Those who say no

Sunday I was reading the newspaper -yeah an actual dead tree edition. I'm staying at my dad's and they still get such things. There was this article about retirement. It looked a lot like an article about how retirement for most people is going to be financially impossible. In fact, after reading it I came to the conclusion that I'd be unable to retire at 65, even though I'm 57 and have been retired for years. That was one persuasive article.

Of course, I'm doing it so it can't be impossible.

I'm doing a lot of things that the experts say I should not be doing. Just about anyone will tell you that my little sailboat is way too small for coastal cruising -never mind the fact that I've actually coastal cruised in it.

People told me that building a dome home where I live wouldn't work and that it would leak all the time. It's been up for over 20 years with no problems.

They said solar electric wouldn't work in my area, yet that too has been working for over 20 years.

Good thing I don't listen to the experts. They establish some arbitrary criteria that must be met. The retirement people assume a retired person would not change their lifestyle to fit a smaller budget. The boat people assumed that a sailboat needs things like a galley in the cabin. (I found I could cook in the cockpit just fine) There were construction methods to eliminate any problems inherent to the dome design. I researched and assembled my solar electric system myself, greatly reducing costs and adapting it to my local site.

Over and over experts say something is impossible and maybe it is -if you do it the way the experts expect you to do it.

Fortunately for me, life is full of loopholes.

-Sixbears