[Auburn Annie]

In 2002 I decided to buy tickets to Gord's concert originally scheduled for October in Syracuse NY because [a] it was as near as he'd ever been and [b] the date was close to our wedding anniversary and I thought it'd be a nice surprise for my husband. To my dismay, the venue was cancelled. Checking the Massey Hall dates that November we saw that the next day was the annual Santa parade. My husband thought our daughter might enjoy it; at 13 I thought she was way too old but she was enthused (because it was a trip to Toronto, not because of the parade, lol.)

Well. The tickets were $42.50 each, and we'd have a hotel stay overnight, too. But, what the heck, I ordered them.

And then 2 things happened almost simultaneously: I lost my job and Gord nearly lost his life.

And I held on to the tickets. Blind faith, bottomless hope, whatever, I hoped that one day I would be able to use them and I'd still have money enough for a hotel.

I was still out of work when Gord came back but, by golly, I reserved a junior suite at a very nice hotel near Massey and we made a mini-vacation out of it. Never regretted it. Paid cash.

I'm not one who travels all over and has seen 30, 40, 50 or more concerts. I've seen him twice, the first time way back in the day (1974) and the second time 30 years on.

My grandmother - who raised five kids during the Great Depression - always said, it's only money; it's what you do with it that counts. Making memories is up there for us. Your mileage may vary. As someone else posted, the artists' have their expenses too. Touring is not cheap. I do not know enough about it to say who decides what to charge at each venue. I expect that's something worked out between the artist's manager and the venue. Charge too much and you have empty seats; too little and you don't cover expenses.

I've been out of work (again) since October of last year - great timing, what? - but oddly enough, the closer I get to retirement (and this might be it, who knows?) the less I stress about money. This is in spite of having our daughter halfway through college AND getting married in two months. We took a hit when the market fell off a cliff last year, not as bad as some, but have largely recovered since March. But we've been reviewing our assets and pension stuff and know we'll be okay financially when my husband retires in 2012. Managing expectations is as important as managing money, which is where I think a lot of folks get tripped up.