Alvin’s Tips II

Yesterday I passed on a bit of wisdom for an 83-year-old San Franciscan who knows. Today, more of Alvin’s tips:

“At Safeway, I buy their store-brand bread — day old if possible. I got a 1-1/2-pound loaf of their top bread for 79 cents and a 1-pound loaf of raisin for 79 cents also. They are just as soft and last just as long as regular bread.” (The logician in me imagines that day-old bread lasts precisely one day less long than regular bread, but that’s not the point. By Alvin’s lights, it lasts until he’s finished eating it, which is all that matters.)

You scoff, you why-not-eat-cake devil’s-food-may-care youngster, you. But Alvin retired 18 years ago and has tripled his net worth in the meantime (exclusive of the value of his paid-up home). Along the way, he’s gone to England, France (twice), Holland, Australia, Morocco, Egypt — and a lot more. Plus, he managed to give someone he cared about $25,000 to solve a personal problem. So day-old bread it will be from now on.

Alvin has some other tips — taking paper bags back to Safeway for a nickel each, recycling his cans every quarter to pick up an extra $7, buying cashmere sweaters at the Salvation Army thrift shop, getting 3% off on his 87-cent BP gas by using their credit card (and paying it off promptly each month) — but I want to leave these for his book.

Here’s wishing him 18 more happy and prosperous years of retirement — and 18 after that.

Tomorrow: Drug Bust