It means that the nitpicking, planning, penny pinching behavior that preceded the loss was pointless Maybe the author is struggling with some sort of penny pin

It means that the nitpicking, planning, penny pinching behavior that preceded the loss was pointless Maybe the author is struggling with some sort of penny pinching behavior that preceded a life loss, but this is an incorrect conclusion. Sometimes life just happens. And it has nothing to do with the validity or value of your preceding actions, but it's certainly a commentary on the futility of many of our efforts. The author sounds like he needs a good wisdom walk down the book of Ecclesiastes: I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all."