No, said my friend.  He’s miserable.

How come, I asked, genuinely surprised.

Well, the friend replied, he’s obsessed about living to a hundred years old, and $6mil just isn’t going to last that long.  He needs more.

Ouch, I thought.  This person has issues.

At a time when the portfolios of retired individuals have been totally wiped out by the collapse of big name financial institutions, such as Lehman Brothers, I find the idea of a person who’s holding on to oodles of cash, worrying about not having enough money for the next fifty years, quite ludicrous, and a bit offensive.

While money is generally perceived as the currency for measuring present and future well-being, the idea can be stretched to absurd proportions if my friend’s brother-in-law is any example.  I understand that some people pursue wealth endlessly, as a measure of their achievements, and I think we can all appreciate that, even if we may not approve.  But I think that all of us should stop once in a while, and figure out what’s really important to our lives as human beings.

Some things you need, and some things you want.  Suze Orman made a point about “People first, then Money, then Things”.  Lots of money, supposedly to pad a long retirement, is great.  Knowing whose lives you have touched, and how many quality relationships you have amassed by your twilight years is going to be infinitely more enriching than the millions that you have stashed away in a safe deposit box.  Money simply isn’t going to love you back.

I hope my friend’s brother-in-law live to be a hundred. But I hope he realises early that he can be happy for a lot less than $6mil.

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With a better tool, I hope to keep up the writing momentum and start sharing and archiving material that are close to my heart.  While the subjects I write about may not appeal to everyone, for those who are able to find something that they like, do share your own thoughts with me.

After all, blogging is about the conversation, not about downloading.

Let’s get going.

2.   Avoid Eating 90 Minutes before you Sleep.  I get nightmares when I over-indulge before bedtime.  You can try some of the foods recommended for a good night’s rest. 

3.  Eat your Breakfast.  Breakfast is really the most important meal of the day.  Be strategic about what you choose to put in your body.  A well chosen breakfast not only improves your chances at weight loss, it also sharpens your mind, and strengthens your cardio-vascular and immune system

4.  Exercise.   How much exercise you need largely depends on your age and fitness level.  Moderate exercise is always healthful.  Start slowly and build up to at least 2 hours of exercise a week.  Older people should continue to exercise to maintain strength and balance, as well as enjoy the most of what life has to offer. 

5.  Take Your Vitamins and Supplements.   Unless you have a personal dietician waiting on you, it’s nearly impossible to get all the vital nutrients from your daily diet.  I suggest that you complement your healthy eating and exercise regime, with a suitable dose of vitamins and supplement intake.  There are many good guides out there, so it is worthwhile to research some.  Here’s something to get you started.

Ever notice sometimes how a person electrifies a room when he/she makes his/her entrance, and you cannot help but think to yourself: this person is simply “bursting” with energy?  Then there are those other times, and they happen to the best of us, when you feel totally zapped, and all you want to do is sit in front of the telly, and vegetate.  Moments like these, you demonstrate the activity level of a potato.

Wouldn’t it be nice to sail through your day at more or less the same high energy level?  You’d be able to perform at the same optimum level, whether it’s an early morning meeting or a late afternoon site visit.  And at the end of the day, when you’ve finally made it back home, you still have enough energy to drop a few baskets with the son, and make lively conversation with the wife at the dinner table.

It’s not some drug-enhanced state that I’m suggesting, but a state of being that is very achievable.  Imagine yourself as an energy being, who has built-in “surge protectors” and “capacitors”, to regulate your energy output naturally, without being a helpless victim of random ebbs and flows of energy.

To operate efficiently, you need to consider making some changes to your life.