In the world of gambling there are many choices for those who wish to risk their hard earned cash. Some people who gamble feel they are not risking their money at all. They know they are going to lose their money. The question then becomes what to gamble on or what do as a gambling pastime for a period of time while making their money last as long as possible for as much fun as possible.

The only difference between all other forms of gambling revolves around a sort of triangle made up of: acceptable risk, potential wins or losses, and the amount of pleasure derived from gambling. Some people only require need a bug crossing the floor and they have everything they need to gamble with. For others gambling may be much more complicated, such as the stock market, or a speculative business venture.

For everyone who gambles decisions within the process of gambling can be made to be very be complex but the possible outcomes are simple.

Over ones lifetime one wins more than they lost.

Over ones lifetime one wins more than they won.

Over ones lifetime one comes out even, neither winning nor losing.

Looked at from these three conditions there is not a lot of difference between gambling and life, except adding more gambling in ones life adds the possibility of losing or winning more.

In life enjoying a successful retirement means having a long series of wins. A long series of wins may have meant: Getting the right education for the job opportunities that are likely to be in demand over ones lifetime; finding the right job(s) that turn themselves into successful lifelong careers; making investments that make money; avoiding the traps and pitfalls that other people fall into and never recover from.

Struggling in retirement, or not being able to have a retirement means none, or few of the choices of success came to pass. Not always the fault of the individual, but rather due to a series of events beyond ones control. An individual may have tried to do everything right, and everything turned sour. It happens often. The recent series of hurricanes, floods, and fires for example….

Most of us over the span of our lifetime come out even. We make some decisions that some may see as brilliant and do well for us. We have other situations that may leave us wondering what we could possibly have been thinking about when we made them. Most of our decisions though end up somewhere in between. We made good decisions that did not reach the stars, and poor decisions that did not destroy us. We also made some decisions that were okay.

Over the course of our lives we all gamble. Over the course of our lifetimes we all experience the same outcomes as an active gambler.

Of course we are not starting equally from the same mark in the race towards the end. Rather we are randomly placed on a starting line we can not see, gambling with our lives with the hope we make more good decisions than poor ones.