Retirement 101-2

Angela said...Why not approach it with excitement rather than with fear.
That is a great question !

The simple answer is " It's all about the money.

We are programed from early on to plan and save for retirement. Our goal is to build a nest egg. Most people are unable to save. Some people are unable to buy a home and have it paid for by this time in life. Some are forced into early retirement. And are not prepared to have to live on any where from $600- 1400 a month. for example our house payment in St Louis was over $800 a month. Where most 3 bedroom homes in the area rented for over $1000.00 a month. Home tax's were $1400.00 a year. there is car insurance. medical insurance or bills. utility's. food. our total cost per a month was near $2000.00 a month to live in our old home.

Where now this house is paid for and tax is only $240.00 a year for near the same square foot home. And a 1/4 acre less yard. Sales tax is higher here. But personal property tax is lower. After medical cost are paid we have a little over $800.00 a month to live on. So you see if we were still in St. Louis we could not even make our house payment.

The question how do we survive on so much less income is the biggest fear of retirement.
In the past family's were still on family land and grew or hunted food. The grocery store replaced this for most people. And we are a spoiled nation. We use to much credit to buy things we want. And do not really need. So we spend most of our life paying off loans and credit cards. This prevents saving.

Another fear is the reality of getting older. We do not want to give up our life as it is. Hubby did not want to accept the fact he is not able to do his job any more. This hurts the ego. And made him feel like a failure. This starts depression.

Some people like my parents were lucky to get a pension along with Social security. At first is was not easy they had to pay allot to keep there medical insurance. Then time wise 1 year to 18 month later Medicare was available to them at a bit less money. So now they live comfortable. When there home is paid off. They then will have no worries.

We also had 2 cars. Now we have just 1. So car insurance is reduced. Once you make a budget and stick to it you can survive on retirement.

But I have not met any one yet who plans for happiness.
I know there are many living there retirement well.

It is a mind set. you have to plan for it.
Know in your heart this will be a time of doing things you enjoy. Spending quality time with your spouse, family and friends.

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.

Retirement 101

Note : This story will have a happy ending. But the story may never end , as I am still living the life of retirement.

Today I was talking to a close friend about there fear of retirement. The choices to be made. The worry of will we make it. Or should you keep trying to work. She motivated me to start writing again.
So maybe I can share there is nothing to fear. Things will work out. This is just the next chapter of your life. And it is not the end of it.

It is the beginning of what we all worked all of our life for.
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Retirement has changed from the good life, to what is now the how do we make it life. We work all of our life now, planning and saving. That is how 401k came about. company's played on our fear of social security not being there any more. or it was far from enough for us to live out the rest of our life on. Some people are lucky to have a pension paid by there work. Some people like me and my hubby do not have any thing but social security. His health forced us into early retirement. Which was devastation for us. As we had to sell our home and every thing we had of value to make it more than a year with no income. We had to find free clinics to get prescriptions for hubby's medicine . We paid the price for the med's at the pharmacy. There was no hope for me till I was able to find a doctor that would give me samples as my medication because it was over $100.00 a month.

Now to get to the point of my story. Why am I writing this and sharing it with you.

Well to begin with your life story is different than mine. You will see that you should not pre-worry about what has not happened yet. Or feel secure that you have nothing at all to worry about. Or I so hope you do not go through what I did. And allow this time in your live distroy you mentaly.
I did the last statement. I broke down mentally and hurt my self. Because I did not know all this is temporary. I did not plan for happiness. I planned for failure. So in my mind I failed.


But in reality I should have planed for good things, like in the old days. The picture of retirement was lazy days at the fishing hole. A life of travel in there RV. Days on end of sun shine. Growing closer to your spouse. Live one day at a time with joy, love and happiness. knowing all you need in life is your loved ones. Having a roof of any kind over your head. And enough food to sustain you both.
This in it's self is success. Having your health is the ultimate achievement. Not many have this. But you can work on it and allow retirement to heal you. As there is no longer the pressure of working 40 hours or more a week for that pay check.

I will continue with this story. but for now this is page one of ? on my lessons to help You plan for the best retirement possible.

Have a wonderful day and remember to laugh and play.