Jean M. La Rue is a mixed media artist, freelance writer, and creates original content daily for several Blogs. She is working on her first novel in the hard-boiled detective genre. The working title is "Rolling A Drunk".

Jean is a graduate of Washington State University with a B.S. in Criminal Justice. As a small business owner, she served local criminal defense attorneys as a contract legal investigator, researcher, and process server for more than a decade. Jean closed the business in 2002 to pursue her creative interests in art and writing.

She and her husband make their home on the Left Coast in the San Juan Islands of Washington State.

My passion is ...

travelling the world and making friends on the Internet.

I know too much about ...

the cubicled world of corporate America.

My parents always told me ...

"if you can't say something nice, say nothing at all."

My childhood ambition ...

was to become an animal vet.

My favorite memory ...

is holding my son for the very first time.

Why I write ...

to paint with words.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

blues and jazz.

My first job ...

was as a carhop at a drive-in restaurant.

My best moment ...

university graduation...with honors.

My inspiration ...

Kathryn Hepburn - what a classy dame she is!

Personal Finance > Retirement How to maximize your retirement income

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Finding real world advice on how to maximize our retirement income isn't easy. Too much of that advice begins with the false assumption that we have savings or investments that can boost our retirement income simply through better investment strategies. That sort of advice is useless for millions of retirees living from one social security check to the next and whose only real asset may be a mortgage-free home. The reality is, among older workers ages 55 to 64, three out of four live in households with retirement savings of zero to $56,000, according to a 2002 congressional study. For the v...

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