I'm too old to save money.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a spendthrift, but as far as saving a dollar here and there...I'm giving up on that, or shall I say I'm TRYING to give up on that. I lived hand to mouth for so long it's very difficult for me to spend a dollar, for fear I won't make any more, but I was skiing with my old buddy Mini in Sun Valley back in 2019 and...
He said he didn't know how much longer he would be able to do this. He's four and a half years older than I am. We were buddies back in Utah in the seventies. He's a CPA, he ended up moving to the Valley not long thereafter and got involved in some real estate deals and with the mountain being mostly groomers, getting so little snow, he decided to become a ski instructor, just to pass the time, which he had to apologize for, back at Snowbird they were considered the enemy, sell-outs.
That day I was skiing on boards that I got at a discount. Twenty five cents on the dollar. Hard to pass up a deal. And I employed the same deal for the following pair but they weren't so good, they wouldn't hold on the ice, so I decided what I hadn't done in years...
I decided to pay retail.
I'd done this once before, in 2010. I was in this ski shop across from the gondola in Aspen, which has an amazing inventory of clothing. I wasn't planning on buying anything, but I tried on this Descente jacket and...
My heart sang. And I hadn't had ski clothing in decades that I liked that much. But it was $700...so, no way.
But then I got to Vail and thought about it and had them ship it to me. And that jacket... I got compliments for YEARS! It was red, with this silver imaging on the shoulders, very subtle, and I'm in the Game Creek Club and someone in the lobby comments on it. And then in the lift line. I've still got it, the only problem is red fades in the elements, but I can't get rid of it, I actually wore it over Christmas, when the conditions were so terrible, it improved my mood.
So the next time I needed new skis, at the end of 2022, I quizzed the store expert ad infinitum. I skied four brands. I ended up buying what I never would have, but... Everybody in the store said as good as the 99s were, the 108s were better. But you don't need a 108 every day, so I was going to wait to demo those. And as I'm laying down my cash, I ask the guy what I should do, and he says I should just buy them, which I do, at full pop, and they were right, the 108s were even better than the 99s.
So...
I just went to Costco. I don't want to be cheap, but I hate getting ripped-off. So I go to Costco to buy their Vita Rain Zero, which is an inexpensive imitation of Vitamin Water Zero, in some cases worse, in some cases better, depends on the flavor. I just can't handle the price of the Vitamin Water Zero, not with how much I drink. But when I'm in Vail, and the Vita Rain Zero is unavailable, I pop for the Vitamin Water Zero.
I mean how long am I gonna live?
Bob Weir died at 78. Not one of my friends believes they're not going to live that long, no, way beyond that long. But maybe they won't. The Big C got Bob, it could get you. And then you'd ask yourself...do I have any regrets?
That's another weird thing about being 70... You're forced with the choice, assuming you're awake, and not everybody is...are you going to keep playing the game, compromising, or be who you want to be, do what you want to do? The pressure to conform is amazing.
So I pull up to Costco and there's no line for gasoline. Which happens never. And I was planning to get gas later tonight at the Chevron in Brentwood, it's safe there, and I'll pay extra for safety, but since there was no line...
And I saved seven dollars. My tank is not that big and it wasn't completely run down and I was feeling good and then I asked myself...what is seven dollars?
And the problem with going to Costco is too much looks too good. But if you haven't got a family of four+, the portions/sizes are almost always too big. Furthermore, although a deal, not all of the foodstuffs are top drawer. I mean they're adequate, but they're not...
Gelson's.
Gelson's is the expensive market in L.A. The general market. Erewhon is niche and health-based but I'm talking about a store where you can get everything, the name brands, even if they'll pollute your system.
I never shopped there in the nineties. I couldn't rationalize the price. And now it's still hard, but... They have a raw bar, and I find that seafood incredibly satisfying. As for the soda I drink... I probably could pay less at Smart & Final, but not only would it be an additional, out of the way trip, there's no guarantee they'd have what I'm looking for. So I pay for what I want at Gelson's.
Now I have trouble using Instacart, because the prices are such a rip-off, but I will go to Gelson's. And Whole Foods if there's something there I want. I mean I'm going to be on my deathbed lamenting that I ate crappy food?
You can stretch it from there...
Do you pay for premium economy, never mind business class. If you're flying across an ocean, it really makes a difference. It's hard to rationalize the cost, it seems like lighting your money on fire, but if you sit squeezed in the back it's going to take you days longer to adjust at your destination.
Now let me be clear. If you ain't got the money, you have no choice but to watch your pennies and compromise. And I'm not rich, but...exactly how much longer am I gonna live?
Unlike so many of my peers, I'm afraid of running out of money, that's why I waited until 70 to take Social Security. Sure, if I die soon, I will have lost the bet. But I don't care. I just don't want to be on the other end, broke. I've got no kids to take me in, take care of me... Two of my parents' closest friends ran out of money, one even after a reverse mortgage, thank god their kids could keep them alive.
As for travel... Part of me still would like to take the winter to hit every ski area in America or Europe. I can't rationalize the money, but even if I'm alive... I know people whose parents went on their last trip, even though they were only in their eighties, it was too hard after that.
And a friend promised me a couple pair of new skis. Great, but they need bindings. I could cheap out and buy the Markers, but the Looks are better. But a pair of the top of the line will cost me nearly $600. Most people would buy skis on sale, never mind the bindings, for that price. Right now Powder7 has a sale on 2026 demos near that number.
But the truth is the right tool makes all the difference, and it makes a difference to me.
I was skiing on a pair of skis in Aspen that would not hold on the hard snow. Even though they look pretty good. The same 99s referenced above. Most people would continue to ski on them, I'm going to trash them. Why push the limit and undercut my enjoyment?
I have friends my age who keep saving money...for what?
Now I can't rationalize the price of concert tickets, but I'm lucky, I can go for free. And you may needle me for this, but every business has free perks/access. Like if you're a ski instructor you get a huge discount on your equipment.
Obviously skiing is important to me. I'm not holding back, if I want it, I buy it. I was willing to buy a new jacket at full pop in December, but I didn't see anything I liked, so I didn't. But all those exclusive items, if you wait for them to go on sale, they're gone.
Now my dad always insisted on picking up the dinner check. Everybody was invited. I wish I could do that.
Then again, my father knew where every dollar was.
Then again, we never moved from the house I grew up in. We put on an addition, and then the money saved was put into trips and meals. What they now call "experiences." I mean you have to make a choice.
Or, you can clip coupons, thinking you're beating the system...but how much time are you going to waste? And the older you get, the more important your time is to you.
So I didn't mind saving money on gas at Costco, but if there were a wait I would have passed. Just like I won't line up for a Black Friday sale. I no longer buy what is on sale, but what I want...which is almost always more expensive.
Kinda like the clothes at Costco... I never give them a look, but I saw an ad on TikTok or Instagram Reels that they had UGG slippers for less than twenty bucks.
I find shopping for clothing overwhelming.
Then again, Lululemon is suing Costco, saying their pants are a rip-off of their design/product. The "Wall Street Journal" compared the two...turns out the Costco product is extremely good at a fraction of the price. But I'm gonna save money on this? It's like that comic Sheng Wang said...when you buy your clothes at Costco, you've given up.
I mean they had Wrangler jeans at twenty bucks. Very tempting, even though in the sixties Wrangler was for kids and girls. But do I need new jeans? I mean how often do I buy jeans? I might as well continue to buy them at the Polo outlet store...like I said, I don't need to be ripped-off, but I don't need to wear Costco clothes.
And maybe you do, which is fine. If it's not important to you, cool. But I still remember all those comments on my red Descente ski jacket, I still get a thrill when I see it in the closet, when I occasionally wear it.
So, inflation has made the value of a dollar incomprehensible. Prices are so high that it makes it that much harder to lay your cash down. However, I don't want to be like my mother, who had a cheap streak, even though she complained how cheap others were. My mother would just say the price was too high, she'd deny herself, not much, but you could sense her attitude.
But now she's gone and I'm still here. For how long I'm not sure. So I'm trying to ease up on the reins. Chart my own path. Spend when it's not easy for me and let it go. Hell, we stayed in a hotel room in Kyoto which was fantastic, but when I saw the bill... I'm embarrassed to tell you how much it was, and Felice ultimately said "I don't know what I was thinking..." I still haven't gotten over the amount. I mean the money you spend on lodging is gone, like the money you spend on concert tickets. But then I put it in perspective. Or I utilize the perspective. I'm going to save a dollar here or there? I mean relatively speaking it's bupkes. Live it up a bit, get exactly what you want.
That's what I'm trying to do.
It isn't easy, but I've made progress.
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