When I was a child, I don’t like to say I was poor. I was definitely from what you would call a, “working class,” family. Yet, I think that most people, in our current socioeconomic atmosphere, would equate that term with poor. In the 1980s, I grew in the era of Ronald Reagan, trickle-down economics, and the economic insecurities of
It’s not easy getting older in America. I am really not looking forward to it. Currently, I am in a period of my life where I am no longer young enough to naively believe that I will be young forever. I am entering middle age. And, worrying profusely about saving enough money so that I can exist comfortably when
I have been on several hours-long cruises in my lifetime. In several countries. I have never seen the appeal in spending days or weeks in a floating city on the uncertain sea. For one thing, there are too just many factors out of the control of the passenger. You are basically surviving on the good graces of the ship’s captain,
In college, I was part of a collective of artists who loved music. I had aspirations to become a music artist. However, at that time of my life, I only thought about creating the music, not about how I would make money from it. Art is all well and good, but even a museum has bills! If you are in
About 15 years ago, when I worked in academia, the payroll office accidentally double deposited my regular paycheck. For a reason that I still don’t understand to this day. I remember standing at the ATM, like a character in one of those bad independent films, trying to understand the meaning of it all. “What should I do?” I thought to
I have a friend who is being forced into phased retirement – which is kind of a slow-motion retirement. He has reduced working hours and pay. Although he may be able to draw a portion of his retirement funds early, he is quite depressed about it. For one thing, he feels he has more worth as an employee since he wasn’t fired or made to fully retire.
