THE PROBLEM WITH DAILY LIFE AND RETIREMENT CHAPTER ONE
The topic that I planned to cover in this article was the progress that I had made researching various types of retirement tools that are available when you want to start figuring out the steps you should take toward eating something other than cat-food in your retirement. (This, by the way, is the main reason that I have been driven to look into the topic. I'm not sure where the idea came from - that I should fear so much for my financial well-being. My sisters grew up in the same household and neither seems fixated on dinners of mackerel in a can. Perhaps this explains the number of felines that I have drawn into my life - maybe I expect to learn something from them about "haute cuisine a la tin-can.")

At any rate, I made some progress - identifying the source of many such "helpful" analytic conveniences as folks who want to sell you a lot of stuff for retirement. Some, however, are on our side for other reasons (read that to mean they will sell us other stuff at some other time probably.) The earliest one that I found and used was from AARP. It was sobering to go through their steps even with guesses about how much I would need on a monthly basis and actual information from our buddies at the Social Security office about how generous they would be. The sobering part was how much I would need to earn monthly after I retired. Are you now asking, "... wait, doesn't retirement suggest the lack of working?" Same mistake I made. That is what is important about this exercise. It puts that ugly little reality spin on everything.

However, the real point I wanted to make here is that instead of having all of that research information to write about, I let daily life get in the way ... again. Work and the continuing saga of my adventure into "downsizing" (oh yes - that is another subject I know way too well!) both established a beachhead on my attention and the focus somehow shifted. However, I have learned not to get overly dramatic about such things. After all, that's what got me here in the first place ... letting daily life get in the way of living.

So, the process will continue and - when daily life does not intrude, I'll share what I have found.

Learn more about this author, Sue Black.
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