After I read Dividend Mantra’s another inspiring post, I couldn’t help but think about life with aging. Although to a large extent I agree with his argument that time now is more valuable than time later , it is important to accept aging and live actively even you become the elderly. When I was in my 20’s, I thought that my life virtually would be over when I turned 30. But it turned out that my life in my 30’s was more fulfilling and active than my 20’s. Again, when I was in my late 30’s, I was scared to become 40 because I personally regarded people in their 40’s as pre-elderly. On the contrary, life was very interesting in my 40’s. I moved to the US to work and I set off on a big adventure to Europe.
Thus far my life has been very interesting. During the course, however, I quit a full time job twice despite the fact that I was not financially independent. As a result, I suffered hardship for some time after losing stable income. The reason for quitting was the same. I thought life was short and I felt compelled to do it before I became old. In hindsight, I think I was wrong. At least I should have made sure that I would have passive income stream that cover my rent and grocery. Yes, I had saving, but no passive income. Dividend Mantra deserved freedom in his early 30’s because he has both passive income (dividend) and active income (blog advertisement, writing,etc.). Above all, his frugality allows him not to work full time. So he has right to argue that a year today is worth more than a year in the future.
In my case, given that I don’t have enough passive income to cover my rent, grocery, health insurance, pension premium, and incidentals and that I am not frugal enough to live off the current level of the passive income, I will have to continue to work until I turn 60. Is it too late? Probably yes, but what if you actually become 60 and you are healthy enough to have a very active life. Therefore, I would like to accept aging and to prepare for my active life in my 60’s onwards. Nobody can tell whether or not I am still alive when I turn 60, but this is the consequences of my life thus far and I decided to accept it.
dividendsamurai 