Lifetime Guarantee

I was talking with friends the other day and the subject of lifetime guarantees came up. We reminisced about when we first moved into our homes and hired contractors to do some home improvements. The concept of a thirty year guarantee on a roof or vinyl (aluminum in those days) siding was very important to us. We were young, married couples in our thirties and felt a sense of security knowing that our hard earned money would not be foolishly spent. It was a selling point. Thirty years later some of the original home improvements need to be updated. When contractors come for estimates and confidently say there is a thirty year guarantee, we laugh. We will be in our 90's in thirty years and if we need to put the guarantee into play, we will be hard pressed to even remember where the papers are.