Maintenance

Are you low or high maintenance prone ?

When people of my age group meet together, more often than not during my friday cell meetings, we inadvertently touch on issues of life. Hot topics include empty nest syndromes, high and low gearings, down-sizings and grannie obligations.




The men being the bread winners will dwell on monetary and financial matters. Is there a need to down size and down grade after retirement? Are we able to maintain the same life style as we used to? Will the present financial situation sustain us through our life time? These are worrying issues but nevertheless real and relevant. One member commented that he is a low maintenance man; if he cannot afford chicken rice in the mall then he will go to the local coffee shop. There is no air to live for. By being easy on your pocket and not keeping your face, life is made easier!
Aha; another guy related..." But I wanna retire beside the beach in Spain and savour in the evening sunset and glory..."; that's high maintenance. You gonna work all your life just for that. At times reality sets in and we shared that all that we have are gifts from God; giving us the health and opportunity to make a living. We have to be careful and grateful for a tsunami may just come along and everything disappears into thin air.
So, the conclusion is to lead a simple and meaningful life ; with less air.




Then we are also concerned about passive income. Should we invest wisely so that we have a constant source of income? But what do we invest in? Properties ? Houses? How to remain simple? Does retirement also include an annual holiday? Do we look at our children for maintenance? None of us dare to have an answer to that. We worked, be responsible parents making sure our children be given the best education opportunities and then we allow them to go forward in their endeavors in life. We can only pray for the best to come to them.
The answer is ; yes it would be good to have a source of passive income and we hope to be able to make wise decisions about that. Civil servants have passive income ! No work but got money.



The next demanding issue is when grandmas have to fly everywhere to help look after grandchildren. The latest trend is to have children working overseas and then the grannies will fly in to be close to them and to maintain a rapport with the immediate family. I am still too young for that... my children are busy studying and at work. But a couple are really busy doing grannie chores. That's something to learn about.

So when we gather and talk, we laugh as much as we can and hope the years ahead will bring good cheer and joy to us. In another couple of years, we wonder at other impending issues.

God grant us good health, we pray.