Numbers, numbers, numbers. Even though my career was in brand, new product, and corporate strategy, I was always very good with numbers. Sometimes people would think I had a finance background.
I could tear apart an income statement, market research survey, pricing/margin structure, marketing budget, or ROI better than most. I remember that I could very quickly – almost instantly – add, subtract, multiply, divide, and do percentages & indices in my head.
I’m afraid those days are no more. We’re traveling now with another couple who own a small retail business. I’m shocked how fast he is with numbers.
He’s my age, but spends a lot of his time working through prices, sales figures, mark-ups, discounts, profits, and taxes. He’s as fast as I probably once was, but am not any longer.
Now, if I need to do simple math for dividing a dinner bill, figure out an exchange rate, or convert km to miles per hour on the Autobahn, I reach for my phone. Siri gives me a quick answer, but not as quick as I used to be in my head.
They say, “what you don’t use, you lose”. That certainly seems to be the case with math on the fly for me. What everyday mental skills do seem to be losing in retirement?
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MrFireStation 
Chief, I don’t think slippage in Mathematics is attributable to growing older. Slippage in math ability is a function of practice, just like playing a sport or music. I remember when I first graduated from college and the aerospace company I was working for had a complex problem involving Calculus that needed to be solved. I solved it in a couple minutes and gained a reputation as a math wizard but was really just in practice. Today, it would take me weeks to solve this sort of problem because I would need to review.
However, areas of math that I am better at today than I would have been back in my twenties include dividend investing, household budgeting, taxes and scheduling. If I could travel back in time and teach my 20-year-old self this math, I would be ahead of where I am today. I cannot, but I can share this knowledge with my son’s.
Mathematics is tool and you use tools best if you use them all the time and are well practiced.
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I agree 100%. My buddy is the same age as me. Uses math all day long. My retirement has caused mathematical atrophy! 🙂
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