Retirement Plans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to derail the thread but I’ve recently started volunteering as a paramedic and while I’m not quite with OP at 70, I’m think I’m there at 80.

Regardless of what you think, virtually no one at 80, including those doing extremely well are doing nearly as well as you think.

And I guarantee you that you have nowhere near enough experience to claim that virtually no one at 80 is doing well. I also find your story highly unlikely. Paramedic programs are 1800+ hours, so you don't just waltz into it.

I definitely did not waltz into. The program was more like 1200 hours and I was a volunteer EMT before that, first becoming certified decades ago. I also did not state that no one over 80 is doing well. I said that no one is doing nearly as well as you think they are. Yes, we transport an insane amount of people doing poorly, from more assisted living homes that you can possibly imagine, which incidentally, almost universally provide poor care. But you have no idea how many people living on their own are calling because they have fallen and need help getting up, how many people who are technically able to live on their own but have so many meds they cannot keep them straight and end up hospitalized for it, how often "healthy" old people are going in for infections and illness that are frankly just affecting them because of their age and how many elderly people are constantly in and out of hospitals because of bad labs or blood pressure. In the jurisdiction where I volunteer those last 4 groups alone literally account for hundreds of calls per day.

You have a very myopic view, which is typical of EMS providers and volunteers in particular. As they say, I've been there and done that, but have gained perspective since then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to deraik the thread but I’ve recently started volunteering as a paramedic and while I’m not quite with OP at 70, I’m think I’m there at 80.

Regardless of what you think, virtually no one at 80, including those doing extremely well are doing nearly as well as you think.

I have to say, this gives me some comfort.

My father hated relying on others and getting sick. He died after a sudden illness and hospitalization at 74. He was fully healthy until he entered the hospital. I hope it's what he would have wanted: to die quickly and avoid the gradual process of becoming more and more disabled.