Early-retirement wannabe

itm2

justme111 wrote: »

One more observation- have you noticed that we disapprove of sacrificing future good for present while it has not been mentioned yet the danger of wasting opportunities for better life now in many senses in a pursuit of a better life later. As anonymous written , it should be the total sum.

In my case I found that having to spend most of every week at work was severely limiting my opportunities for a better "present". Or to put it another way, work was getting in the way of enjoying life

OldMusicGuy

justme111 wrote: »

I reckon temporal discounting is not so much psychological as mathematical function- between now and tomorrow when one would be suposed to have the jam a lot can happen-one's taste change, jam go off ,one die,one suddenly find tons of jam so that the previously planned jar has no value any more , jam being stolen or confiscated etc. So probability of it happening impacts on the value of jam tomorrow versus today.

It's actually a biological function that is hardwired into our brains. Research shows that in most animals it is hyperbolic (ie heavily slanted towards the present) and not like a traditional linear discounted net present value models. Humans may have evolved more "rational" thought processes (like building complex spreadsheets) but in many cases the simple biological urge for something "now" overrides any rational mathematical calculation.

JoeEngland

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

It's actually a biological function that is hardwired into our brains. Research shows that in most animals it is hyperbolic (ie heavily slanted towards the present) and not like a traditional linear discounted net present value models. Humans may have evolved more "rational" thought processes (like building complex spreadsheets) but in many cases the simple biological urge for something "now" overrides any rational mathematical calculation.

Since we're on this subject, maybe it's worth recommending books to do with statistics, cognitive bias etc. You've mentioned "Thinking Fast and Slow", and I'd also recommend these:


Dan Gardner - Future Babble
Dan Gardner - Risk
Matthew Syed - Black Box Thinking
David Spiegelhalter and Michael Blastland - The Norm Chronicles

Sapphire

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

There's nothing worse than a retired person with too much time on their hands that loves reading and researching all kinds of different stuff. Apologies if I am turning into a know-it-all (it is part of my personality traits btw....)

Why? What on earth is wrong with working for 40 to 50 years, then 'reading and researching all kinds of stuff', if that is what people want to do in retirement? Retired people are still human beings, not 'things' that 'are meant' to park in armchairs with the TV on all day long doing nothing. Many still experience inquisitiveness, pleasure, sadness, pain and joy, just as you do, presumably.

bugslet

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

It's actually a biological function that is hardwired into our brains. Research shows that in most animals it is hyperbolic (ie heavily slanted towards the present) and not like a traditional linear discounted net present value models. Humans may have evolved more "rational" thought processes (like building complex spreadsheets) but in many cases the simple biological urge for something "now" overrides any rational mathematical calculation.

I often think we should live life like a dog; my lot appear to be in a permanent haze of contentment as I slog away to give them a future that they aren't considering!;)

JoeEngland wrote: »

Since we're on this subject, maybe it's worth recommending books to do with statistics, cognitive bias etc. You've mentioned "Thinking Fast and Slow", and I'd also recommend these:


Dan Gardner - Future Babble
Dan Gardner - Risk
Matthew Syed - Black Box Thinking
David Spiegelhalter and Michael Blastland - The Norm Chronicles

I've read futurebabble, thanks for the other suggestions.

Sapphire wrote: »

Why? What on earth is wrong with working for 40 to 50 years, then 'reading and researching all kinds of stuff', if that is what people want to do in retirement? Retired people are still human beings, not 'things' that 'are meant' to park in armchairs with the TV on all day long doing nothing. Many still experience inquisitiveness, pleasure, sadness, pain and joy, just as you do, presumably.

And then providing a topic of interest for random people on the internet.:T

OldMusicGuy

Sapphire wrote: »

Why? What on earth is wrong with working for 40 to 50 years, then 'reading and researching all kinds of stuff', if that is what people want to do in retirement?

Back to Marine Life's question, it's actually part of my idea of "living life to the full". Reading, researching and thinking are all things I find very enjoyable and it's really nice to have the time to do them at my leisure.

Anonymous101

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

Well, we've been dodging sabre tooth tigers and the like for far longer than we've had fridges and pension plans, so those base evolutionary instincts do tend to take over (you should read Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" if you haven't already).

True. No I haven't read that. I'll look out for it thanks. :cool:

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

Good on you although I suspect you are in the minority. Although my son (bless him) is a natural tightwad and is good with his money, much better than I was at his age. Although a lot of that comes from me badgering him to save and max out pension contributions.

Yes absolutely I am. To be fair I've grown into what I am today since I've been with Mrs. Anon. She's probably more naturally frugal than I am and I'm more interested in the numbers and investing etc. We don't miss out on anything but just try to live as efficiently as we can to maximise the power of our earnings.

Its funny how you mention parenting I wouldn't say either of mine are particularly good with money but my mother sold pensions for a living so perhaps some of that rubbed off on me.
We've not got any little Anon's running around yet but I'd certainly do my best to instill the power of pensions and investments into any that might come along as you describe you have done.

Sapphire

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

Back to Marine Life's question, it's actually part of my idea of "living life to the full". Reading, researching and thinking are all things I find very enjoyable and it's really nice to have the time to do them at my leisure.

Oh, I see. My grandmother read copiously until well into her nineties, until her eyesight failed.

Personally, I used to love listening to my grandparents talking about their experiences in life, which were so different from mine. I learnt a lot from them, as previous generations used to do from time immemorial. Even in the case of the Australian Aboriginals, the elders passed down knowledge (and warnings) in the form of legends, which some academics in the realm of geoscience think link to geological events millennia ago (a fascinating subject). Somehow, that link between generations is now rather broken, for many reasons.

michaels

kidmugsy wrote: »

The author's covered that point by asking both about swapping income for capital and capital for income. They discovered that many people give answers that are mutually inconsistent.

Is that inconsistent or does it support my suggestion that those less financially astute just feel they are at an inflexion point where they would neither choose to reduce their state pension in return for a lump sum (that they know they will fritter) nor invest any of their cash savings in additional pension. It may not be their goldilocks point but that is what they perceive it to be.

gadgetmind

kidmugsy wrote: »

The author's covered that point by asking both about swapping income for capital and capital for income. They discovered that many people give answers that are mutually inconsistent.

I guess some people don't know how to multiply. Teach them that first and then build on top of this basic knowledge.