The Experiential Challenge

I recently watched a Talks At Google presentation from James Wallman, the author of Stuffocation. The video is worth a watch - the talk itself is only the first half hour (the rest is Q and A).

His premise, which I buy into completely, is that the 20th Century was all about materialism. "He who dies with the most toys wins". I think more and more of us have now bought into the 21st Century argument that this materialism did not lead us to happiness.

The new materialsm is now experientialism. What makes us happy are the memories we accumulate, not the stuff. It's the experiences that count, and it's the experiences that provides us the social status we crave.

He has an excellent challenge during the end of the talk:

"Spend the same amount of money you would normally in a month, but have absolutely nothing material to show for it at the end."

So at the end of the month, you wouldn't have a new purse or a new car or a new smartphone, but you may have had a couple of days skiing, a dinner out with friends, gone to the movies or flown to Australia. I think that having photos to show at the end of it all would be fair game.

Let me know if you're willing to try this - I am...

If There Really Is Global Warming - Then Why The Long Winter?

That's the question you're hearing from FOX News, and now represents the thinking of 23% of Americans:

"The most recent national Climate Change in the American Mind survey found that 1 in 4 Americans think that global warming is not happening, and half say they are "worried" about it."

This has mostly arisen because journalists, deniers, and politicians have selectively chosen climate data and used it as proof that the earth is cooling down, it's part of a natural cycle, or that the subject is still up for debate.

But when we look at the big picture, and factor in all the data, Man-Made Global Warming is a fact. It's no longer a point of contention among the enlightened.

From NASA

We no longer believe the world is flat - although I'm sure you could find a few out there that would defend that position. Now we should no longer give any credibility to Global Warming Deniers .

Note that I use that term Global Warming on purpose. I've learned from Hyperobjects that using Climate Change to describe Global Warming is like using "change of living conditions" instead of "Holocaust". The complete, correct term would be "Climate Change caused by Global Warming".

Bill Nye The Science Guy is a Moron

OK - not really a moron. Just insanely dumb to engage in a debate that he cannot win.

Bill Nye engaged in said debate with Young Earth Creationist Ken Ham at his Museum on Tuesday February 4.

This would all be an interesting circus act, if it weren't for the fact that over a half million people watched this live over a webcast, and thousands more have seen the YouTube video.

Here's why I think Bill Nye is stupid to engage with Ham in this charade.

He gives Creationism an aura of credibility. He could have the same arguments with the Flat Earth Society, the Fake Moon Landing theorists, or The Earth Is The Center Of The Universe Society (if one existed).

Nye remains completely reasonable, objective, and proof-based in his arguments, but is confounded at every opportunity. When Nye talks about a tree in Sweden being older than the 6000 years than Ham claims the earth is, Ham's response is

“We didn't see those tree rings actually forming. We didn't see those layers being laid down. You’re assuming things in regard to the past that aren't necessarily true.”

 So tree rings haven't been proven to show the age of a tree. News to me. News to science.

The more credibility we give Ham and his believers, by engaging in these silly debates, the further behind the United States falls in science. Some reports say as much at 46% of the US population holds a bible-centric, creationist view of how we got here.

The rest of us just shake our heads.

My Two Year Old Smoothie

I started a new breakfast regimen two years ago - after I convinced myself that having a bowl of Multigrain Cheerios for breakfast every morning was likely killing me.

So I started experimenting with smoothies. After several variations - with eggs and yogurt and cocoa and tomatoes and other stuff - I settled on a mixture that I've grown to like very much.

My brother Rob makes a great smoothie too - tastes similar but with different ingredients. Maybe I'll get him to write it down one day.

But here's the one I've been having most mornings for the past 700 days. And I'm still not tired of it (about once a week we'll have bacon and eggs just to mix thing up).

• 1 x 400ml can Coconut Milk (Aroy-D is the brand I use - high in fat)
• 1 cup Frozen Berries (Costco Rader Farms Nature's Three Berries)
• 1 medium banana (120g)
• 1 scoop (40g) Protein Powder (Kaizen Whey Isolate - Vanilla)
• 2 small Avocados (or 1 large Avocado - about 400g)
• 2 cups (60g) spinach
• 1 cup water

I blend it in a Blendtec blender (like a Vitamax), but used an old Oster blender up until recently - the Blendtec makes it really smooth.

You can turn this smoothie into a red one by increasing the amount of berries (I add a half cup of blueberries) or you can make it green by adding more spinach. Any way you make it, it tastes fantastic.

And it's good for you as well. Here's the nutritional breakdown of an entire batch and for a single serving - which is about 1/3 of a batch:

It's a bit high in sugar, but all of it comes from fruit - so it's wrapped in fiber and is slow to metabolize (so no insulin spikes). High in carbs too, but it's the fruit as well. I don't care.

The fat content freaks people out, but we're all learning now that fat isn't bad for you - you need it to live. And coconut/avocado fat is excellent. I have lots in here.

A glass of this shake takes me through lunchtime easily - there is no mid-morning craving for donuts. Mind you, there is always room for another cup of coffee.....

Eating This Stuff Is Killing Us

Obesity is the second leading contributor to premature death in North America (ref). It's complicit in heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis and cancer. Diet plays a huge role in obesity - along with physical activity - so I found a couple of  interesting graphics that describes how things have changed over the decades.

The first is obesity rates themselves - I'm confident that Canada would track the USA almost 1:1...

 Note that the early 1980's the US Federal Government started us all on the low-fat dogma, and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to prove that a low fat diet is good for our health. Our fat consumption has been decreasing for decades, but our rates of obesity are skyrocketing.Clearly low fat is not good for our health.

So what's happened? Food manufacturers have gone the low fat route by substituting sugars - every kind of sugar (the most infamous being Low Fructose Corn Syrup). And when sugar isn't enough - they process the hell out of it to make it some kind of Frankenfood.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR

When I was growing up in the 70's, processed food in the house was rare. The odd bag of potato chips, and maybe a 2l jug of Coke over Christmas.

My how things have changed.

The single biggest component of our diet is now processed foods and sugars.

Want to lose weight and get healthy? Cut out the 22.9%.

"If your grandmother wouldn't recognize it, don't eat it".

You Probably Have Enough...

"Who do you work for?"

I get that a lot. Instead of giving a roundabout, hard to explain answer, I usually just say

"I'm retired".

Then follows the automatic "you look awfully young to be retired" and then the inevitable

"I wish I could do that".

This got me thinking about the experience Laura and I have had over the last several years, and my general outlook long before then.

It's meant for people about our age (mid 50's and older) who have kids that have moved out.

And maybe it's for the younger crowd, just starting out. If they re-imagined their eventual retirement - as I'm sure most of them are doing anyway - much of this makes sense for them too.

You Have Enough

Over the last fifteen years, as I started to think about eventually quitting work, I found myself challenging the accepted belief that you needed a huge chunk of  money* to retire. It seemed however much you had, it was never going to be enough.

For me, and most people I know, the days of a defined benefit pension program were long gone. What you had accumulated needed to last until you were dead. Nobody was going to send you a regular paycheque once you stopped reporting for work.

There are entire banking sectors set up to tell you how much you'll need based on your anticipated lifestyle.

As it turned out, Laura and I were forced into this predicament by my health issues. I can't ever see a time where full-time work is a real option for me anymore. And when we look closer at it, neither of us can see a time when full-time work is required (or desired) for either of us.

So we are forced into this "early retirement" with less than we thought we needed. And I'm increasingly convinced that it is, indeed, enough.

What it needs is a change of attitude, and a real in-depth look at what's truly important to you.

What's Important

The lesson we've learned over the last eight years (2006 kicked this process off**) is that life doesn't really care how much you plan. Events will conspire to kick you in the teeth when you least expect it. The more flexible you are, the more willing you are to try new things, and the more you're able to put preconceived notions of "this is how it must be" on the back burner, the better equipped you'll be moving forward.

It's best to start with a challenge to many of the preconceptions you probably have.

• Everyone needs to own a house. Think of all the money you have tied up in a house - money that could be working for you elsewhere. How much do you pay in property tax? Insurance? Maintenance? Self esteem? 60% of people in Germany never own a house, and never plan to. Why is that? We now rent a one bedroom basement suite.
• Everyone needs at least two cars. Really? And how often in one of them sitting at home? What if you just managed your time better? What if both of you didn't work full time? We got rid of my truck, and we now drive Laura's much more fuel efficient car.
• Everyone needs lots of room for their stuff. Why do you have so much stuff? If you had a fire today, and you could take just one thing before getting out of the house, what would it be? I guess I'd say "the dog".
• We need two incomes to manage this lifestyle. So change the lifestyle. Determine what you "need" versus what you "want".

I've been anal about tracking our spending since we first got married. And I'm surprised to report that our social lifestyle hasn't really changed at all, but the cost of that lifestyle is half to one third of what it was. No more buying something because you're bored, or eating out three nights a week because you're tired.

The Strategy

Here are the steps we've taken, and so far - so good.

• Sell your house. Hopefully, if you're in Canada at least, the house is worth more than the mortgage on it. Take the proceeds from the house and invest it wisely (be conservative - this money has to last!).
• Sell your stuff. You're going to be moving into a much smaller place, so decide what you really need. You can't have it all - and as we've discovered - your kids likely don't want anything of yours anyway. If you need to rent some storage space, go ahead. But have some time limit to when everything in there is cleaned out.
• Sell your car. I'd like to get rid of the cars altogether, but based on where we live, one is kind of essential. If we lived downtown, I'd likely aim for a shared-car service.
• Pay off your debt. You should plan on having ZERO debt. Pay off credit cards every month. Have a zero balance on the line of credit. Owe nobody.
• Move. Rent a small one or two bedroom place. What this buys you is freedom. Don't like your neighbors - move. Don't like the price of rent - move. Don't like the city - move. Much easier to be flexible as a renter than as an owner.
• Think part time. Supplement your investment income with small, part-time jobs. We try deliberately to avoid a full time commitment (short term, full time is OK - like a maternity leave).
• Know where you're at. Become fanatical about your financial position. Know when things are going well, and when they require some tweaking (ie: line up more work).
• Adjust your lifestyle. Live on less. Go to movies on cheap night (around here, Tuesday). Eat at home almost all the time. Our "big night out" is on Thursday with friends, where we meet up for sushi. Costs us about $25/week. 

What these changes have afforded us is ultimate flexibility. Want to go to away for a week next month? Go. Want to go away for a month next week? Go. Want to live back in Calgary for a year? Go. Want to visit the Maritimes for a couple of months this fall. Go.

And as I mentioned earlier - our social life is better than before. And we travel three or four times as much.

We're fortunate in that I think we have enough. The number will be different for everybody, but I'm pretty certain that it's significantly less than what you think.

Our lifestyle today runs about $3500/month, with about $1000/month of this set aside for vacations. When we add up the part-time jobs we have along with the investment income, we're doing quite nicely.

The Benefits

There are a few subtle benefits that seem obvious to me now.

• By leaving full time employment, you actually free up a job for a younger person. Someone who likely needs the paycheque a whole lot more than you do. A big problem in our economy now is that there's no mobility for younger workers - all because we refuse to leave!
• You eat much better at home when you have time to cook and plan meals. It costs much, much less, and you eat much, much healthier.
• You get rid of all that "mental overhead" of managing too many tasks in not enough time. This includes mortgages, doctor appointments, oil changes, lawn-moving, fence fixing, everything...
• You have the time and the energy to regularly exercise. Regularly as in "just about every day".

So enough of "I wish I could do that".

You probably can. Because you probably have enough.

* Some say $900K, some say $1.5M, some say $5M - who really knows?

** Major "kick you in the teeth" life events that have happened to us:
2006 - Jack Beauchamp, my cousin's husband, was murdered
2006 - I asked for a 6 month leave of absence from work.
2006 - Days before leaving on the LOA, discovered that I needed heart bypass surgery.
2007 - Returned to work.
2009 - Took a buy-out at work. Planned on travelling for a year, and then getting another job.
2009 - 4 weeks after leaving, had a relatively major stroke. Relearned how to walk and talk.
2010 - Laura goes back to school for Early Childhood Education - we are sure to need the income.
2011 - I've got some part time work through a friend that keeps me in spending money
2011 - Laura is really enjoying her new career, but she has to be careful about accepting full time jobs!