Ever misjudge how much time you had left on something?

[Giuseppe Cavucci]

Had a water heater I figured was good for another 3-4 years based on when I thought it was installed. Pulled the sticker during an unrelated repair last month and found out it was actually 2 years older than I'd been assuming. Not a huge gap, but enough that "plenty of time" was actually "should probably plan for this soon."

Made me realize I'd been going off memory instead of an actual date for longer than I want to admit. Memory rounds down without you noticing, especially once you've got more than one property and things start blending together.

Curious if anyone else has caught themselves misjudging a system's age like this, and whether it changed how you track that stuff going forward, or if you were already logging exact dates before it bit you?

[Richard F.]

As we age, the first two things to go are...memory, and, uh, gee, I can't remember the other thing...

You need a system, for everything, and a place to document, everything. It can be simple, or it can be complex, but most of all YOU must be disciplined and consistent in how you document, how/when you file it properly.