DON'T WAIT

Thoughts by wayne woodruff

Beverly Sills, the great soprano of the Metropolitan Opera and the world's opera stages, shortly before she died, said, "I don't regret things that I have done, but do regret things that I did not do". This is something that all of us might keep in mind as we go through our hectic lives striving to earn as much as we can, save as much as possible, keep up with the Jones', and planning to carry out our dreams sometime in the future. As I have learned, the only future we may have is now.

I have been a USAA member since 1963 and have had insurance to cover cars, home, boats, and an umbrella policy over the years, and have been thoroughly impressed with the way USAA has taken care of it's members. I have also enjoyed reading and benefited from the many articles in the USAA Magazine concerning various ways to earn money, augment and supplement income and especially ways to save what we have worked so hard to accumulate. However, it might be helpful to all of us to heed what Ms. Sills said, and Don't Wait to do the things of which we have always dreamed. The chances may never come.

I first became a USAA member as a young Captain in the Medical Corp, stationed in Germany for two years. After my term of enlistment was up, I had a busy Urology practice for thirty five years and earned a lot of money, and our family always made a habit of conserving wherever we could. When we traveled we always stayed in the cheapest motels available, ate in the cheaper restaurants or fast food places, looked for the cheapest gas stations, and even camped out in state parks to save a few dollars, as well as for the enjoyment of sleeping "under the stars". We always said that when we were rich, we would stay in the Holiday Inn and eat at the expensive gourmet restaurants. My wife loved a good rare filet of beef but most of the time she was eating a Big Mac which cost less than one tenth that of a nice filet. DON'T WAIT.

My wife, Diana, loved parties, and she enjoyed giving big parties. As I said, we had plenty of money and the parties could have been catered by any of the many caterers in the area, but instead she did all the cooking for food to feed a hundred people. But it saved a few dollars.

In place of hiring a bartender to issue the drinks, we set up a serve yourself bar. Saved a few more dollars. She never complained about the extra work, but always said that when we were "rich" we would have our parties at the Ball Room of the Hilton. DON'T WAIT.

Diana loved to dance. Having grown up in a strict Baptist family that disapproved of dancing, I was a terrible dancer and did not enjoy it. But I told her, "When we are rich, and I retire, I will take dancing lessons and we will dance as much as you want". DON'T WAIT.

Our children were always feeling deprived. When their friends were getting five dollars a week allowance, we gave them fifty cents, and told them that if they wanted more spending money they should get jobs. So the children of this rich Urologist worked as life guards, janitors, lawn boys and baby-sitters. Not that this was bad for them, but it was hard for them to understand why their friends did not have to work at menial labor as they did.

Diana also loved to travel and we did take many wonderful trips over the years to exotic places like Peru, the Amazon Jungle, Hong Kong, the Greek Islands, Japan, Thailand, Bali, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Scandinavia. However, two places that she really wanted to visit were mainland China and Russia, and again I said that whenever I retired we would have plenty of time and money to do that. DON'T WAIT.!!!

Then in 1998 the roof caved in on our family plans. I had emergency cardiac by-pass surgery, Diana was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, and a year later I had radiation treatment for prostate cancer. Suddenly it became quite clear that we should not have waited for any of our dreams to materialize. We continued to try to travel, but airplane travel with a wheel-chair became increasingly difficult for Diana and her sick old husband. We then thought of ways to use all of the money we had accumulated to enable us to continue doing the things that would make her happy, but the disease which struck her down, advanced to the point where she could not move to do anything for herself, even scratch her nose nor brush her teeth. Finally, the disease finished her, and I was left with lots of money, but more regrets. DON'T WAIT.