RETIREMENT AND AIRPLANE OWNERSHIP

[Hank]

6 hours ago, Mooneymite said:

What exactly are you guys talking about when you say, "luck"?

Do you mean divine providence, or something else?  

Sounds like they're calling it "luck" to not have to admit to either Divine providence or its source.

[Hank]

Dp

Edited January 17, 2018 by Hank

[Glenn]

When I was much younger, I had a great affinity for MGs, the little British sports cars that leaked in the rain. 

Now, more than 50 years later it's MGs again, only this time it's Mooney-Geezers.  History does seem to repeat. 

How lucky we geezers are to be in a position to continue to enjoy our Mooneys.

[MyNameIsNobody]

Luck can be either success or failure.  I submit that for me personally random chance did not have much to do with my life decisions that put me in a position to buy a decades old Mooney....check that, to Co-Own a decades old Mooney.

Here are my suggestions for three simple things to achieve versus be “the other side of luck”:

1. Stay in school

2. Do not breed, without technology to prevent a child, before you are finished with 1.

3. Don’t do drugs.

I have a sister that submitted that I am “just lucky, whatever I do just works out well”...

(She is divorced, decided to take a year off and live off her 401k in her 40’s, with penalties...picked up and chased a man several hundred miles, lives alone with cats...and smokes a couple packs a day) Just retired at 65.)

I say she is livin’ the dream, you know compared to some poor kid born in some$%^&hole...

”Endeaver to persevere”...

 

 

 

[gsxrpilot]

8 hours ago, Glenn said:

When I was much younger, I had a great affinity for MGs, the little British sports cars that leaked in the rain. 

Now, more than 50 years later it's MGs again, only this time it's Mooney-Geezers.  History does seem to repeat. 

How lucky we geezers are to be in a position to continue to enjoy our Mooneys.

My very first car, purchased two weeks before I turned 16 and had a drivers license, with money I'd been saving for years, was an MG.

[Glenn]

14 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

My very first car, purchased two weeks before I turned 16 and had a drivers license, with money I'd been saving for years, was an MG.

The seating position in the MG was much the same as in the Mooney.

[Hank]

42 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

My very first car, purchased two weeks before I turned 16 and had a drivers license, with money I'd been saving for years, was an MG.

MGs are fun. Dad had a couple when I was little, but the Spitfire my brother had in high school was more fun. Somehow I ended up in the local British car club, could be because I've had one since before I bought the Mooney . . . .

The Mooney has more headroom than my Jaguar, with similar seating position, and also has more legroom both lengthwise and side-to-side. And hey, the Mooney goes faster, too, and can't get a speeding ticket!  

Edited January 17, 2018 by Hank

[Yooper Rocketman]

16 hours ago, steingar said:

I dunno, he was lucky he wasn't born in some third world poverty stricken village just west of East Bumfuck Egypt.  He was lucky that his skill set was marketable.  He was lucky all kinds of ways.

First off, the guy making the comment was not "born in some third world poverty stricken village ...............Egypt" either, and the comment was "his perspective".  My recently passed "mentor" WAS born nearly as you present, and died last December with 4 airplanes, a helicopter, an airpark home on Heavens Landing, (and established a scholarship fund for the less financially fortunate that want to become a pilot).  I'm sure he was "lucky" too, as it clearly had nothing to do with perseverance and hard work.  Our lives, absent our birth place, were remarkably similar (including writing an aviation scholarship) and I think that's why we got along so well.  I was born with extreme poverty in my family, the oldest of 6 kids, watching my parents do everything they could to NOT accept government help.  No college and rarely working less than 100 hour weeks for 30+ years,  putting every asset I owned, including the house I lived in, to finance my business, yah, I guess I was lucky too.

Tom

Edited January 17, 2018 by Yooper Rocketman

[Bob_Belville]

1 hour ago, gsxrpilot said:

My very first car, purchased two weeks before I turned 16 and had a drivers license, with money I'd been saving for years, was an MG.

Before I was 25 I had owned a Morris Minor, a Peugeot, a MG 1000 sedan, an Austin Healey Sprite and a MGB-GT. Gotta love Lucas ignition... not.

Edited January 17, 2018 by Bob_Belville

[Marauder]

15 minutes ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

First off, the guy making the comment was not "born in some third world poverty stricken village ...............Egypt" either, and the comment was "his perspective".  My recently passed "mentor" WAS born nearly as you present, and died last December with 4 airplanes, a helicopter, an airpark home on Heavens Landing, (and established a scholarship fund for the less financially fortunate that want to become a pilot).  I'm sure he was "lucky" too, as it clearly had nothing to do with perseverance and hard work.  Our lives, absent our birth place, were remarkably similar (including writing an aviation scholarship) and I think that's why we got along so well.  I was born with extreme poverty in my family, the oldest of 6 kids, watching my parents do everything they could to NOT accept government help.  No college and rarely working less than 100 hour weeks for 30+ years,  putting every asset I owned, including the house I lived in, to finance my business, yah, I guess I was lucky too.

Tom

Now I will tell you who is one lucky Son of B.... Kermit Weeks

[aviatoreb]

2 hours ago, MyNameIsNobody said:

I say she is livin’ the dream, you know compared to some poor kid born in some$%^&hole...

18 hours ago, steingar said:

steingar said: I dunno, he was lucky he wasn't born in some third world poverty stricken village just west of East Bumfuck Egypt.  He was lucky that his skill set was marketable.  He was lucky all kinds of ways.

Let's not go there.  Please take your "current events" to an appropriate forum for that, or I bet you will hear my opinions too, and I am sure you don't want to hear them, and likewise Im sure.  

Edited January 17, 2018 by aviatoreb

[DonMuncy]

2 hours ago, Bob_Belville said:

Before I was 25 I had owned a Morris Minor, a Peugeot, a MG 1000 sedan, an Austin Healey Sprite and a MGB-GT. Gotta love Lucas ignition... not.

Geez. How many of us have had MGs. I had two MG-TDs, a TF, one Austin Healey and four Lotuses. Personally I kinda like Lucas. All their stuff broke or malfunctioned often, but they recognized the certainty it was going to happen, and made them easily repairable and relatively cheap to replace.

[Mooneymite]

7 minutes ago, DonMuncy said:

Geez. How many of us have had MGs. I had two MG-TDs, a TF, one Austin Healey and four Lotuses. Personally I kinda like Lucas. All their stuff broke or malfunctioned often, but they recognized the certainty it was going to happen, and made them easily repairable and relatively cheap to replace.

I was the unlucky poor kid. All I could afford was a 62 Austin Healy Sprite (not a bug eye)...not to be confused with the real Austin Healy (3000).

But as "luck" would have it, I spent more time under the car working on it than I ever spent driving it...  Perfect preparation for airplane ownership!  

[Bob_Belville]

6 minutes ago, Mooneymite said:

I was the unlucky poor kid. All I could afford was a 62 Austin Healy Sprite (not a bug eye)...not to be confused with the real Austin Healy (3000).

My AH Sprite was my first new car, bought in '65 for $2000. I traded it on the MGB GT in about 2 years and 20,000 miles. It was worn out. 

[Marauder]

I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. I had a Fiat 128 SL. And what a fine example of how not to wire a car. I remember stopping at a red light and the nice old lady next to me yelled that all of my Fiat’s lights were blinking like a Christmas tree.

Or the time I came upon a police road stop. To make it legal back then, they were doing “safety inspections”. They asked me to beep my horn, a horn that never, ever beeped before. I press the horn button and it beeped. Drove away from the road stop and pressed the horn button again. Nothing, and it never worked again up to the day I sold it.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[N601RX]

To retire at 54

Go to college and get a degree that will put you in a good paying high demand field  

Max out your 401k each year while taking the employer match and tax saving.  Delay the new car and kids for a few years  

Either you or spouse take a government job that will have a 50% pension after 25 years(+3% for each year over 25) and allow you both to keep the insurance for life. 

Retire early in the year you will turn 55 and you can begin taking withdrawals from your 401k penalty free.

Hope no bad luck comes along! Yes there is such a thing. 

Edited January 17, 2018 by N601RX

[MyNameIsNobody]

56 minutes ago, Marauder said:

I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. I had a Fiat 128 SL. And what a fine example of how not to wire a car. I remember stopping at a red light and the nice old lady next to me yelled that all of my Fiat’s lights were blinking like a Christmas tree.

Or the time I came upon a police road stop. To make it legal back then, they were doing “safety inspections”. They asked me to beep my horn, a horn that never, ever beeped before. I press the horn button and it beeped. Drove away from the road stop and pressed the horn button again. Nothing, and it never worked again up to the day I sold it.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I loved my X1/9 (girlfriend...and future wife in my ride back in the day)

[MyNameIsNobody]

I worked at a Hardee’s from 16-18 saving and paid cash for my car.  Just lucky.

[Marauder]

3 minutes ago, MyNameIsNobody said:

I loved my X1/9 (girlfriend...and future wife in my ride back in the day)

Yeah man! I was envious of you X1 9 guys. That was a nice looking ride!

[MyNameIsNobody]

My horn was a little “iffy” too.  The whole button would come off if you hit it at a certain angle.  I achieved that “certain angle” on multiple occasions...Quirky, but fun cars.

[Glenn]

1 hour ago, DonMuncy said:

Geez. How many of us have had MGs. I had two MG-TDs, a TF, one Austin Healey and four Lotuses. Personally I kinda like Lucas. All their stuff broke or malfunctioned often, but they recognized the certainty it was going to happen, and made them easily repairable and relatively cheap to replace.

My MG mechanic, back in the day, advised me not to think of it as a car, but as “an interesting mechanical device”

[Oldguy]

16 minutes ago, MyNameIsNobody said:

I worked at a Hardee’s from 16-18 saving and paid cash for my car.  Just lucky.

Me too!! All $50 of it.   A 1959 Renault 4CV with suicide front doors and an engine that didn't run. It was the perfect training car for the MGA, MGB, Austin Healey 100/4 and Sprite I owned later in life.

Now, 3 1/2 years from retirement, I am down to the Mooney and 1 2/3 MGBs (the '69 is giving its life for the '67) for fun and the "PawPaw" car for a daily driver. The wife retired in 2009 and has never looked back. I am fortunate to work in a company with both a matching 401(k) AND a pension plan, and even luckier what I do has been in high demand my entire career. Not retiring rich, but will be able to fly and eat.

We are going to join the majority of retirees and move down to FL when we retire and are currently building a house there. And just so we have our priorities straight, the house is in Lakeland and situated half way between KLAL and KBOW. Although it will not be finished in time for SNF this year, I intend to have a Mooney get together one year when it is.

[neilpilot]

My only British car was a Spitfire, and I'd rather not talk about the Fiat 124 and 133 sedans I had in the early 70s.  But my wife's first car was a MGA Coupe.  Her father was an auto mechanic, otherwise it would have been intolerable.  Even then, it quit so many times that she ended up leaving it dead on the side of a MS road.  She still loved that car enough to commission a portrait of her first car; it hangs in our house.

[mike_elliott]

I was into Japanese econo boxes

[bonal]

1 hour ago, neilpilot said:

loved that car enough to commission a portrait

Bingo! thats what I will be doing.  The thread has taken a strange turn from endings to beginnings.  My first car was an Opel GT that I modified so much that when Calif created its smog check I had to sell it cause it would never pass inspection.  I raced it in SCCA solo 2 very competively.