Turned 40 today, Any advice from my Seniors?

rcjordan · October 31, 2011, 08:36:20 PM

>Miles Clark

Oops, sorry. Here's a cut-n-paste from the old core:

For a very small town, my hometown had more than its share of significant wealth (relative to the current time). About 50 years ago, one of our big ones was Miles Clark. Sort of our local Warren Buffet. In a nutshell, as I understand it, he cornered Texaco Oil Company by acquiring all their shipping contracts and they had to buy him out because all distribution had to go through him. Anyway, he eventually became oil-magnate wealthy and he continued to leverage that wealth after he was out of the shipping business.

When asked how he'd built his wealth, he replied "I always sold too soon."

If I had to name the biggest fault my extended family has had in making money, it would be "hanging on too long." Sometimes the reason is financial (it's worth more than that!) or sometimes sentimental (but it's the FAMILY business!). That's why the quote struck me as worthwhile. There are several businesses and properties we should have sold over the years, yet we held on to them. Now they are in decline and will fetch far less (though we recouped some of that in rents while we held them). Looking around, the families that I see progressing financially tend to change "careers" by dropping their namesake businesses and moving into new or related fields.

rcjordan · October 31, 2011, 09:09:38 PM

<added>

>Quickbooks

Most people really don't have a very good idea of their finances. They think they do, but financial planners usually find that their clients are off by a mile. A full, but simple, accounting package let's you set up business-like bookkeeping on your personal assets and liabilities. Hard numbers instead of warm & fuzzy expectations. It also keeps damn good notes for when (not *if*) the taxman comes sniffing around. QB has saved my a## more than a few times.

Hey, gimpy, look what I found:
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/5202

littleman · October 31, 2011, 11:56:39 PM

Thanks guys, I really enjoy reading your words of wisdom.

Travoli · November 01, 2011, 04:25:34 AM

Happy Birthday LM!

ukgimp · November 01, 2011, 10:05:51 AM

>>Hey, gimpy, look what I found:

Wow, do you keep a record of shit like that RC and wheel it out at the required time?

My shit is not sorted yet, I have things in place but I am not in the position I thought I would be, despite the intentions I had/have.

Got into things that did not help this aim, but ones that I could not just cut loose of.

Streamlining now and working with people that have done very well so 2012 is the the new 2006 :-)

dougs · November 01, 2011, 05:19:04 PM

Gimp is joing The Borg Empire in Lichfield:) Maybe we can make him some money this time......

Doug

rcjordan · November 01, 2011, 08:07:03 PM

>do you keep a record of sh## like that RC and wheel it out at the required time?

No, I just searched threadwatch figuring I had posted something about quickbooks there. From the looks of it, you routinely ignore my advice, hhh.

>money this time

Well, don't put him in the accounting department.

ukgimp · November 01, 2011, 08:36:20 PM

WRT things like accounting I can tell you what needs to be done, ask me to do it though. Slim chance of it getting finished.

rcjordan · November 02, 2011, 12:24:24 AM

Reflect on this, LM...

"brains are already heading downhill by one's early 30s, even late 20s, some parts faster and more precipitously than others. The prefrontal cortex where a good chunk of YOU resides is last to develop (thus helping explain why teenagers are teenagers) and first to start its slow drift and then increasingly rapid plunge downward."

http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/129543/

ergophobe · November 04, 2011, 04:09:02 PM

Congrats! Enjoy your youth!

Quote from: Rupert on October 29, 2011, 03:20:57 AM
'Bout right. Getting too many injuries at 47.

Strangely, been acquiring injuries since 47 too (now 48). Keep trying to get above it, but one thing after another.

That said, 40s have been great. Not only that, a friend of mine at 47 is poised to retake the speed record on the Nose route of El Cap, a record he first held in 1990 at 8 hours; now he's down around 2:37 and gunning for the new record (2:36;45). Maybe earlier. So decline is not inevitable!
http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/florine_and_honnold_45_seconds_from_nose_record/

Not only that, I saw some research that says that life happiness hits a low right around 40 for most people. So wherever you are now, it's likely to get better on that side.

I'm not that much your senior, but I would say that losing mental/emotional/social plasticity is the biggest "risk" of aging. Keep things in the mix. Put yourself in situations where you socialize with younger people (not as "boss" or anything, but as "peer").