Been busy working on the house finally and had no time for blogging. My bad as I was trying to update this everyday. I have also been reflecting on my own mortality since a good friend an neighbor passed away suddenly. Younger than myself, but had some health issues that led up to the final outcome. Did the hospital do all it could to save a life? In my opinion no, but it"s water under the bridge now as chances are slim that anybody in the healthcare profession would rat each other out. I would say the hospital caused the final outcome through a series of errors and an absentee (I'm on vacation) physician.

All this makes me think why keep up the facade of working towards and imaginary retirement till you drop dead before that can happen. After all this is the plan they have for the majority of Americans. Lets keep raising the social security age till were all dead before we can collect never mind you paid into the fund all your working life.They would have you believe this is an entitlement and not something you paid for.

The proposed alternative are to take the fund and invest it into the stock market. Anybody approaching retirement recognizes how well the 401-K experiment worked out. This is just another way to legalize stealing as they have done to 401-K participants. Elections are important especially in 2016, I would say to everyone closing in on retirement to get out and vote and particularly with your pocketbook.

This brings me back to why I originally stated this post, what to do? Do I take an early retirement and be penalized 25% or try and work until full retirement? On the one hand you should live longer with less stress and collect more of what you paid in to Social Security. On the other other hand you could tough it out another 5 years to get the full amount while hoping you still have a few years left to live supposing you don"t develop any health issues along the way (statistically probable).

Personally I'm leaning towards the early option and come on medicare in three years. I feel sorry for the next generations as this has always been a political fight and I feel that it is closer than ever. I'm pretty tired of it as I have experienced it all my adult life, so to the latest political jackass screw you Paul Ryan,

And now for something completely different.....

Got a 401(k)? What a great experiment in legal robbery form our friends on Wall Street. You know the ones who helped you lose your house and jobs recently. So far nobody has done the perp walk and a lot of boomers are boned for retirement.
The excuse is well you were responsible for picking your investments, but the reality is what you were offered in the plan and the hidden fees precluded any gains. When a select few people can trade stocks in microseconds you haven't got a chance to compete. I guess we should just whack social security now just to twist the knife.
EPI Report 2016

Bad week for blogging due to recent circumstances. I've been thinking about mortality, retirement, and how to approach it. I really don't really want to work till I "shuffle off" as they say. I have been trying to post ahead since starting this blog as thoughts occur in order to post something every day. I have a more long form post started, but don't have all my thoughts formulated yet.

Meanwhile on current USA politics.........

Good information on global warming. James Hansen 2016 As the great Bender would say.

To an earlier post on the RNC convention in Cleveland. What could possibly go wrong?

Saw this performance in the Concert for George DVD. I really like this singer.
Sam Brown