I’m still very lucky
Yes, this is my last blog post for the year, so nothing new of substance, just my opportunity to thank you for reading my stuff, and to wish you peace and light this holiday season, and a happy and fulfilling 2023.
I’ve re-read my final blog post for each of the last few years, and I’m particularly glad that three years ago I composed one entitled Why I’m Grateful. All of that still applies, and in the midst of my ongoing gratitude I recognize again how very lucky I’ve been.
To add to it all, this year our multi-country far-flung family managed to get together to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary for Susan and me. (Well, just me, really – Susan is surely too young to have been married 50 years!)
I’ve taken the opportunity to look at this year’s blog posts, and I was struck by two things: the number of subjects covered, and the random order in which they appeared.
There were 12 posts on the theme of happiness and mental well-being, 11 on retirement finance, 5 on longevity and 3 on investment. If you’re a numbers person, you’ll have noticed that the numbers add up to 31, which is more than the 24, the number of subject-oriented posts (plus the index post that started the year, and this one that defies categorization). That’s because 7 of the posts related to more than one theme.
In addition to updating the index in the new year, to include all the 2022 posts, I thought it might be fun to review some of those posts in groups, so that the themes stand out more clearly, with less randomness. You’ll see what I mean when I get down to it.
Meanwhile, nothing here to trouble your mind, just my opportunity to thank you again for reading these posts – you have no idea how much that means to me, and how much purpose it gives me.
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2 Comments
I have written about retirement planning before and some of that material also relates to topics or issues that are being discussed here. Where relevant I draw on material from three sources: The Retirement Plan Solution (co-authored with Bob Collie and Matt Smith, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009), my foreword to Someday Rich (by Timothy Noonan and Matt Smith, also published by Wiley, 2012), and my occasional column The Art of Investment in the FT Money supplement of The Financial Times, published in the UK. I am grateful to the other authors and to The Financial Times for permission to use the material here.
Thank you for another year of thought-provoking, informative, enlightening, interesting, and sometimes even inspirational blog posts! Looking forward to reading more in 2023!
My pleasure — and my thanks to you!