The Yummies, Yucks and Surprises of Financing Your Old Age

by Roberta Ness

A Recipe for Retirement pt.1

Welcome back to our corner booth, dear. This dark roast coffee will jolt us from the existential to the essential. Today starts a series in which I’ll share my research-based cookbook of practical recipes for planning your financial future after 65 and beyond - the many things I’ve learned and wish I’d known before David died. First up: the essential ingredient to living well in your older years – saving into Social Security.

The recipe for avoiding destitution.

As a 65+ year-old woman, I can expect to live another 20 years or more. In fact, my accountant says I should plan my finances to take me to 100! Whether that’s good or bad (I haven’t decided), it means I’ve got to have enough money to live another third of my life. Fortunately, I have Social Security (SS), a financial safety net, which, enacted in 1935 by FDR, lifted most elders out of homelessness…