Supplementing Income for Senior Citizens - Part 1
In my introductory post titled Supplementing Income for Senior Citizens, I mentioned that there are any number of reasons why a senior might find that he or she may need to supplement their income. And while I don’t think the specific reasons are particularly relevant, I’d like to mention a few briefly, if only for the sake of reassuring those of us that may face financial shortcomings during our senior years, that we are not alone.
Even as I am entering the earliest of stages of SeniorhoodTM I am very aware of society’s expectations that when you reach a certain age — sixty-something is the current norm –your home and all other major debts should be paid in full, your wonderfully satisfying career is finally coming to an end, and your little pension account that you’ve been contributing to for all of those years is now fat enough to sustain you for the rest of your life.
So plump is that little pension account, that upon retirement you will be able to enjoy those wonderful golden years of reflection and leisure from the veranda of your new vacation beach house or amidst the colorful backdrop of the exotic places you will now get to travel. Life is sweet! Retirement is mucho sweet!
Just like a magazine’s depiction of the perfect body, we aren’t all a size 2. In fact, not that many of us are. In the same respect, we won’t all retire financially comfy. An affluent society such as the one we live in places so many shoulds on its seniors, that it becomes embarassing and yes, even depressing to be among those that are forced to abandon once enjoyed luxuries and even dreams of luxury to live a frugal lifestyle.
But let’s face it, things can happen in life that are sometimes out of our control, or sometimes we may have just made careless mistakes with our financial decisions throughout our working life. It is quite possible that for any number of reasons, good, hardworking seniors can easily find themselves in that very circumstance.
As we age, it is inevitable that we will all experience, to varying degrees, a decline in health. Experiencing a major health crisis can be devastating to a person’s finances. If a catastrophic illness should visit your household and you are underinsured, your hard-earned life savings can dwindle in a short amount of time. And sometimes it is not just about us. Sometimes we are called upon to help our children or other loved ones, which can put a significant strain on our budget.
Divorce, especially late in life, can very often force a person to re-enter the work force, often with limited employable skills. Making poor investment choices can deflate a retirement portfolio almost overnight. Economics is a complicated subject, and even those considered expert on the subject make wrong calls on occasion.
Sometimes the reason we find ourselves entering SeniorhoodTM without adequate savings is simply that we just never really counted on getting old, at least not quite that quickly. Through the years, it took everything made to provide a home, clothing, and food for our families. We meant to save money, but somehow expenses always creeped up, and we just couldn’t. And then the inevitable happens — we wake up. We’re older, nearing the “supposed” retirement age or even at it, and we just never got around to saving what we needed to save.
Whether you need to hustle up and start stashing away some money for the future or you just would like some extra spending money so you can enjoy an occasional luxury every now and then, you are probably going to have to seek some type of employment. That can be a frightening experience for the housewife who spent her career years away from traditional, paying work to tend to the family’s needs, or for someone who has occasional health issues that make it difficult to commit to a rigid work schedule.
It’s downright scarry to enter the job market surrounded by perky, educated, technically competent, and often arrogant young workers. I have felt this fear, too. And when I do, I think of a humorous line from the movie 48 Hrs., and I change the wording ever so slightly to, “Lack of pension makes you brave.” (If you saw the movie, you will probably get it. If you didn’t, you may not want to look for the original quote, because it might offend.) And if that doesn’t do the trick, then look closely at these youngsters that you find intimidating and do a mental age progression on them. Forget the underwear thing you learned in Speech 101. Splash a few liver spots on their forehead, droop their eyelids and add a few crows feet. Let Mother Nature’s gravitational wand do its dirty work. Feeling more confident now?!!!
Let me conclude this post by briefly summarizing — If you find yourself at any stage of SeniorhoodTM needing or even just wanting to supplement your income, you will need several things: a paying job, a sense of humor, courage, imagination, and a touch of self confidence. And for what it’s worth, remember, you are not alone!
