You’re looking in the mirror at 5:30 in the morning, you look at your hair and your beard and you see more salt than you see pepper. I shave, I take my shower, I do my morning routine. I pack my lunch and walk out the door with my hot tumbler of tea in hand. I go to the same job that I’ve held for 20 years. I like most of the people that I work with at my job. Many of them are fellow Navy veterans and we have a lot in common.
But there’s a weariness in everyone’s eyes that the caffeine can no longer mask. We live in the Pacific Northwest, in one of the most stunningly beautiful parts of the United States.
But it is horribly expensive, about 30% more expensive than it is in the Midwestern states.
My friend Jack has two federal pensions: One for the Navy and one as a federal police officer with the Department of Defense for another 20 years. On top of his Social Security he works a full-time job as well.
The powers that be in Washington DC scoff at the idea of there being an affordability crisis. I have friends in their 70s that cannot afford to retire fully even with Social Security and a federal pension.
During my last trip to New York. My friends had a gathering to celebrate my niece’s wedding. My friend Maria, who retired from the FAA after 30 years and became a financial planner, asked me, “What’s your financial retirement plan?” I replied,”I’m planning to have my retirement party and my Irish wake for the same day.” Unfortunately, I was not joking.
This is the unfortunate circumstances that many people reaching retirement age in the United States are currently facing. On one hand I enjoy working, the people that I work with, and the people that I meet on a daily basis are for the most part pleasant people, decent, and respectable.
I enjoy talking to younger people. Today I had a conversation with a young man who is considering trying to find an apprenticeship in one of the trades. I encouraged him, he said he was interested in learning the HVAC trade. I told him that’s a really good choice, I told him that you won’t be bogged down with student debt like I was, not paying it off till I was 58 years old. I only used my degree for a decade, then 9/11 happened.
I enlisted in the Navy. I worked as an aircraft mechanic with the military then got out and was lucky enough to find a job with good benefits and a generous vacation package.
But the cruel facts of the matter are that without working at least part time I do not see a way to retire. Which on one hand, I do not know how that would work for me if I live into my ’80s or beyond. In my first marriage my ex-wife embezzled from our finances and left me with basically the clothes on my back and a 1993 Saturn. In my second relationship which was a common law marriage, I supported my partner and her five children while she finished up her bachelor’s degree and her master’s degree.
So I didn’t save a whole lot of money and while that relationship ended amicably again I was back to where I was before, dead broke and without a whole lot of options at 55. So here I am at 61 years old. I don’t have a lot of options ahead of me. The prospect of reinventing myself again is a fairly bleak proposal.
The only pragmatic plan that I can formulate at this time is to play the cards that I have at the moment. I’m in generally good health, with the exception of my manageable diabetes. My options are when I retire in 5 and 1/2 years that I stay employed where I’m at or find a part-time job doing something that I enjoy and would seem more like leisure than work. I don’t see the economy getting better, especially for senior citizens or working class people.
I will continue to take care of my health, try and keep a positive attitude, and continue to do the things that I enjoy till I am no longer able to do those things. But the prospects beyond that at this point seemed kind of bleak to me. I have seen friends and acquaintances of mine who have been at that tipping point and it did not bode well for them. Getting older is not for wimps, it takes a lot of fortitude, and planning that many of us are not as adept as we would like to be.
But here we are in the autumn of our years and winter’s approaching faster than we planned. It’s time to invest in a good snow shovel.
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