A Mission To Stop The Abuse (of a phrase)

Assumptions could be made that most people do not "literally" have the ability to buy anything they would like. I would love to buy a 34 foot yacht, but I do not have the money....right now. The problem is, I don't realistically earn enough money to buy a yacht right now. That would mean my income is currently limited to not buying certain things others may be able to buy. Likewise, my income does allow me to buy many things others can not buy. I do not however say I live on a "fixed income", because I don't.

Very few people are forced to live on a fixed income and it "gets my goat" (http://www.drlaura.com/letters/index.html?mode=view&tile=1&id=11311) to hear people lament about the limits of their income. The phrase is over used and commonly associated with senior citizens. I love these people and enjoy hearing their stories and learning from them. However, many of them, including relatives of mine, made bad financial decisions over and over, thus limiting the lifestyle they could afford in later years. Still, their income is not fixed. Most "fixed income" people could unfix it by getting a part-time job or starting a business. Colonel Sanders didn't cook chicken commercially until he was in his fifties (http://www.kfc.com/about/colonel.asp). Mary Kay, the cosmetics queen, didn't start her business until she was pushing 50 (http://www.anbhf.org/laureates/mkash.html). All I'm saying is that people should ease up on the usage of the phrase "fixed income". Everybody has a fixed income until they decide to do something about it. Currently mine is fixed well belowe $170,000 a year. Well below!

For those few that are bedridden (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bedridden) I give them a pass. For those that are able, regardless of age...................STOP IT!