Your Perspective And How It Changes As You Age

In a matter of ninety days, I will turn 94 years of age. When I was young, I paid little or no attention to such things as savings or insurance of any kind. But since learning how to drive, laws made it imperative that I pay for auto insurance and when I began to work at a full-time job I learned about Social Security, Unemployment tax, NYS Disability tax, etc. Oh I forgot healthcare costs.

Our society tries to take care of those who are unable to take care of themselves. I am in favor of all that. What I am not in favor of is taking care of those who from the very beginning did little to plan for their own well-being even though they had the means to do so. There are those who in the late stages of their lives find themselves unable to afford the cost of healthcare because they do not have the income to cover the cost. Yes, there may have been circumstances earlier in life that prevented them for providing for themselves and that is an unforgivable offense. But how do we treat those who simply said quietly to themselves “I’m healthy” and I do not want to pay for something I may never need? I hope by now you are getting the drift of where I am heading.

Before I began writing this column, I had a conversation with a friend about the cost of healthcare and I suggested like Social Security was thrust upon us, in the form of a tax, we needed “Mandatory Healthcare Tax.” You have heard it said before “if the shoe fits, wear it.”

You know, sometimes it is thinking out of the box that creates innovative ideas. I would like to cite a case in point here. Several months ago, a housing report stated that home sales were down because of the high mortgage rates. I casually said to my spouse “why don’t they allow mortgages to be portable so those who want to buy a home somewhere else can take their mortgage with its present balance with them?” There are people with cash that want to buy and those wanting to sell do not want to trade in a three percent mortgage for a six- and one-half percent mortgage. Well, about a week ago, one of our president’s cabinet members in charge of home mortgages mention the unspoken work “Portable Mortgages.”

In closing, this is a departure from my columns on investing wisely but I thought it important enough to draw some suggestions for changes.

Disclaimer: The author of “Small Potatoes” is not a registered investment, legal, tax advisor, or a stockbroker/dealer, All investment/financial opinions expressed in the “Small Potatoes” articles are from the personal research and experience of the author of the article and are not intended solely as educational material. Although best efforts are employed, unintended errors and misprints may occur. The information in these articles should not be considered as “risk-free” investing.

Readers of this column must be careful about the quality of stocks they choose.

Those wishing to contact Raymond directly can email him at investsmallpotatoes@gmail.com