18 Jul, 2019
How is life at 47?
I am 47 years old. I am near-sighted (friends my age are far-sighted, but I had Lasik 15 years ago which I think has something to do with it). I don’t smoke, but I do drink recreationally (I make my own wine! click here to learn how). We raise our own meat (beef, pork, lamb), eggs, and some fruits and vegetables. I have aches and pains, but none that keeps me from doing what I want. I am active as time allows.
I am happy where I am in life, but would I change anything? Perhaps. No one is a better teacher than Life’s EXPERIENCES. We are a sum of our nurturing, education, and experiences. What doesn’t break us, makes us stronger. Our successes and our failures are equal lessons. If you only succeed, how will you know how to pick yourself up? And if you feel like you are just a bunch of failures, how sweet will success be when you get it? I really do not like to generalize, but it seems to me that people expect different things from life now as compared to years ago.
With the current technology, information is never too far away. Your smartphone can look up information in an instant. Games, music, internet, apps galore…all in your pocket. I am not ancient, but I remember a time when my TV was black and white, Walkmans and Discmans were popular, and I had to physically go to the library during their operating hours (rain or shine, snow or sleet, ask mom for a ride) to look up information in encyclopedias, reference books, microfiche, newspapers and more. And there was this thing called a card catalog to find your books using the Dewey decimal system…now, I can just search it on the internet, request what I want, and pick it up. Amazing.
During nursing school, we had to go to the library to borrow or copy articles, or subscribe to nursing journals (which cost money that struggling students don’t have) for our research papers. I was the first nursing class in Hawaii to take the nursing licensure exam on a computer (was paper and pencil before that!). My results came in a couple of weeks. Amazing. We looked up everything in books. Now, it is right at my fingertips. I can look up medications and dosages on the computer at work, or my phone…on the flip side, may patients now have received their doctorate from Google so they feel like they know more than you. They research what they have been told, which is good, I don’t discourage that at all, but sometimes, it hinders care when they feel like they know more than the medical staff. I always recommend patients who want to research to make sure that the sites they are using are reputable ones.
So…back to the question, how is life at 47?
I am set in my nursing career, thinking hard about retiring at 55, and I have 3 kids (1 out of the house, 1 in college), 1 grandkid, only 1 left at home. I can only hope that I raised them to be good human beings and will color the world with their presence. I pray for their safety and that they will grow old to someday be where I am now…scary to think about how our world has changed and how dangerous it can be now.
I have a house to live in and land to build on for my retirement. I have a 401K plan and a pension from my job. Do I have enough to retire? I don’t know – that’s a whole other subject – food for a future blog. I am happy with my progress in my career, in my assets, and my current lifestyle. I am very lucky to have been hired and work at the same company for almost 20 years. That alone has given me stability, raises over time, a pension, and excellent benefits.
What would I change? In retrospect, we all have things that we think we could have done better. I wish I had known about travel nursing early on in my career. That is something I wish I had done or experienced before I had kids. I have nurse friends that spent time in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Phillippines, all over the USA, and more. What a great way to become a well-rounded nurse. Each state and country has different rules/laws, patient:nurse ratios, staffing and equipment issues. I have worked in many different settings from hospital to home, camps, conferences, prisons, clinics, insurance, registry/nursing agencies, medical equipment management, and more. Next on my to-do list is to be a cruise ship nurse…when I retire. What else would I change? I did not invest in a college plan, I slightly regret that now. If I had started earlier, I would have a nest egg to throw at college, but I missed that boat…but, also, looking back, I am not in the same place I was when I started. I am much more financially stable now vs. when I started (when my kids were younger) and I really did not have the disposable income to save like I wish I had – I was living paycheck to paycheck for quite some time early in my career.
Advice to others. If I could give advice to anyone, I would say that it’s nice to have a plan. Where will you be in 5 years? 10 years? 25 years? Set goals for direction and so you know how far you are away from reaching them. Goals change, that’s ok. But then, set new ones. Try to find a solid job and career. LIKE YOUR JOB. I work alongside people who have become nurses as their 2nd career. That’s ok too. It’s nice to be set on a career path early on, retire, collect pension/retirement, start something new-if it doesn’t work out, you already have that- if it does work out, you may have a 2nd retirement/pension plan. Don’t count on Social Security as your main source of income in your retirement-make your own retirement future, don’t depend on the government or anyone else to take care of you.
Travel, enjoy life, spend time with your loved ones – not everything can wait. I have met couples who have saved every penny and planned for retirement, only to have one become very ill, debilitated by heart disease, stroke, accident, or cancer, have mobility issues, or even die. You have to save money, but use some wisely to have fun too. This is not tested by me, but I have been told that it can be cheaper to travel abroad vs. travelling in the USA.
So, in summary…at 47, I am happy. I look forward to seeing my children mature and create their own futures, and someday my own retirement. I am ‘a glass is half-full’ kind of gal, but I realize that I am closer to the grave than the cradle. I want to retire while I am still able bodied to have a good time outdoors, travel, and build things. I don’t know if I have saved enough to retire, but it is exciting to start a new life without a job and to try to work it out. I know that I will have to live on less, but I will also have less bills (kids are expensive!). I will plan to continue to raise my own food, hunt, and fish, but my husband and I will require less household food than now. I will revisit this subject again in 5 years and see where I am then. Until then, I will keep working on building my nest egg and building my new retirement house (as funds are available!)…
to learn more about my farming adventures, click here
to learn more about my nursing journey, click here
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