Occam's Razor

As you may have noticed, there are a lot of illogical people out there doing a lot of illogical things. It seems large portions of our population are into doing stupid and counterproductive stuff, making things bad if not for just themselves, then for the rest of us too.

It’s easy enough to start with Donald Trump, but you can throw in virtually the whole Republican Party as well as many Democrats. It’s easy to pander to your emotions because emotions are much more powerful than reason. This is being used against us.

For myself, while my decisions are not entirely logical, I strongly believe in trying to act logically instead of emotionally. I look at the world around me, look at my assets and do my best to make logical decisions. If I can’t get others to do the same (it’s not from lack of trying, and in many ways is the theme of this blog), then at least I can do it for myself.

Consequently, when we retired, my wife and I bugged out of town. Our house was paid off but we still bugged out of town. Part of our relocation adventure was simple restlessness; we had lived in the Washington DC area for more than thirty years. But it was also easy to see where things were going to go, as we were living with them even back then.

Life in DC’s burbs was expensive and getting more so. The climate was hot and muggy even thirty years earlier, but was worse now, along with the air quality. So the answer was pretty straightforward: move some place less expensive, more natural, less congested, further north where it’s cooler and somewhere safer in general.

We ended up in western Massachusetts. We endured about two years in a long adventure in retiring, selling a house and relocating, then setting up a newly constructed home. We’re living nowhere near a beach; in fact our new house is on a hill. So rising seas won’t affect us, but even massive flooding it shouldn’t affect us. The water should run downhill, thanks to our new house’s excellent drainage system. Earthquakes are almost unknown around here, along with most natural hazards. We’re starting to see an occasional tornado, but for the most part our lives should be hazard free.

Our big move was basically a once in a lifetime event. We certainly didn’t have this as a viable option during our working years. The good thing about the Washington area though was that despite its high costs and hassles, jobs were easy to find and in general they paid quite well. It was more luck than great planning that we ended up in that region, but once there we were at least smart enough to use the areas resources intelligently. We mostly lived within our means, mostly made sound financial choices and definitely stopped at one child. We ran the numbers and a second child would leave our standard of living significantly impaired.

You don’t have to choose to live life with the blinders on, but it seems to be the default for most of us. Maybe it’s exhaustion from all the other stuff going on in life that makes it hard to focus on longer-range stuff. The thing is though that only you can direct your life, and if you don’t do it intelligently and logically, you life is likely to end pretty messy and full of tremors.

We weren’t perfect. We had no master plan in life and went with common horse sense much of the time. If I couldn’t summon up the energy to create a twenty-year plan, I could summon the energy to redirect any excess money into paying down our mortgage or in getting a home equity loan to cut finance costs for many of life’s major expenses.

I have learned that by paying attention to life and investing time in thinking about your future, you can make your future. There are always unknowns and no guarantees in life, but if most of your actions in life are logical and follow a sound strategy, your odds of ending up where you want to end up someday greatly increase.

It requires time, clear headedness and hopefully some engagement. It also requires curiosity into how others are doing it successfully. Directing your life instead of letting it direct you can be very empowering.

Around 1990, I started tracking our household income and expenses. Simply doing this roused my curiosity in an area that I hadn’t thought much about earlier. I did know I was sick of having bills come due and not having enough cash handy to pay them. Thinking about our income and expenses meant we started planning. It was just a little at first, but as time and interest made possible, it grew into longer-range plans. As I thought about these goals, I had to measure them against what our lives were and think about to achieve them.

It meant some hard choices. For example, there was my decision to go to grad school while maintaining a full time job. For about three years my life was pretty hellish, but fortunately it paid off in promotions and more income. Surmounting this challenge also brought new confidence – I can do this – and led me to find the confidence to take some job risks that paid off.

After September 11, working in downtown D.C. looked simply dangerous. It wasn’t hypothetical, as I was working downtown when that plane hit the Pentagon. Our building was right next to the train tracks. I decided that this fear was telling me to find a job closer to home, without the commute, and I eventually succeeded. Turning my mind to the problem helped me build the future that I wanted. Being three miles from work instead of thirty turned out to be a terrific decision, and the job I landed was also just right for me.

Now I live something of a gilded retirement: financially secure, away from the more obvious threats in life, plus I found a new community that really agreed with me. But it didn’t happen from hoping and wishful thinking. It happened by being logical and by planning and listening to my gut.

I am hoping my country can wake up and do the same. It won’t be easy. It’s much easier to let your right brain run amok.