My mother said her seventies was her favorite decade. I hope that works out for me, too, because my sixties are starting out a little bit rocky. What is going on with me? Mid-life crisis a couple of decades late, or what?
Financial worries abound. The media hammers the plight of baby boomers who are retiring and don’t have enough money. Social Security is going to go broke. My husband and I have lived comfortably, invested, and not squandered money, but my brain goes into panic mode when I look ahead. Our investment advisor says we’re going to be OK, but I worry. Too much. What does OK mean? Beans and cornbread? Walking to the store because we don’t have gas money?
Then there’s health and healthcare. My husband is ten years older than I am. He had a kidney transplant in 1994, one heart attack about five years ago, and multiple bone breaking injuries three years ago. I have issues with anxiety and depression. Try getting healthcare now that “Affordable Care” is the new reality. You can get on a waiting list for a doctor’s appointment IF the doctor takes your insurance, or you can go to the ER and sit for hours. Or just be sick.
What to do after retirement is a strange dilemma. I’ve taught in public schools, done bookkeeping, made quilts, had dairy goats, painted water color and acrylic paintings, built things, and had rental properties with all their attendant remodeling, painting, and dealing with tenants. Name something. I’ve been there, done that. I don’t KNOW what I want to do next.
Yes, I know I’m looking at all this from a negative point of view. In the past, I had a plan. Somewhere inside me is a plan and the hope that I’ll start making my sixties a good decade in preparation for my seventies.
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