As I survey the few friends I have left as I enter into old age, I see some who are in misery and some who are in pretty good shape psychologically and emotionally. There are many differences between them, and...
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As I survey the few friends I have left as I enter into old age, I see some who are in misery and some who are in pretty good shape psychologically and emotionally. There are many differences between them, and the ones who are scared and suffering from the terrible disease of terror about financial insecurity.
READ MORE from Ben Stein: My Life at 79
The main thing is that the ones who are happier have more money. That seems like an obvious point, and it is. But please note that I am not talking about people my age (79) who have tons of money and comparing them with the homeless.
I am talking about “ordinary people” who are not buying Bentleys, but who are not in dreadful fear when their mail comes in. The usual difference I notice is that the ones who are not deathly afraid of their bills have some required sense of order. They were taught at an early age to budget such that they would not live in fear about money.
Just for a small example, I have a sister and a brother-in-law who have a super sensible attitude about money. My brother-in-law was a madly successful Wall Street lawyer. I have no idea how much he earned per annum, but it was most probably in the highest stratum of earnings. He and my sister live intelligently.
I, raised by the same parents, likely earned even more in my good years. But as the fad for Ben Stein evaporated, my earnings diminished. Luckily, thanks to good parents and a fabulous friend named Warren Buffett and another fabulous friend named Phil DeMuth, I had some decent investments such that I was always very far from broke.
But I did have some terrible days of fear because much of my savings were in the form of real estate. It’s fun to own and to enjoy. But converting it to cash that can be used to pay bills is far from a frictionless process. When you finally get the check, you are a happy guy.
But it would have been better to have cash in the first place.
Now, I will have a great, great deal more to say on this as I enter farther into old age. But what I really want to say is that some measure of orderliness is an extremely important part of a happy life. I, your humble servant, am some considerable distance from being poor. But my life would have been happier if I had more cash and fewer illiquid assets. I should have begun converting my real estate into cash much sooner than I did. The miracle (yes, miracle) of stocks and the stock market is that you can convert them into cash at any time with one phone call. There are downsides, especially as regards taxation, but the upside in terms of peace of mind when converting them into the stuff you can pay your Mastercard with is fantastic.
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