Uses of money

I'm surprised to find that as we approach retirement, we're edging into the comfortably well off range.  (I'll let you decide what is meant by that.)  I am surprised by this because neither of us has inherited money, and neither of us had a job that generated stockbroker-levels of income.  My parents both worked, as did my wife's parents; my family could be described as 'on the low end of the economic spectrum', while my wife's did a little better, but not amazingly so.  I attribute this edging that we're seeing to two things -- first, we're careful with money, and we've saved for a long time, and second, the stock market's done well over time.  (Ever notice that people such as stockbrokers never think it's a good time to sell?)

If we continue to be careful with money; if we don't get any nasty surprises of the medical type (well, any, really, but those are the big bugaboo); if the stock market doesn't plummet (which I think it will, actually, but I'm hoping not a lot) - we'll have enough so that we can  do some things we want to do -- fix up the house, travel, and, perhaps most importantly, transfer an appreciable amount of money to our child - without imperiling our future.

The house means things ranging from replace aging carpet to extend the deck and enclose the underdeck area to be storage - though things like build a new bedroom and install an elevator are possible, too.  The travel means , in my mind, France, though my wife would like to see Italy,  and there is a vague possibility of Australia (primarily driven by my brief visit there, years ago; lovely place.)   And the child part means give money to the child, to make her life a little easier, though when and how much is under review, you might say;  it varies depending on whether I'm feeling nervous about our future; sometimes it's enough to finish one full year at her college, and sometimes it's that, plus enough to buy a car.  On the one hand, we don't want to unnecessarily stiff her, so that she gets a pleasant surprise at our death, and almost immediately thinks they had this money and I still had to get a job in college?  On the other, we aren't of the assumption that we need to stiff ourselves, either; she can make her way, just as we did.