My older self - what do I owe her?

I was watching one of the "Explained" shows the other night about investing for retirement. I found it very interesting. 

One of the premises was that our inability to picture our future self made planning for his/her future very difficult. They did a study where they age-progressed young people. Once the young person saw their older selves, they were more likely to make 401K investments.

It really did make me think how much I owe my older self. And, I realized how truly hard it is to picture her and really give her the proper amount of thought.

What do I owe her?  I gave this a lot of thought (and wished I had thought about her in my twenties more).

• Physical health - so she can walk and take care of herself till the very last moment
• Financial health - so she can continue to live comfortably and enjoy adventures
• Mental health - so she can continue to be curious and engaged in the world around her
• Comedic health - so she can laugh at herself and the fun things she encounters
• Social health - so she can continue to have friends and family that are willing to share their time with her

Now that I am in my 50s... I do give future Sue more thought. I am working harder to try and give her a good shot at a blessed life.  I sure hope she makes the best out of it.

And... for those of you that are curious about my investments... I was very lucky that my first investment advisor was wonderful.  He didn't try and sell me on my future or even discussed my future self.  Instead, he played to my greed.  He showed me that if I invested $20 a month starting at 18 years old, I could be a millionaire in my 60's.  I sure hope I really make it.  I definitely want to put my pinky in my mouth and say "One Million Dollars" (thank you Austin Powers).   

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Lesson Learned - Turning Plants

Awhile back I read an interesting article on growing healthier plants.  They said that the secret was to turn them every time you water them. This way, each part of the plant received a similar amount of light and would grow more evenly.

I loved this idea and started turning them a clockwise a quarter each time I watered them.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that they did grow more evenly and looked fuller.

Of course, I realized that sometimes I turned a plant and wasn't sure if I turned it truly a quarter turn or not.  I had a brainstorm.  A friend of mine had sent me cute little flamingos.  I put one in each of the plants and that makes it very easy to gage a quarter turn. The flamingos also make me smile each time I see them. I think of my friendship which warms my heart. Win/Win.

If you have plants that are growing oddly and seem to only grow on one side, try turning them when you water them and see if they like it.  Mine sure do.

Recognize your talents

Awhile back, a friend of mine was talking about learning a new language.  I was pleased for her and envious of her ability to take on the task of learning a new language.  

I have tried off and on over the years to start learning a new language and I always stop pretty quickly.  I don't enjoy it. I know I am not a strong language person. I am not wired to grasp languages. The process always became a burden to me and gives me no satisfaction. 

As I thought about my friend's ability to learn something that I struggled with, I wondered if I could somehow be more driven or smarter - could I figure out how to like learning a new language?

Later that week, I was asked to look into a software issue a friend was having.  I jumped right in.  I watched a few videos and read some articles.  I learned more about the software and was able to help my friend.

I realized that I have talents. I love software. I love researching issues. I get a lot of fulfillment out of learning new software and new software tricks.  

At that point, I understood that I really needed to recognize and embrace my talents. I needed to realize that I can't know everything.  I needed to forgive myself for not enjoying learning a new language.  It was not a character flaw - it was just my reality.

Knowledge is a great thing and learning new things every day is something I believe in.  I encourage everyone to learn something new each and every day.  But, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to torture yourself with trying to learn things you don't enjoy or won't appreciate.  Allow yourself to learn things that will be meaningful to you.

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Goodbye Pretty Good Toys

As some of you might know, I owned a collectible toy company back in the 1990's /early 2000's.  I loved it and was sorry to see the collectible market crash after 9/11.  It broke my heart to have to close it down.

I was very blessed and able to restart my executive assistant career. I lucked into working for some great companies. I was able to save some money, pay off debts and help make a secure life for us.

When we moved to our new house in 2008, we sold off/gave away over half of the leftover inventory. That still left me with a lot of inventory that I just couldn't bring myself to part with. I kept thinking that if I ever needed some extra cash, I could go back to selling online.  Or, if I got bored, I could drag out a few boxes and sell what I could sell.  John tried his hand at selling a few things when his consulting company was just starting up a few years ago.  We even picked up the occasional collectible at a garage sale or flea market that we thought might be worth something, someday.

It is now 2021. John and I had a long, honest talk, regarding the reality of holding onto the inventory. We admitted that we neither of us wanted to put in the time and effort to sell toys again. We realized we barely made any money anymore, given the cost of selling fees and S&H charges.  Our time making good money at selling collectibles was over.  Our hearts were not in it anymore.

Now we are going through the "toy room" and purging all but the items we want to keep for our own personal enjoyment.  We figure we will have a huge garage sale sometime this summer.  Anything that doesn't find a home that way, will get to go to goodwill.  

Is this extremely sad?  Yes.  I always sort of hoped I would find the magic of PGToys again.  It was such a wonderful experience. It brought me such joy.  

Is this also extremely satisfying?  Yes.  It feels really good to purge.  I know when the task is completed, I will feel great when I see the emptier empty room in my basement - knowing the items went to people that will hopefully display them proudly, or sell them and enjoy the experiences I had with selling.

I know saying goodbye to PGToys is something I probably should have done years ago... but I now have the strength to let it go entirely. I know I will have no regrets.  Sometimes you just have to wait awhile and let the time be right.  As they say, "all good things must come to and end".  The memories I have will last a lifetime.  I was blessed to get to own PGToys for as long as I did.