Changing Life Rules

Future Island Paradise

 

I was recently talking to a friend about how I no longer bend down to pick up a penny on the sidewalk, because it takes so many of them to buy anything worthwhile.  Back when I was a very young man (during the mid to late 50’s) I remember buying penny candy and five cent soda.  Today in my State of residence it takes almost ten of them just to pay the sales tax on a dollar’s purchase.  A 20 ounce soda sells for $1.89 plus sales tax of about seventeen cents.  I can say to the government like they use to say on the Virginia Slims cigarette commercials, “you’ve come a long way baby!”  Back when soda was five cents they didn’t even have Sales Tax, and with today’s Sales Tax I could buy 3 sodas at old time prices and two pieces of penny Bubble Gum.

 

I keep a special decorative jar in the master bedroom where I empty all my change (coins) at the end of a day.  They are a hassle to carry around, plus they wear your packets prematurely, and no, I am not going to carry around a coin purse.  That’s what my grandfather use to carry, but there again coins were worth something back then.

 

Up until about 5 years ago, I used to tell cashiers to keep the change when we were talking about a dime or less in change. Then I realized that if I was short a dime or less at point of sale I would be made to return the item for lack of money.  The coins I save find their way into parking meters or the like.

 

Another rule change in my life: I feel that I’ve reached a point in my life where the odds of me winning the Lotto have improved.  All you have to do is look at the Lotto history of winners.  Nine out of ten winners are around my age and retired.  I do, however, only play the very big jackpots.  I wouldn’t want to win a million dollars and know that I will never win another jackpot because the odds of that happening are not favorable.  I know that one of these days I will post that I have won the lottery and will be retiring from the blog because the island I am buying doesn’t have internet service.

 

Here is some more information to back me up on my rule on the use of coins:

·       WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a budget proposal that aims to make government more efficient, President Barack Obama on Tuesday floated the idea of using alternative metals to make penny and nickel coins.

·       The fiscal 2015 budget, released on Tuesday, points out that the coins' manufacturing and circulation have not changed in decades and that the Treasury Department has been reviewing the coins' production. Obama has proposed similar reviews in the past but the measures stalled despite not being partisan points of contention.

·       Obama's 2014 budget had pegged the cost of manufacturing a penny at two cents and the price of a nickel at 11 cents. ~ (This version of the story was corrected to make clear that Treasury is not considering phasing out penny or nickel coins, is looking instead at using alternative metals) (Additional reporting by Patrick Temple-West and Emily Stephenson; Editing by Bill Trott)

 

The best is yet to come…..