Healthy Life Extension: Live Like You Mean It
I thought I'd direct your attention to a few interesting thoughts I stumbled across while perusing the blogosphere a few days ago:
Also, with advances in biotech, I can easily see the 80-90 age getting pushed back to 100 or 110 by the time I reach it. My expectations for biotech really deserve their own article. The very-short version of my belief is that biotech is to this century as electicity & computers were to the last. Think about the advancements made during your grandparents' lifetimes and then apply that to biotech, and you have some clue as to how interesting the road ahead truly is for biotech and medicine.So, with moderate advancement of medicine, I am probably only a third of the way through my lifespan. Therefore, it makes sense to think about how I wish to live this vast span of time.
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Last year, I asked the question and came up with my most ambitious answer yet. "If I was going to live forever, I'd really rather not have to worry about money all that time. Besides, much of the medical technology that will make life extension possible will be very expensive. I intend to get and stay wealthy."
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For me, fulfilling this dream will mean developing the skills, habits and the mindset needed to get and stay wealthy. The basics of this are to spend less than I learn, to drop all fear of money, and to learn how it really works and flows in society. The advanced part is to free myself from being dependent on wages which are in any way linked to hours. It really is an all out effort, since it will touch almost every area of my life.
I heartily endorse this way of looking at the world. You'll find a few posts expressing similar sentiments back in the Fight Aging! archives:
- Save, Invest or Die
- Start Saving Now
- Search Terms Prompt Thought About the Cricket and the Ant
- The Transformation of Retirement
- How Much to Plan on Spending?
I cannot overemphasise the value of learning how money actually works - or better, the underlying culture, history and practice of human action, trade and endeavor. It's really not as intimidating as it sounds; most of the core concepts are in fact quite simple and intuitive, for all that too few people understand economics and the practice of wealth these days. Economic ignorance is not a sure root to poverty, nor a sure block to wealth, but it's a pretty large hurdle to getting ahead in the world in ways both large and small.
Writ large, economic ignorance is the death of cultures; why be a participant in the decline of your civilization when you could be so much more than that? Start with well-regarded self-help books on investment and money management - such as The Courage to be Rich - and move on to picking up the basics of Austrian economics from the daily articles and user-friendly introductory materials at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. It will make a difference.
Take a look at your life; if you're enjoying it now, why not do the very best you can to ensure that continues to be the case for a very, very long time? Support medical research for healthy life extension, and prepare your financial ground for a life lived in the future. You'll thank yourself for doing so.
Technorati tags: life extension, personal finance
Good post - another element, often overlooked is to relentlessly drive one's breakeven and dependency points down and down. For instance, when considering any purchase, don't forget the cost of care and feeding it. In building a new home, I spent an additional $10,000 to incorporate items that require no painting, mowing, sanding, cleaning, termite proofing etc. This investment will easily pay itself back within 5 years in pure economic terms, but will also pay itself back in less worry and ability to concentrate on higher value efforts. Further, a dollar cost avoided is worth $1.35 earned and taxed. So, consider investing in your own private infrastructure to relentlessly reduce financial and time outflows.