Warning signs
Lyrics from the song Signs by the Five man Electrical Band. They don't make music like that anymore. Signs are everywhere, but do you heed them? I pass the sign above quite often when I ride my bike through the park. I usually heed this one. I did text this image to my grandson and all he wanted to do was go snake hunting. One mans warning is another's invitation.
Like the song says signs are everywhere. Apparently this song was written after a trip on old route 66 and the writer was dismayed at the number of signs and billboards literally blocking the scenery. We are constantly inundated with warning signs. These range from the obvious ones, speed limits, no right turn, danger poison. To the more ridiculous, Warning this peanut butter contains peanut products (true really). They also appear as very public signs such as traffic signs and warning labels on dangerous products. They are also more subtle. In your face or understated if we see them do we heed them?
I guess the first thought is whether or not the sign is there for our benefit. A lot of us surmise that most warning labels are invoked to protect the manufacturer from law suits. Or they are there due to some government regulation. I do not know what one of these applies to the "this peanut butter contains peanuts" warning. However as some have posted if we have to warn people that peanut butter contains peanuts there is not much hope for the human race. It would follow that warning sings are somewhat irrelevant.
What about the warning signs that are less direct? Less obvious warnings can be easily missed. They can also be given more weight than deserved. Their ambiguity could lead us to overly analyze their impact. We also tend to look only at the negative results of the warning and not any possible positive ones.
This post was inspired by 2 minor events of the past week. The first was riding by the sign posted above and thinking about how me and my grandson reacted to it. The second and more importantly was some information on retirement. Being recently retired I have been analyzing every decision I have been making. This is especially true for financial decisions. Entering retirement without a pension is scary. I like most people retiring do not have pensions to supply a steady income. We seem to be the first large block of retirees in this situation. Although there does seem to be a large number of public pensions that are out of funds. I cannot imagine anything more frightening than having this guarantied income suddenly taken from you. At least my wife and I never had this to rely on.
As for our current financial situation we have faired better than most of our peers. We have a decent nest egg and no debt. My wife is still employed and this covers our health insurance, living expenses and we continue to add to our savings. I an eligible for social security this year but as of now I am not planning to take it. I would like to put this off as long as possible to maximize the benefit. As I said we have no debt however our house will need some work over the next 5 years and this should be viewed as a liability. Fortunately I can do some of the work myself. The reason this post is coming out on Friday instead of the usual Wednesday is that I have been taping and mudding walls.
Where I am getting frustrated is with the waring signs and what to do. As I view information regarding retirement and the natural bleed over to personal finance I seem to have very little to worry about. According to many of the websites we have more than the required amount of savings (although the recent stock market dip has hurt). Other warning signs are so obvious that they are hardly relevant. They are kind of like the peanut butter warning. If you have debt or are contemplating debt while in retirement that is a warning sign. Well duh! At his point in life I am so debt adverse that I would do just about anything to avoid it. Another waring sign from some of the personal finance sites. Don't spend money you don't have. Well again Duh!! I find it frustrating trying to educate myself and being fed an encyclopedia of such self-evident facts.
There is one warning sign that I am going to have to heed. This will be hashed out in the next couple of posts. Time to make a budget.
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