Many Americans take so much for granted when it comes to our
way of life. There are many of us who take things such as clean
air, clean water, and abundant food as common rights.

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I’ve been privileged enough to do a bit of international traveling,
and have seen, first-hand, what living conditions are like in
dozens of foreign countries. Let me tell you, there is nothing like
the good old USA.

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How you were brought up and the living conditions you were
exposed to, helped make you, you.

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I know there are folks who want to tell me how rough they had it
while growing up poor, or with one disadvantage or another, but I
can tell you this, even our poorest people in the USA have a
lifestyle that millions of others would take in a heartbeat.

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Clean water at your fingertips is something we take for granted.
In many countries, there isn’t enough water to spare for bathing
or washing clothes. There is barely enough clean water to drink
and cook with, let alone have extra. What if you had to get up
every morning and walk three miles to a well that was shared by
a whole village, wait in line to get a bucket of water, walk the
three miles back to your house, just so you could start breakfast!
Imagine doing that seven days a week! What if that well went
dry and the next well was ten miles away? You’d get up and walk
ten miles each way. What if you had to boil your drinking water
to make it safe? Not here, we just turn on the tap.

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My guide, on a recent trip, bought his poor, farmer parents a cell
phone and taught them how to call him. They thought it was too
much trouble to walk to town once a week to charge it, since they
had no electricity on the rice farm. Unselfishly, their daughter
would borrow a neighbor’s bike to make the weekly trip just
because she knew how much pleasure it gave their mother to be
able to talk to her son. Ninety percent of the country’s population
were farmers as had been their parents, and their grandparents. If
you were born a farmer, there was a 99% chance you’d be a
farmer. The difference between rich and poor was staggering.
There was no middle class.

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In other words, walking three miles in the snow to get to school,
or getting up at 4:00 am to milk the cows before breakfast,
riding the bus, or taking the train, or some other imagined
hardships help to put things in perspective. Your perspective is
something that you have developed while growing up, and that
makes you, you.

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Next time you hop in your car to run down the street for a
gallon of milk, be glad the store is there and that there will
always be milk on the shelf. We have expectations, and we are
fortunate to live in a country that allows us such luxuries.

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Take advantage of what you have, and allow the folks at
American Retirement Advisors to help you make the most of
what you have in retirement. You can change your retirement
perspective by simply getting expert advice. Give us a call, we are here to help!