There’s no shame in meds. Very very mellow ones like Buspirone (not a benzodiazepine or opiod) can help a great deal and not addict your brain to medication. I take one Buspirone, an antidepressant, before boarding an airplane for claustrophobia, then never take it again until next time and it is a huge help. Lots of similar, non-benzodiazepine solutions exist for transient anxiety.
You should of course be extremely wary of benzodiazepines or opiods, not take them at all if you mustn’t, but there’s lots of non addictive things to consider.
In fact I’d consider Buspirone a gift from the gods. You take one and the effect is very very subtle. Stuff just bothers you that slightly slightly less. You don’t even know it’s there but you get through that stressful period of a few hours. And you don’t need the usual “we’ll find out in a month or so if this worked” period with any other antidepressant. And you can just stop taking it, boom done.
That’s what I love about retirement. No alarm clocks. With my job as a baker I had to use them to get up at 4:00AM. I am not by nature an early riser. I loved my work, but not the early part.
No shame in meds at all. I got a bottle of Valium 12 months ago. I’ve used them 3 times. They just take the edge off. The people I know take medication daily. I already do that for blood pressure, plus I tried antidepressants 20+ years ago and hated them. Sounds like they’ve improved.
Would there be any interest amongst youse for a “retirement portfolio” thread?
I have yet to find a CFA/CFP that will counsel me, or perform a portfolio review, for an hourly or flat charge; they all either insist on managing my entire portfolio (if not complete financial life), or want to charge an amount based on the value of my portfolio and on an annual basis.
I know what I want and I’m pretty comfortable with how to get there, so paying someone 1% to say “buy Treasuries!” or “buy this annuity” doesn’t sit well with me. But what I WOULD like is a sanity check. Granted, you are not a financial professional, or not MY financial professional, YMMV, etc.
I’m willing to share mine if it will spur a discussion.
That might be an interesting discussion. Although I’m not sure how comfortable I’d be sharing my complete portfolio on this (or any other) anonymous message board.
I’m with you on this statement. Fortunately for me, I have two now-retired former finance professionals who are willing to advise me with their thoughts and listen to my questions and ideas. Do you have anybody like that that you could trust?
Not any more, no. I used to have a cow-orker who, while not engaged in the biz at the time, had been a financial honcho and was personally very familiar with trading, options, and so forth, but we’ve lost touch.
If there’s interest, I’ll create a thread in a few hours (IMHO I assume is the best fit) and lead with my pretty simple portfolio (minus individual bond/CD holdings).
ETA: for clarity, I’ve been trading stocks and managing my pre-retirement portfolio for a couple decades.