Gypsy Tour: Day Two Hundred Twenty Five

Today I read a couple of interesting things. One site provided the table below and claims it is from a "secret insurance industry document". It contends that the older you are when you retire the shorter your life will be. Now, I have a lot of contempt for the insurance industry but if there is one thing I'm willing to concede they're well schooled at it is life span. The study, done on Boeing employees, purportedly shows that for every year you work past the age of 55 you end up living two years less. So I poked around a little to see if there have been other studies that support this finding. After all, I hope to retire relatively young, by 52 at the very latest. What I found instead was a study showing exactly the opposite; that those retiring at 62, 63 or 64 die younger than those who continue to work to age 65 or older. Guess who authored that study? The social security agency. They'd love it if we all waited until age 70 to retire! Statistics are interesting and fun and so very easy to manipulate. Everywhere I look I see proof again and again that the only thing that is real is perspective. It just all depends on how you look at things, doesn't it? I am a glass half full person. Therefore, the younger I retire, the longer I'll live!

Anyway, retire young : die early or retire young : live longer, whichever it is I'm going for it. I've been building up the gypsy wagon fund little by little and will need to revisit ordering the trailer chassis soon. While I excel at getting rid of old pencil sharpeners and corkscrews, I need to kick it into a higher gear and try to sell a few of the valuable items I have to help generate funds. This 27 degree weather isn't very conducive to doing things like marketing trucks though. It can't stay cold forever, can it?

Funny story about getting rid of things. I mostly list things here that I'm donating and only occasionally do I mention the things I just throw away. Last week I threw away two pairs of shoes. I tend to buy two pairs of really good shoes a year and then I wear them until they just about fall off my feet. I had an old pair of Birkenstocks I had kept just for stepping into to go out and check the mail or feed the chickens but that were way too worn to actually wear. I put them in the garbage last week and two days later saw my son sitting concentration on something intently. I walked over to see him labeling the shoes, "Reese's Birkenstocks Do Not Throw Away" with a sharpie. He was thrilled to "score". One man's trash....