We are not retired yet. My husband will retire in Dec. and I will in 1 more year. We will rely on Social Security and our Ira. We started putting money into an IRA in our twenties, when they first began. Back then we were getting 12% interest hard to believe. We were young didn’t have much money, saved as much as we could at 12% interest. Over the years the interest rate went down down down to where we are now at 2.9%. After our children finished college interest rates were at 5%. With the money we had at that time we thought we could retire at 62 live off the 5% interest in the IRA plus SS. We also thought during the span from when our children finished college to retirement we would be able to save at least as much if not more than the yearly amount we had in the past. Then the recession hit my husbands business and the interest rates went down down down. Income went down, insurances went up, gas went up. The amount we were able to put into our IRA savings went down and down and last year there wasn’t any extra income in fact we had to take money out of savings. Even when you plan and think you are doing ok you never have control over everything. Our house was paid off but the equity that was our security blanket ( always thought we could sell the house in retirement if we ran out of money) dwindled. . So we will retire on our IRA and social security and it is worrisome. We are still hoping that most of our expenses will be covered by our SS and the interest on the IRA. We estimate how much we can take out each year for expenses if we had to with the expectations of living another 25 years before running out of money. You can plan but you never know what can wipe your savings out. Retirement isn’t what we thought it would be but we are still looking forward to it (more time with grandbabies) . In fact in many ways we feel we are lucky compared to others in our industry. We know people hurt by this recession who have lost their houses, they can’t send their children to college, haven’t been able to save for retirement, have no savings or lost savings, couldn’t afford health insurance and have to pay off medical bills. Others who may have to find new careers at 50+ years old. We were lucky enough to have some savings, an IRA, a house paid for, children’s college paid for and close enough to retirement to not have to start over again.

My dad had a pension. He was a Union worker along with my mom ( sweat shop worker). He started working in a dye house at 16, built planes, was a furrier and a business owner He often held two or three jobs at a time. He worked hard but he loved work. He retired with 3 pensions and a pension from my mom’s job she died at 61. At 64 years old the business he worked for closed down (moved overseas). He walked into a dye house and got a job on the spot even though he hadn’t worked in a dye house for decades.. He was paid enough money to pay his bills until he retired 3 years later. He lived a good retirement life on social security and his pension. Although the pension never increased over the years his social security and his pensions gave him enough money to pay his bills and still have money left over at the end of the month to save. It was his security. He knew every month that money would be coming no matter what. He knew his everyday bills would be paid. His savings he accumulated in life were for extra good times and emergencies. If he lost all his savings he knew he still had social security and a pension to pay all his bills. He lived to 88.

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