As we, or me anyway, get older, there are so many things that are not that important, interesting or needed anymore. For most of our lives we wanted or needed more money. Now I don't need more money and have enough. (much of my time now is spent taking care of my wife)
If you plan your life correctly from when you're young, you will be able to care for yourself and your spouse for as long as needed. (And No, I didn't inherit anything, I worked for every nickel I have)
For instance, I have little need to travel. We have been everywhere we wanted to go and now it is just too hard to travel to distant places so that money is not needed. We still take motor trips and sometimes Florida, But we are probably not going to Australia, or the Amalfi Coast of Italy right now.
We have two cars, Jeeps, that get us everywhere we want to go. I have no need to get a BMW, Massarotti or Jaguar. I am not the type of person to buy something to impress anyone and besides that, those cars are not American so I wouldn't have one even if someone gave one to me. I wouldn't take one anyway because I don't believe in something for nothing, so I don't play the lottery.
I also don't have a reef tank to impress anyone. Right now I could open up a produce stand for all the algae growing. I don't care, my fish don't care and Taylor Swift don't care.
The algae will leave like it always does. If you keep a natural tank and sometimes use NSW, everything in that NSW that you collect, will grow in your reef so if that bothers you, use ASW.
If you need a perfect tank, you have the wrong hobby. This is supposed to be fun so if you are fretting over these things or you allow your fish to keep getting sick, you may need a different hobby, just like if you keep running out of money, you need a different job besides a different hobby. There is money all over the place, you just need to be a little smarter, neater, nicer and energetic than the next person. I certainly don't believe in Welfare if you are young enough and healthy enough to work, welfare is to help people who "can't" take care of themselves.
In my job as a Commercial/ Industrial construction electrician foreman, when the industry was slow, my union made us take time off to allow everyone a chance to work. Sometimes it was a month and sometimes a year. I loved those times and usually doubled my income through side jobs. I would do anything including paint houses, pulling weeds, drive people to the airport etc.
No jobs were below me.
Life is easy and as we get older, it is health that is important, it's the only important thing.
I am also too old to argue and, on these forums, so many people want to argue with me about stupid things like why my fish don't get sick. I am tired of those arguments, especially from people with sick fish. If you feel that quarantining or medication is the way to go, do that.
We are supposed to be having fun, not arguing about the correct way to have fun. If treating fish is fun, do that.
Much of my money is spent on things to help my wife. I just bought a motorized chair and a couple of years ago I bought a motorized handicapped scooter for her. I am sure as time goes buy I will buy more of these types of things and it doesn't matter how much these things cost as long as they help my wife, even a little as my wife is my life which is why I married her over 50 years ago.
I try to keep myself healthy mainly so I can continue to care for my wife who has MS.
I get myself up at about 5:00 every morning, rain or shine so I can walk two miles. I don't particularly like doing that but if it helps me stay healthy, it's what I will do.
We also eat only healthy food, no fried or especially deep fried foods (except rarely, fried calamari because I just need that occasionally)
