Prepping: For “Retirement Disease”

In less than a week, you-know-who will turn over the speed limit:  70.

If I have time to complete them, several more books are yet to fall out of these fingers including one that is the extended-play version of this morning’s discussion of:  “Retirement Disease.”

The idea is simple enough:  You look at most things in nature and very few of them “keep on working” once they fall into disuse. People, from all I’ve read, are in pretty much the same category:  Sit down, couch-out, and you’ll be a-goner in no time.  That’s on of the key reasons I’ve recommended David Goggins’ book (Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds) to you.  I have no illusions about going through a SEAL “Hell Week” at age 70.  But,, there’s a lot to be said for keeping the mind calloused and tough regardless of age.

The first time I got serious about aging (and I think it helped immensely) was when a broadcast engineer/mentor, the late Lloyd Jones asked me at age 18:  “How many days do you think you have George?

I think we’d been talking about risk of injury working on a high-powered broadcast transmitter.  It’s a setting where the odds of injury are low and death much higher.  5-thousand volts at a couple of amps is not to be trifled with.  That’s a Collins 21-E/M transmitter for you. 5-kilowatts on 1460 –  The Soul of the City.

“Heck, I dunno.. Never thought about it….”

I’ll do the math for you:  About 18,000 days. And every day when your feet hit the carpet, you burn one of them.  Never forget that.”

He went on to explain than most people never “run the numbers” but it’s not hard to do.  Take the average of your parent’s ages and subtract your own.  then multiply by 365.  Sure, you ought to be able to beat the parental average, but that’s when you get down to hard work.  And honestly, the aversion to hard work is one of the first symptoms of Retirement Disease’s onset.

Lloyd took up skiing in a serious way in his 60’s – and some would call him driven.  I’d call him a genius who taught the young and simple me there’s a “real life” game clock running.


Here’s me on the door step of 70:

Still working and writing 70+ hours per week.  A wire range of activities, too.  Not just sitting around.

Some of the work on 29-acres of tree farm is tough.  Brush hogging is like trying to hang on to a bull for more than an 8-second ride..Four hours later, the “bull” named Kubota has pretty-well kicked your ass.

Other “rancherly chores” in mechanical maintenance that requires manual dexterity.  So does working on the ham radio equipment that I enjoy tinkering with.  There’s a fair bit of sitting, though, and to combat that risk, there’s a 50-minute timer to remind a certain sedentary fellow that “move your ass or die” isn’t a joke. Serious pop-up.

Back to the math:  Mom lived to 93 and Pappy was 87.  Making my “target age” 90.

Completing the exercise, that means I should be good to go for 20-more years, but 7,300 days doesn’t seem like quite enough.

Everyone dies, eventually, and there are plenty of things that could interrupt my target.  World War, pandemic, mass social breakdowns or uprisings  maybe as part of the online revolutionary crap that spreads on social media, the new and devolving spin on older “social diseases” could keep it from happening.  We’ve gone from a world where smoking was safe (and sex wasn’t) to one where sex is safe and smoking isn’t.  That’s a pretty hefty twist, I tell you.

What we’ve done, both in our 70’s, is to try and set up Uretopia as the best possible place to “take a stand.” Figuratively, unless we’re out on the 100-meter range with the AK’s SKS’s.

We keep talking about moving back to the city, but honestly, due to the state of big city road budgets, there aren’t appreciably more pot holes here in the outback compared with in cities.

We also don’t have to deal with other humans much.  We’ve become convinced there are several reasons why Retirement Disease could be spread through the same (and a few different) disease vectors.

A sign a dear old friend had on her wall always made a lot of sense to me “We’re all the same age on the Inside.”

But, no, it just ain’t so.  Aging people forget that there’s a spectrum of “inside the head” things that need to be looked after.

Sex, for example, is still a several times per week objective.  So is 5-hours a week learning a new skill.  And eating most meals scratch-made from unprocessed foods.

Another life interuptus is failure to not only keep up nutrition, but in many cases deliberately over-doing things a bit.

For example, my doctor has me on hydrochlorothiazide (HZTZ) which depletes potassium since it’s a diuretic.  Solution?  Take additional potassium both in pill and nature forms like bananas.  I appreciate the quarterly blood draws are mainly to check for that, but with the right (“I’m engaging and won’t lose”) mindset, I can read the medical books and see how the medical business models work  and then navigate intelligently through aging healthcare.

Put a bit differently, one has to look at Aging as the greatest opportunity in Life to act smart.

You and I may choose to be “victors” but at some point it comes where you just won’t be able to go on forever.  No one has, at least in the science-based literature.  It’s like in an epic struggle movie (like Rocky) at some point he’s going down for the count.  The getting back up decision is where the tradeoffs are.

One of my “winter projects” is to update our wills and our “dead letters.”  These are tools many people don’t think much about.  The wills, of course, get updated periodically, as a matter of course.  But, we might make some adjustments to the actually form of passing assets.  For example, Investopiedia offers an interesting discussion of Transfer On Death as an alternative to a conventional Will.  Now, since Elaine is already on the trading accounts, the case where setting up a Transfer On Death would be if we wanted to move (both nickels) to a designated Party without going through Probate.  Believe me, the conversation with the personal lawyer will be deep on this on:  Can we TOD a bank account?  A Home?  Property?  Other assets?

There’s a good discussion of “Transfer on Death Deeds” on the NOLO site over here, once you wade through some popups.

We of course don’t make any recommendations, but it can keep things from being ground up by probate (time and money) and with a smaller pot to fight over, people who think they should get more than is in a Will may be a lot more friendly when there’s a very tiny fraction of assets that’s going through probate.

Our Will review also goes through the already existing “F.U.” provisions. Anyone challenging one of our wills will get $10-bucks and be promptly shown the door.  The executors are instructed in the “Dead letter” to call the Fox Yankee after them

On the more positive,  “keep on winning” side, we are still working out in the gym.

While we considered going to the Y in town and other options, the investment in a good home gym set-up (free weights not shown) is pretty modest.  Less than $1.5 kilobucks all new, but you could get the same used on C/L or OfferUp for about half that if you’re patient.  (Care to guess who isn’t?)

We’re blessed in that most people figure us to be in our mid-50’s, not a decade and a half further down the tracks.

We credit that to staying active and working out in addition to not becoming involved in other people dramas.  OPD, for short, is one of the dumbest time-wasters out there – along with social media.  Draws you in,  sucks you into taking positions based on incomplete information or historical contexts,  and there you go:  The new and improved version of “You Life:  Dribbling Out Your Modem” that we first saw on chat boards in the 1980’s.

What’s more, digital mob rule (DMR) would have us all become partisans by injecting bad ideas (blackface, for example) into our worlds where it never existed in the first place.  Same thing with sexual abuse, abortion, and…oh it’s a long list.  Just take the idea to the bank:  Getting involved in other people’s drama (OPD) is a potential source of high blood pressure and cancers – which some have opined may be related to suppression of emotions.

That’s about a thumbnail of the intro to the proposed book, “Retirem3net Disease”.  Chapters in the outline include:


CH 1. Retirement is for Suckers

  • Middle Age at the Smorgasbord
  • Facing the “Oh-Oh!” Moment
  • Victim or Victor?
  • First, You Need a Plan
  • Does “Life Just Happen?”

CH 2. The Retirement Battle-Space

  • What’s a Battle-Space, Anyway?
  • Couches Kill
  • Your Personal “Armory”
  • Keeping What You Make
  • Getting the most from Social Security

CH 3. Yes, You Get to Dream

  • Adventuresome Youth
  • The Fulfilling Life
  • Travel expands your horizons
  • Bucket Lists
  • Elaine’s Bucket List
  • Meeting with Your Maker

Part 2: Understanding the Enemy

CH 4. What is aging

  • The chemistry
  • The Diseases
  • Prevention

CH 5. You:  The Chemistry Set

  • Vitamins and Supplements
  • The Myth of the RDA
  • Sometimes, Good is Bad
  • Test Plans and Measurements
  • What Works for Us
  • Elaine’s vitamins and why?
  • Georges and why?

CH 5. Before You Get Old Checklist

  • Resource Check
  • Health check
  • Housing check
  • Lifestyle Check
  • Financial check
  • DNA check
  • Goal Check
  • Activity Check

CH 6. Middle Age Action Plans

  • Health improvement plan
  • Siting Your Final Stand
  • The Kids Really Don’t Care
  • Strategic Relocation
  • Connecting with Others or Spouse
  • Realistic Financial Goals
  • DNA Action Plan
  • Goals for the Rest of Your Life
  • Activity Plans

Part 3:  The Retirement “Business Plan”

CH 7. Why a plan?

  • Symptoms of Retirement Disease
  • Goal Holes
  • Indecision, Inactivity
  • Leaving old hobbies
  • No measurable outcomes
  • Living another day is not a goal
  • Accomplishments are what matter
  • Change of driving habits
  • Declining pride in appearance – mojo
  • How much “slack” is enough? Too much?

CH 8. Big Disease-Fighting Goals

  • Fill Up Your Bucket List  (add things here?)
  • Travel
  • Hobbies
  • Desires
  • Education
  • Experiences
  • How Do You Live?
  • Quality of Life
  • Life on (1) House Level?
  • Proximity Effects (stores, healthcare)
  • Sedentary risks

Part 4 Retirement Diseases Lurking

CH 9. Family Statistics

  • What Killed Mon and Dad?
  • Getting out of Those Ruts

CH 10. Coronary Disease

  • Main Causes
  • Genetic
  • Hydrogenated Oils
  • Processed Foods
  • Vitamin Deficiencies
  • Sedentary Lifestyle
  • Risk Modifiers
  • Change Your Diet and Your Life
  • Vegetables, K2, and fiber
  • Optimized Vitamins
  • Exercise

CH 11. Cancer

  • Main Causes
  • Genetics
  • Diet
  • Environmental Exposures
  • Vitamin deficiencies
  • Inactivity
  • A Few Cancer Ideas
  • The Cancer Personality?
  • Use It or Lose It?
  • Sex Dark Sleeping Rooms
  • Circadian awareness
  • Periodic fasting and hyperbaric answers

CH 12. Alzheimer’s and Dementia

  • Causes
  • Genetics
  • Nutrition
  • Don’t laugh at Oatmeal
  • Environmental factors
  • Alzheimer’s – Ideas & Diets
  • Reaction and Decision Times
  • Reaction speed vs. aging
  • Lumosity, reading, and “think quick!”
  • Use it or lose it
  • Anti amaloyd diets
  • Cyclical fasting
  • Certain supplements
  • Risks of Colerigenics
  • What are they
  • What are some of the risky meds?

CH 13. The Eyes Have It

  • Causes of Eye Disease
  • Genetics
  • Environmental
  • Nutritional
  • Useful Ideas
  • NAC: A preventative?
  • Optical dilators
  • Cataract Surgeries
  • When Surgery goes Bad
  • George’s eye story (1)

CH  14. Gallstones, GERD and Reflux

  • What they are
  • Prevention
  • Eat 3-hours before laying down
  • Vinegar (pills and liquid)

Part 5:  Unconventional Anti-Aging

CH 15. Age-Optimized Life

  • Importance of Schedule and Routines
  • Personal Measurements
  • What gets measured gets done
  • Scheduling baseline activities
  • The Secret of Nursing Homes
  • Does your House own You?
  • Shop- and then Stop
  • Schedule “Accomplishments”
  • 50 percent On Play
  • Realization of a Life

CH 16. Housing

  • Risks and Needs
  • Activity Centers
  • Ramps and Railings
  • How to reduce housework
  • Sit, George
  • Problems with House Sitters
  • Sometimes you get lucky

CH 17. Fitness

  • How much and how long?
  • Target heart rates
  • Elaine’s free weights
  • How to treat a sports injury (2 pages)
  • Machines that Hold “Form”
  • Treadmill
  • Weight machine

CH 18. Nutritional Fitness

  • Before all:  Water!
  • Organic
  • Cooking for One or Two
  • Cook big and save time and money!
  • Foodsaver and freezing
  • Dating foods
  • Sugar and HFCS is Bad
  • Is dead bad enough?
  • Alcohol and Drugs
  • Decline use of Alcohol
  • CBD vs. THC
  • Effective dose levels
  • When booze “doesn’t like you”

CH 19. “Relationship Tuning”

  • What do people talk about?
  • What is “Actionable” Information
  • News you can use, vs. opinion
  • Can you change it?
  • Why waste time on what’s not?
  • Translating “News” into “Personal Action”
  • Work on Sex! Goes on the schedule

CH 20. Learning from Your Dreams

  • George’s next book Psychocartography
  • Coming to terms with your Life to date
  • Goal of co-dreaming

CH 21.  Prepared for Impaired?

  • Something’s Going to Break?
  • Falls and risks
  • Ladder caution
  • Walking risks
  • Proper use of canes
  • Mobility:
  • Ramps and railings
  • Safe shitters and showers
  • Eyes:
    • Don’t buy another (paper) book!
    • Large type editions of books and mags
    • Roll to Electronic with adjustable fonts
  • Dementia:
  • Strategies to deal with cranky partner

CH 22. Leveraging Technology

  • Tech Risks to the Aging
  • Fraud (do not call registry)
  • Hackers (No Edge browser)
  • Tele-scams
  • Crime
  • “Alexa: Save Me”
    • Alexa features of use to the aging
    • Intercom feature
    • Calling functions
    • Reminders vs. alarms
    • ToDo and Shopping Lists
  • DragonSpeak
  • Different ways to communicate

CH  23. Driving You Older

  • Accidents and Reaction Times
  • Mental “drift”
  • Special risks of medications
  • Insurance
  • New Car balances
  • Big City Combat Driving
  • Headlights and Right turns

Part 6:  Keeping Up Appearances

CH 24.  How Does Elaine Keep Young?

  • What gives an “age” impression?
  • Physique
  • What makes a woman look “old?:”  A long rap on “frumpy”
  • Short plan (one or two pages)
  • Hairstyle
  • What are “old woman” hairstyles?
  • Plan (one page – maybe a checklist?)
  • Clothes
  • What to “old women” wear vs. young?
  • Plan (one page or two)
  • Hobbies
  • Wildlife and Home decorating

CH 25. How To Keep Young?

  • Work
  • Research
  • Never stop collecting best ideas
  • Victim of Victor (iii)
  • Two visions of Aging
  • The downside case
  • The “best case”
  • Google is Your Pal
  • Lists of Hobbies
  • Cruise and Travel Deals
  • AARP and Discounts for Seniors
  • Other Hacks:
    • Elaine’s Favorite Age Hacks
    • George Favorite Age Hacks

And so runs this book idea.

Thing is?  I don’t know if anyone would buy it.  But, I think a lot of us who are now 70-something might have had a smoother ride , or somewhat less stressful, if during our physical when we turned 50 a kindly doctor had handed us a “workbook” that incorporated a lot of the thoughts and research outlined here into a “How To.”

Toss in  a series of “Activities”:  *(like writing your dead letters) and if would be one of those books that maybe would help a few people live better.

As a writer (such as I pass myself off, lol) there’s a competing book.  The title of that one is simple “The After Life School.”  Maybe I’ll tell you about that idea Saturday.  A science book that wanders to the woo woo line.

For now, feel free to offer up suggestions and criticisms.  Though if the later, a fine layer of sweetness, or a rum sauce, is preferred…

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net

38 thoughts on “Prepping: For “Retirement Disease””

  1. Hurry with the book! Would love to read it because at almost 81 the view of the pearly gates seems to be getting a bit too close.

  2. The book “The After Life School” is the way to go… a far larger interested audience. As I am in planning my funeral living in NC but planning on being buried in NY, I looked into cremation. If you are cremated in NC, they wait 24 hours & have a Doctor pronounce you dead, then cremate you without draining your blood. This has made me nervous.

  3. George, I am a few years older, but the most interesting chapter of your proposed book to me would be chapter 15. How do you keep track of, plan out & find time to do all you do. This has been the hardest nut to crack in my retirement. It’s easy to stay busy, but much harder to do something important like work off the bucket list, etc. In retirement there are to many things competing for my time, priority is key, but it’s becoming more of a challenge to manage.

  4. George, I have to tell the truth, when I first looked at your age 70 photo, I thought it was a photo of Ernest Borgnine.

    Would you consider that a compliment or an insult?

  5. Millenial Men vs Millenial Woman…The only conclusion I can see is that MM prefer to be dominated by MW, and we are all seeing the result of this role reversal. Pile guilt on MM & they will collapse.

  6. George

    “setting up a Transfer On Death”

    I have already transferred anything of great value so that the Vultures of Society can’t get at them.

    I can testify as to the effectiveness of vitamin D3 combined with a K complex. I have suffered unknowingly from a lack of these vitamins with chronic constipation. I now take 20000 IU of D3 balanced with 10000 IU of K1, K2-4, K2-7. I am now as regular as a clock.
    The vitamin K is required to prevent the D from from messing up your calcium balance.

    My doctor said that you don’t have problems with high doses of D until you get near 1 million IU. Seems a bit high so I will stay below 50000.

    Remember what is always quoted is the Minimum Daily Requirement. They never talk about what is a good amount per body weight.

    If anyone has this problem please research this, IT WORKS and it not too expensive. Vitamin K is easy to find on line. I use Super K from LifeExtension.

    There a nifty little book that got me started on this and it can be found at Amazon for $10. Here’s the title:

    The Miraculous Results Of Extremely High Doses Of The Sunshine Hormone Vitamin D3 My Experiment With Huge Doses Of D3 From 25,000 To 50,000 To 100,000 Iu A Day Over A 1 Year Period

    By Jeff T Bowles

    I don’t get a penny out of this I just want to spread the word about vitamin D the miracle sunshine vitamin!

    • Check out Fisetin, Quercetin with Bomelain, and Nicotinamide Riboside to go along with your D3 regimen. Lots of good, reputable scientific and medical press on these supplements.

      • All good, but nicotinamide riboside is not the easiest thing to find, and it’s expensive. I don’t currently have a source for this. The other things are good, and relatively available.

    • During the winter months, 80% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D. In order for D to be used in the body, it also needs to be balanced with magnesium. The calcium/magnesium ratio in most supplements should be reversed for proper dosage.

      This vitamin D magnesium deficiency suppresses the immune system, likely a major cause of the “flu season.” Literally every cancer patient will be found with this deficiency. People who supplement this along with some extra vitamin C do very well.

      Vitamin C mimics glucose and attaches to the glucose receptors of cancer cells, which use sugar to feed their virulent growth. If cancer patients reduce their sugar consumption to zero and supplement heavily with C, in many cases they can simply starve the cancer cells.

      Going cold turkey on sugar for most will cause a massive yeast die off. The dead yeast cells sometimes overwhelm the immune system which has to eliminate them, exacerbating other problems, and certainly makes you feel like crap for a few days. This was experienced recently by a friend who was consuming 17 teaspoons of sugar with his AM pot of coffee. He is Brazilian, and coming off sugar and white carbs not only dropped years off his appearance, but changed the color of his skin.

      • Going “cold turkey” on sugar is a b!tch! I did it once, back in my early 20s. It was two days of butt-dragging and feeling like crap, followed by 5 days of something which very-closely resembled acute malaria, or heroin withdrawal, followed by two more days of butt-dragging, as I learned how to eat non-sugared food without upchucking. Folks don’t realize how addictive sugar is, nor do they realize how much of it is pumped into every processed food, including some hamburger and sausage, to take advantage of its addictive properties. They also don’t know, or (for oldsters) don’t remember the negative press sugar got from the Surgeon General’s Office in the 1950s and ’60s, because cane sugar is a, generally unhealthy, processed chemical. We (especially Xers and Millenials) have been conditioned to demand it as a “healthy alternative” to HFCS, which it certainly is, since virtually all corn syrup is made from genetically modified corn, but cane sugar is still, the same chemical it was 60 years ago, and no more healthy now than it was for our ancestors…

  7. This Canadian 7 years your senior will buy it eh?

    Treasure your time with Elaine. It is so precious in the overall equation. Tragically, some of us don’t realize this until it is too late.

    Please include a chapter on losing your loved one to dementia.

  8. I’m the ‘sole survivor’ of my childhood ‘nuclear’ family. Taking the average ages of my departed parents (dad died of aneurysm related issues and mom from pancreatic cancer) and two siblings (one died from MS, the other from lung cancer) upon their collective deaths, I am 1,734 days past my due! Living on borrowed time seems to be the most appropriate assessment.

    Every day I open my eyes is truly viewed as a gift and I strive live it like there may be no tomorrow. That does not mean I do not exercise, eat as healthy as I should nor save for the future. It just means I fully embrace the fact that each day I’m boldly going where no male member of my immediate family has gone before (dad passed at 51, brother at 54 and I’ve just turned 66).

    Body parts hurt for seemingly no reason, but the pains sure beat the more morbid solution. Sure, I’m physically slowing down every year, but I tend to take in more of my surroundings as a result. And I tend to be increasingly more mindful of every person I engage with in conversation.

    Yes, getting old generally sucks, if you focus on it obsessively. But I’m having the time of my life doing it . . . one day at a time.

  9. Heads up G,
    My own personal experience, lawyers do not like TOD’s, you are walling off a potential pool of income from the “evil blood suckers” .
    Sometimes Wills are written, market values change to the upside, and all of sudden %/ percentage distributions to designated beneficiaries are all skew eyed and cattywhompus. Having a TOD in place at brokerage firm when relative passed, turned out to be one of the best Asset Mgt and Estate Mgt. tools I seen work the “real” world.
    Can the professor review Inflation vs Deflation with a sprinkling of Stagflation in some future PN report, smells like a whiff of Stagflation out there..

    • Urban Definition of Sexter – A sexter is a a person that is most likely in a relationship and looking for some excitement and stimulation.

      Example, That guy loves cheap thrills and is a sexter, avoid him at all cost, his wiener is kinda shriveled

  10. I am not yet 50 but would definitely by this book. I have tried to learn from my elders and this would be an excellent addition to my reading list.

  11. Count me in as an early buyer and reviewer. As a 74 year-old writer of fiction, I’m awed by your productivity and the value of your work’s content. Your 50 minute timer idea will be applied today, since I get too focused, and time flies.
    Hopefully, my cataract surgeries will restore some of my keyboard productivity, or I will have to start using Dragon Speak. Writing is still a passion, and I’m grateful to get vertical each morning, and keep at it.
    Keep up the good work George!

    • Couple of writing tips: Been using Alexa for timer lately. “Remind me in 50 minutes move around”
      Also she’s a good easy reference source and can top of page of Wikipedia.
      On DragoonSprecher their automatic punctuation is usually better than mine but I seldom use it.
      Best keyboards – which makes a difference – Full-size Logitech backlit keys wireless so I can wire either from the desktop or the lap…and for mood swings, a $150-class “mechanical” keyboard is a nice break in a long article. These feel like an old original IBM kybd and are nice (but noisy).
      One week a while back I found myself cranking out 25,000 words in a week and honestly, that was a bit much (given I’m old and feeble at 70 now, right?). Which is why no free-side articles on Sunday. My version of slacking, lol…

  12. Hello George, Suggest you may wish to look into the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). You’ll find it really is helpful to know what happens when you move to the other side. There address is:

    International Association for Near-Death Studies
    2741 Campus Walk Ave Bldg 500
    Durham, NC 27705-8878

    They have a wonderful conference each year with dozens of speakers who have had their own Near Death Experiences. Many are very highly educated. The have a monthly newsletter for members.

    One chapter in your book might address care-giving. I am sure many of your readers have taken care of their parents when they get up there in age. Because my mother was six years younger than my father their care was spread out over a ten year period. Many of us do not plan to become full time care givers for that long. For me it was a very challenging because they insisted they live out their life in their own home. And they did not trust others to fill in even on a part time basis.

    It is different caring for elderly. Mine were mentally sharp. So they knew their own mind and what they did and did not want. But they got more and more demanding. I am sure your readers know what I am talking about.

    Good luck with your book.

  13. …Looks like 370-400 pages. Put it in print and I’ll pre-purchase as soon as its publishing date hits Amazon!

  14. You can replace your HZTZ by buying a couple of heads of organic celery, simmer the leaves in a liter of water for 20 minutes or so, and strain off the juice. I put in ice cube trays and freeze, because it quickly acquires a taste. Two cubes several days per week keeps my fluid down, and off the Aldactone except in cases of extremely salty restaurant food. Also removes the gout causing uric acid.

    For your potassium needs, learn to use potassium salt, or if you are desperate for that salt taste, use Himalayan pink salt, which does not cause me to retain water.

    You eliminate your salt, food will not taste as good, and you will eat less.

  15. You can replace your HZTZ by buying a couple of stalks of organic celery, simmer in a liter of water for 20 minutes or so, and strain off the juice. I put in ice cube trays and freeze, because it quickly acquires a taste. Two cubes several days per week keeps my fluid down, and off the Aldactone except in cases of extremely salty restaurant food. Also flushes the gout causing uric acid.

    For your potassium needs, learn to use potassium salt, or if you are desperate for that salt taste, use Himalayan pink salt, which does not cause me to retain water.

    If you eliminate salt in your food, it won’t be so tasty and you will eat less. Animals only need salt once a week or less.

  16. Good ideas George. One that I would add is to give away everything that you can before you cash in your chips. That way you get to see the smiles! And get hugs!! Everything includes ALL you do not need to survive. Other items, such as shop tools, go the tool person, cooking stuff goes to the cooker, craft items to the craft person and so on. Hard assets and property should be reduced over time so at the moment of ‘POOF’ the surviving spouse has no problems. Children get what ever share you deem for each child. We look at each child’s needs and go from there.

    Take care of yourself and attempt to reduce meds! I lost an inch of gut in two weeks and really didn’t work up a sweat, while keeping eating habits and alcohol intake the same. There are ways to help yourself and it also helps others as it reduces their worry about you.

    Time for a shower and maybe a ‘sipping’ rum?

  17. No one of concern

    Hi George.

    In my humble opinion you should write your book if you want to not because some people say they will buy it. I haven’t quite figured out why a lot of your readers seem to
    take all the “meds” they take 100 mg of this that and other thing. Sounds like nobody
    wants to get old. Good luck with that, cause you will anyway. I’m closer to 76 then 75 but blessed with good health and take no meds. When I retired I bought in a little 2Bd 2 Ba house in a quiet community. I was a young man than (65) and decide to completely redue my house, plumbing, electrical, roofing, doors, cabinets, counter tops, heating and air conditioning, repaint and hardwood flooring, just so when I go old I could set on my arse and do nothing if I chose to. I do walk a mile a day for fun, because I like it. My hearing is a little on the hard side (Might be a blessing with all the crap on the news). I have been married for 54 years to the best wife a man could have. Life is good but the world sucks and I expect its going to get a lot worse. Now they are killing live babies and are happy because they can. We have idiots in congress who want no air travel, trains to place trains can’t possible go to, kill cows because they fart, hell I fart they might come after me because I fart too, and free everything. I would love to make it to 80 but I don’t think the world will make it that long. There a crap storm coming but …..

    I’m having fun and cruising to the end

    • Richard, the supplements are not for old age prevention, or necessarily for prolonging our lifespan. They are an attempt to make it so our individual “road of life” has fewer potholes, of lesser severity. Can such a plan make the journey longer? Absolutely! The idea, though, is simply to extend our “useful lifespan…”

  18. George, I’m definitely interested in this book from the outline. I’ll gladly buy softcopy when available. No more dead trees for me though, unless they’re firewood.

    BTW:

    What’s a “goal hole”(Ch 7)?

    Why are you just keeping Elaine looking good(Ch 24)? This chapter is important for both sexes! I have no idea how to look or dress younger, and sadly I’ve become a “sir” rather than a sex object. It’s distressing! Those of us who have not yet caught our keeper woman need to look and act in ways that make us arousing and desirable rather than just a dull old guy. Sex 4 or 5 times a week is hard to come by if you’re single and live in the sticks. Expensive too.

    The DOB printed on all our ID never helps. Interesting girls today seem to have an upper age limit of 59(looks) in a guy(often much younger), so it’s essential to look and act young if you want a functional wife/gf/hookup or whatever. Acting 1/2 our age is a good start, but the entire society seems to be designed to keep us on our march to oblivion.

    I don’t use exercise stuff here. I’m trying to declutter. Working with heavy machinery and building materials is good exercise.

    One thought for your book is to add a chapter on avoiding hospitals, nursing homes and other coercive environments even at risk to your life. That needs to be a choice. Another important thing to think about is guardianship fraud and abuse. Hospitals use this all the time to get paid. They have two shrinks declare you incompetent, then go to court to get THEIR choice of guardian(a law firm, not a relative), and then you continue as a financial milk cow for the system. Many times even a preferred relative with legal backing can’t win against this unholy conspiracy of a medical facility, a law firm, and a complicit judge. Guardianship abuse rarely if ever makes the news.

  19. Hey, George. I oversaw both parents’ wills. Dad, turned out, any assets under 5.2 million in the USA, at the time, were tax free, so we didn’t need to probate his will. I followed his will to a T. He named 3 of us Executors, however, most of his caring needs, and following the will fell to me. I met with a lawyer for the full understanding of how to AVOID probate. I had my ducks in a row, and found out all I needed with my one hour free consultation, however, I did retain him for small items that cropped up. Make sure you pick one main kid to be your Exector, with others as backup. That main one needs to be joint on the checking account with rights of survivorship (yes, if you and Elaine agree on who that is to be), you pick one because this person can use those funds to manage both of yours’ affairs in case you pass at the same time, and or, whoever is left behind, they can use the funds to care for them or bury them or managed their affairs. So trust is key. IF you don’t want to do that, then name ALL your beneficiaries as Payable Upon Death (POD) on your checking/savings accounts and then they will not be taxed on those funds and can use those funds per as your will’s stipulate. All IRA accounts, same thing, list the beneficiaries, the IRA accounts do not need to be probated, however, anyone in the sweet spot of 57 1/2 or older can transfer part of their IRA to their own IRA and follow those rules and those RMD (required minimum distribution rules). Housing/Residences….best to sell before death if you want to leave it to your family members, this again avoids probate. It is inheritance, and falls under inheritance rules. No tax due. IF they sell AFTER you pass, then you have to account for initial price/value of residence at purchase, and then death, and account for improvements, etc., and then there could be a tax hit to a beneficiary who sells the property, however, this is murky for me, so get advice (oh, p.s., I am not a realtor, accountant, or lawyer, this is just my own experience in avoiding probate.) So, we took care of checking/savings accounts, IRA’s, residence, AND doctor bills and funeral costs. Then there is the matter of cleaning and sorting out the house and dividing up those belongings, mostly sentimental, can have a garage sale, or a group meeting. Have to shred all those private non-needed papers, dispose of items that are not eligible for donation, sale, or gifts. All of that takes time. I also planned my Dad’s funeral, he was a Veteran, I had to deal with resistance, and did most of it myself, but it was way past time, fortunately, I had it done in time. Also, notified Social Security Administration and the Pension System of his passing. BOTH entities required the January Social Security check back AND the January pension check back. That’s right, you don’t get to keep them in the month in which you pass. So, all told, after he passed, it took about 8 months to finish everything up exactly as he had asked. No hard feelings. I also filed his last tax return per the IRS.

    My Mother was a different story, she passed away in another country and they require all assets to be taxed over a certain amount, which was a low threshold which is designed to catch everyone, but they didn’t raise their minimim estate tax law until after she passed. This threw us into HAVING to work with lawyers, and they were crooks. They took their share as if they were ONE child to the tune of $40,000 for probating a will – the estimate started out at $6,000! It is a criminal network designed to steal from grieving relatives and there was no fighting them. AND they lied, and withheld critical information for several months and then billed heavily for questions that just the critical information would have answered, and then they tried to pit the kids against each other which caused all sorts of problems, and they would go on (several) vacations at critical times in the process, but no one else in their firm would handle the case, so we would have to wait, it was despicable. Really, was a bird’s eye view into this legal lawyer criminal element.

    My view is do the homework and avoid probate. IF you have multiple millions, okay, if you must do it, but if you have trustworthy family members, and have spelled out your wishes, you can save everyone a bunch of heartache and YOURS’ hard-earned money. AND if you plan it correctly, and work with your trusted family members, it should be mostly already handled before you both pass, and all will be well.

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