Why More Americans Are Working Past Age 55

That was the title of a recent article in Charles Schwab’s investment magazine, which the company sends out to its investors. They could’ve changed the age to 62 or 65. The answer would be the same, but it took them more than 200 words to say medical insurance costs are outrageously high even if you’re old enough to be covered by Medicare.

And the article also noted:

“Many older workers saw their retirement portfolios balloon during the late 1990s bull market and opted to retire early. However the bursting of the technology-fueled bubble and the resulting bear market between 2000 and 2002 dramatically devalued those new retirees’ portfolios. Subsequently, some Americans who had taken early retirement found they had to return to work.”

There was no mention of the fact that even with the new drug plans, retirees still can’t afford to buy all the drugs they need.

And think about this–many senior citizens didn’t save a dime while they were younger. So, the answer to the question, why are they still working? They have to!

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New Year’s Resolutions and Non-Resolutions

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I don’t do it anymore–make New Year’s Resolutions, that is. After 60+ years, I know better.

Evidently, I’m in good company. Mark Twain wasn’t too keen on New Year’s Resolutions, either.

 …Mark Twain has written of New Year’s Resolutions, “Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever.” read full post here

But there is one thing I do each year. I pull out the books I’ve been journaling in for over thirty years, and I reread some of my favorite sayings collected over the years.

Some of them mean something totally different to me now then they did twenty or thirty years ago when I first wrote them. Take for instance this one by Eleanor Roosevelt, No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

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