stop assuming I know already. This also is hard because in a lot of cases I AM good at evaluating something based on former experience so I get false confidence in that ability.
having to learn to know WHEN I can use my experience and when I ought to not rely on it is getting harder.

 

[Art Rose]

From one old duffer to the others, or for those about to become....... You should know.....

Happiness revolves around your give-a-**** dial.

Learn to use it. It's all too simple.