Posted on 10/04/2022 7:22:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
One year into the pandemic lockdown, I retired from my job of 14 years as program coordinator and academic adviser at the University of New Mexico’s School of Engineering. I loved the work I did, but it was time to move on. I was in my early 60s, and being old enough to retire suddenly made that option more appealing. Finances would be a little tight for a while, but some outside projects would supplement my income, so I felt confident I would be able to handle it.
But by the end of the second year of lockdown, inflation started taking a toll and money was getting uncomfortably tight. Soon I was in the red each month, just trying to keep up. The usual suspects were groceries and gas, which meant cutting back on some of the more expensive food items and cooking meals at home.
I stopped driving for anything other than essentials. And with the continuing drought here in the Southwest, utility bills went through the ceiling. I cut back on watering my garden and turned the furnace down a few degrees in the winter and the air conditioning up a few in the summer. I switched to washing clothes mostly in cold water and only running the dishwasher once a week.
I also take care of my elderly mother, who lives alone, and we are both on fixed incomes. My freelance projects slowed down during lockdown, so my income did, too. The COLA (cost of living adjustment) for our Social Security benefits was very welcome, but it certainly didn’t cover price increases elsewhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Welcome to Biden’s utopia.
In 20 years, the story is going to be quaint compared to what’s coming. The future is really really horrible financially.
She likely voted for the pervert
People live to 90 now. Retire at 60 and you have plenty of time, but maybe not enough money. I intend to work until they have to pull the maggots from my carcass. I am 62 now, and I am not afraid of competition from 20 year olds...
Linda, are you now or have you ever been a member of the Democrat Party?
So many of those who quit their jobs and retired early because they didn’t want to deal with the BS of shot mandates and other nonsense are getting hosed anyway because of Brandon. It is depressing.
Good attitude. I think “retirement” for me will be work but with longer vacations.
joe screwed us all
Similar situation...after being retired for 7 months i got an offer to work part time in my field with a former supervisor that i had once enjoyed so much working with.
It gets me out, doing work i love..yet time for things i never had time for before. No pressure if i need less hours or decide to let the gig go.
Yes, my ideas of what’s important and what i need are different now.
So when was the last time you or any of your colleagues at UNM voted for a Republican? Elections have consequences and it is looking like you are living your choices. Good luck. Throw all your loral superiority into a pot, add some water, bring to a boil and you will have a delicious soup.
In the long run, the market always performs. I’m still working but could retire anytime. I’m happy with my work so I don’t feel need to quit now. My retirement accounts are down 20% since Biden, but I’m still buying in every paycheck. Buy low, ya know. The market will go back up, or society will completely collapse. In the latter case, money won’t matter anyway. The ability to hunt or farm will.
My wife and I both retired in 2020. They shut down the schools, and she was a paraprofessional. I could’ve worked, I WANTED to work at least two more years, but health issues caught up with me, and being 65, I figured it was time.
She didn’t go back. Working in a public school, she had had enough of the uppity kids, and the “ho” moms.
“so I felt confident I would be able to handle it ... But by the end of the second year of lockdown, inflation started taking a toll and money was getting uncomfortably tight.”
If you retire in your early 60s, think you will be OK and then only a year later are having money problems then you failed miserably to provide for your retirement.
This is why saving 10-20% or more of your paycheck throughout your career is critical to being able to retire without ending up like this poor guy.
“I’ve been very pleased with the legislation Congress has passed, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, because I know it will help our economy in the long run, especially lowering the cost of prescription medicine. But so far, I haven’t felt the benefits of it.”
LOL. Don’t hold your breath waiting for those “benefits”.
Look at that period of the Dow between 1965 and 1980, along with 2000-2010.
Flat.
Bidenomics snares another victim.
I went out in 2019. I had a decent retirement plan that would ensure (but not guarantee) solvency and a modest lifestyle for the foreseeable future. I guess I need glasses because I didn’t foresee how much carnage FU Biden and the left would do to us.
Now I gotta feeling I’m gonna be greeting Wally World customers til the day I die...
Good for u.. u seem to have found a nice balance.
and now, watching my dwindling retirement and seeing how our property taxes are thru the roof, I wish I just kept working til I dropped....
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