This article really hit home for me on many levels. If you need a kick in the butt to get serious about financial planning, this is it!
This article really hit home for me on many levels. If you need a kick in the butt to get serious about financial planning, this is it!


It's really scary to read that. Very important, though. That's the kind of stuff that everyone fears, that desperation. Unfortunately, there's a tendency to think, "that will not happen to me". It's the very time that we have the luxury of thinking that way, though, that we have the opportunity to prevent it.
Thanks for sharing that.




Great story. I was just looking into a Roth-IRA yesterday as well as CD laddering...
I worked with a lady during my bakery days who was ironically also 61 years old. She had zero retirement and was making less than $8 an hour in our bakery. She told me, "But I did get to travel a lot when I was younger. I've taken many amazing vacations." That was her justification... She told me she had five credit cards and couldn't pay the minimum on all of them... just a couple. All of her friends were rich, and yet she felt obligated to buy lunch or dinner for them all when her turn came around even though she couldn't afford it. About a year after I quit the job, I got a mass email from her that said that she had just been diagnosed with cancer, and as she had no health insurance, she was beginning the greatest and last battle of her life, as she had to figure out how to get medical care with no money.
All I can say is, if you don't take care of yourself, no one else will. It is your sole responsibility and no one else's.
This is sad. My best friend's mom is like this, and she's now forced to try and help her, while unable to pay her own bills. She's heading down the exact same road. Finances are more serious than most people are willing to admit, and only realize after it's way too late.
I believe you Dottie and you have my support
I know WAY too many older women like this. In part that's why I've become so crass about money- women are told that they're "golddiggers" & "greedy" if they seem over-interested in accruing assets, or not having children because they don't wish to assume the financial liability.
Often, overly sweet women end up where this woman is, destitute and literally dying from a lack of resources.
These are the things that make me feel fortunate for what I do.
"Have you ever been to American wedding? Where is the vodka, where's marinated herring?" - GB
"And do the cats give a shit? No, they do not. Why? Because they're cats."-from The Onion
Originally Posted by Mia M





that was pretty irritating. money doesn't buy security-- good life planning does. living in a community where people support each other means you don't need to have millions saved up or whatever to have an excellent quality of life. also, barter is pretty underrated in the modern world, yet i know people of all class levels who live like zillionaires strictly through the magic of barter.
that article just reminded me that money's not the only or even ideal form of currency in the world.
From my personal experience, there is no guarantee that people you assume with care for you in the event of catastrophe will be there for you. Myself and my cousin were taken in by people we didn't expect to care for us when we became seriously ill & unable to work. We both learned to distance ourselves from family and be "selfish" with our assets because we found out our families would not apply The Golden Rule to us.
Many parents dip into savings to help their kids get through university or bail them out if they have emergencies...Usually with no recompense. Many kids actually take advantage of their parents well past the age of 18.
I pray you never go through what I did to learn to be selfish for survival.





i tend to pray that others can have the type of life experience i had, where community support is something that people are encouraged to do and which they do, regardless of disagreements about belief systems.
this even extends to the interwebs-- i've helped and had help from people who had never even met me, just from community bonds developed over years online.
there are people who consistently tend to others (even when they don't like them) and do so from a larger sense of community.
the more that's reflected in my life, the less i worry about having ten million dollars in the bank or similar. and the more i hope others can have it too.



Maaan, that's rough. I feel terrible for people in those situations, but at the same time I'm just a-boggle at how some people apparently give nary a thought to their futures. In our profession especially, such people are fricken legion, and God forbid you suggest they rethink their financial attitude, it just... RAH, aggravates the hell outta me!
Granted I'm no Melonie, but I do know a couple things without anyone tellin me, like A) dancing is a golden opportunity, but a *finite* one, hence B) the money is best invested towards a permanent career instead of flashy purses/cars/ect. Fingers crossed for the girls that don't get it, and for the fatally unconcerned in general.
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