Mr. Frugality: Working on Retirement Goals

Wait, I am about to become a former college student! Why am I even worrying about retirement? Well I am, and I'm not.

I want to nail down exactly what I want to do during retirement. I asked myself this question, and replied "uuuuuuuuuhhhh". We can fix this. In his book "The New Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save more and Live Better by Chris Farrell", Farrell describes the situation of an interesting man who was into banking for a long time.

This man worked for 40 or 50 years in the industry, and finally retired. From the day he was 10, he always wanted to open a hot dog stand. When he retired, he took some of his retirement money and opened a hot dog stand. He absolutely loves what he does.

I took this to heart. What do I want to do when I retire? do I want to retire? At first I said I would never retire; but retirement means no more work, and mostly fun. If I had my life, and money was not an object (FRUGALITY now), I would retire and model build full time. I am a model builder, and sadly due to college I have not had time to build models. As a reward for sticking out college, this summer I am going to spend some time model building while I maintain a small income, but a small expense as well. I am very fortunate to have loving parents (in their own special way, sometimes) who take care of me.

Some people become philanthropists; others choose to work with people in their retirement. I want to model build, and become a historian while I do it. I have always loved history, and it [history] is a good supplement to model building. My subject matter is mostly tanks, ships and vehicles. I think I will auction off some models as well for good causes.

I will need to calculate (roughly) the cost of supplies needed, models I want to build, etc. I realize that if I buy a butt ton of models that not all of them may be built. That will go in a final budget with other expenses, such as living and food. By retirement, actually, before retirement, I have the goal to become debt free. If it isn't a big ticket item that I need, I don't want to borrow on it. New television set? cash. Furniture? cash and savings. Even if I borrow, and I won't be a nazi against it, I will NOT borrow what I cannot pay. This is the trap credit card America fell into.

Why buy more than you need? it's a waste.