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24508. Jenerator - 10/14/2008 3:29:05 AM VonKreedon,
I am LOVING the Pillars of Heaven! I am trying to find time to read more in each sitting. 24509. anomie - 10/14/2008 9:23:52 PM Glad you like it Jen. I'll save my comments til you're done. VK's recommendation of Iain Pears worked out. I've finished "The Immaculate Deception", a good fun mystery, and am saving "...Fingerpost" for a trip next month. 24510. thoughtful - 10/14/2008 10:00:58 PM "We need the gardening space now that this economy is tanking."
Precisely.
Return to the land.
Figure out how you're going to feed yourselves and your families! 24511. iiibbb - 10/15/2008 4:36:20 AM This election/economy crap is messing with my head. I need to quit going to so many news sites... and especially discussion sites.
I'll still hang out here... yutzes everywhere else. 24512. alistairConnor - 10/15/2008 8:16:08 AM I hear you iii...
Same for me, and I don't even have the excuse of being American. 24513. iiibbb - 10/15/2008 4:24:49 PM We're all linked AC. If it gets ugly here... it's going to get ugly everywhere. 24514. thoughtful - 10/15/2008 6:51:52 PM well the tanking of the stock market has significantly changed my plans for retirement...my new plans are now to work until I'm 85!
24515. wonkers2 - 10/15/2008 7:14:29 PM Me too! 24516. thoughtful - 10/15/2008 7:24:11 PM so much for worrying about the shrinkage of the american labor force as us baby boomers retire!
Watching the stock market, for some reason, that song from the poseidon adventure keeps going through my head: there's got to be a morning after.... 24517. iiibbb - 10/15/2008 9:01:14 PM However, working you til you die might save social security. 24518. thoughtful - 10/15/2008 9:24:49 PM social security ain't the issue, never was.
medicare/medicaid is the nut to crack.
24519. iiibbb - 10/15/2008 9:27:32 PM Too bad all the ice is melting... we could've just adopted the Inuit version of senior care.
j/k 24520. iiibbb - 10/15/2008 9:31:40 PM 24521. wonkers2 - 10/15/2008 11:16:36 PM Very true, Thoughtful. Except Medicare deductions from my SS check are growing. As you say, the problem is with Medicare, not SS. The other part of the problem is the disappearance of defined benefit pension plans and the low or (negative?) savings rate. I tell my kids that I'm able to survive in relative comfort because I have a pension, social security and a healthy (until last week) IRA converted from my 401k which I maxed out for 40 years. None of my three children has a pension. I tell them if they don't start saving more they'll end in a fourth floor slum tenement walk-up, sitting on a creaky bed with a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling, pee stains on their underwear and a bottle of Ripple on the floor.
Btw, I became a grandparent two days a go--it's a girl--Nora Elizabeth Wonkers. 24522. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/15/2008 11:38:20 PM Congrats Grandpa & Grandma!!!
24523. arkymalarky - 10/16/2008 2:24:38 AM Congrats Wonk!
I'll be 50 this summer and my house will be paid off in less than 8 years. Somewhere between my 50th birthday and my laat house payment I'm retiring. I could draw full benefits after this year. To be honest, I still love teaching and would continue indefinitely, but NCLB and ridiculous, useless stuff that has gone with it has about sucked all the fun out of teaching, and if that doesn't change I'm retiring sooner rather than later, no matter what.
Wonk, your situation sounds similar to my parents' and they've had a great retirement. At least up to now. 24524. Jenerator - 10/16/2008 2:33:38 AM Wonk,
I am so happy for you! You are going to be a wonderful grandpa. 24525. Jenerator - 10/16/2008 2:34:08 AM thoughtful,
my new plans are now to work until I'm 85!
Thanks to our retarded governor, I will be doing the same. 24526. arkymalarky - 10/16/2008 2:42:51 AM I'm not up on TX politics, Jen. Why is that? One reason I want to retire within the next five years is I'm afraid they'll change the rules on me. Another is concern over whether my school will be consolidated. If it is, I don't want to start somewhere else. 24527. Ms. No - 10/16/2008 4:02:11 AM Congrats Wonkers!!!
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