Saturday, June 7, 2014

A Summer Break

I'm taking a few weeks away from musing about distribution strategies and risk tolerance to celebrate a most amazing week that I recently enjoyed. I'd like to take this opportunity to remind us all that there is more to life than money.

(I will hastily add that the more money you have, the easier it is to say that.)

A couple of weeks ago, within a seven-day span, my daughter was married, my wife and I celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary and . . . OK, maybe a little about finance . . . I paid off the mortgage. We spent last week in Paris, a place we last visited not long after our wedding, celebrating our time together.

Some things money can't buy, like finding the love of your life at a young age and getting to live with her for a very long time.

Before long, I'll be writing again from my favorite neighborhood coffee shop, though I'll probably be daydreaming about those along Paris boulevards.

I wish you all the joys life can bring and I suppose I could drop one piece of retirement advice while I'm at it.

If you're looking for a place to retire with a reasonable cost of living. . . Paris ain't it.




 

 

14 comments:

  1. Congratulations Dirk on all accounts. Brad

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  2. Dirk,
    Just found your Blog with 2 years to go before retirement from the Secret Service. Looking forward to being as productive as you. Enjoy your summer it will give me time to digest and contemplate all the information you have provided. I agree with you about Paris, the San Juan Islands, WA is my future destination.

    Jim

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  3. Dirk,
    Just found your blog with 2 years to go before retirement from a 27 year career with the Secret Service. Enjoy your summer, it will give me time to digest all the digest all of your published information. I'm following your lead.

    I agree with you about Paris, my future retirement destination are the San Juan Islands, WA.

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  4. Dirk, I recently found your blog 2 years prior to my retirement from a 25 year career with the Secret Service. Well written and your summer break will give me the time to digest all your information previously written. I agree about Paris, my retirement spot away from Washington DC will be the San Juan Islands, WA

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  5. I love that philosophy. "There is more to life then just money." So many people get caught up in the concept that money brings happiness. True, you can buy things that make you happy temporarily, but only you can find something or someone that brings you joy. Joy is the everlasting element in life which makes it worth living.

    Aaron | http://www.hagenfinancialadvantage.com/new/hagenfinancial/content.asp?contentid=2017602728

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  6. Some day the Euro will tumble and we'll buy the little flat on the Île Saint-Louis that we've always fancied. Say it is so!

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  7. Congratulations Dirk. Once I thought that we had nothing to learn from old Europe ... and yes Paris ain't cheap ... but on the other hand, it is a place with an apparent social agreement: "Okay, we'll live in smaller homes and pay some taxes ... but we will clean the streets every day ... we will make our city a living museum ... we will put the "skyscrapers" at the end of the subway line ... but we will put an arch there that is in a straight line from the Arc de Triomphe, in order to make them a part of the city ... no, it ain't cheap ... but it deserves a vacation at least three times a decade!

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  8. "Some things money can't buy, like finding the love of your life at a young age and getting to live with her for a very long time." I also found the love of my life at a young age, and it was worth absolutely everything to marry him when I was 18, getting to live with him for the 47 years of our marriage. He died last year. Thank God I didn't heed the prudent advice to wait; 47 years were far too few.

    Bless every day you have together-- and enjoy your summer!

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