by Marquita Wanslow

Created on: August 17, 2010

RETIREMENT

 When I quit working, I had six years until my husband retired. The first part of my retirement, I did voluntary work, and took care of my twin granddaughters. The time I spent doing these things was very satisfying to me.

My Mother died suddenly of a heart attack, and I brought my Dad who was 84 and in failing health home with my husband and I. We fixed up our second bedroom as a nursing room for him and with Hospice, we did home health care until he passed away six months later.

This period of time with my Dad was very special to both my husband and me. My Dad had given a great deal of himself to helping us when we were young and raising our children. The first thing after we got him settled, we got a wheel chair for him. At the time he did not want the chair, saying “I don't want anyone to see me in that thing.” I said "Daddy, who do you know up here?" If we get the chair it will make it easier on me to get you around and we can even do some fun things. We did a lot of fun things. He loved to look at the wildflowers, and the landscaping in the town. One day he said “Sister how did we live in that desert so long when this pretty place was here all the time.” He was a great story teller, and he would tell his son and my son about me taking him in the chair and all we did and how much fun he had. We are so thankful we had this time with him to help him with his grieving for my Mother and with his health. God was good to let us have this final time of forgiving and loving each other.

After he died, I decided that I needed to start planning seriously for our retirement. The most important thing I did was to start banking on-line so I could handle our monies in a more competent way. I opened a savings and a regular account for the on-line banking accounts I was going to use. I called the credit card companies that we were using and asked them to reduce our interest rates, and they did. I immediately started paying off the largest account by making as big a payment as possible. I did each card this way until they were all paid off and then I shredded them and called the companies and told them to close the accounts. We paid off the loan on our house. We then had the entire inside of the house painted and redone. We put new siding on the outside of the house. When I got some money ahead, I had new fencing put up around our front and back yard. I again saved and started landscaping our yards a little at a time. I then extended

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>