Have You Calculated How Much You Will Need for Retirement?

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I am 59 years of age and have already had to retire from my career ( PhD and state licensed Professional) and am living in a nursing home already. Oh yes they call it a retirement community. But to me, when the average resident is 82 and we just line up our walkers along the wall in the dining room at meals, this is a nursing home. But it is a very good one! And understand me please, I know that this is where I belong. When I was in the hospital a few surgeries ago, I received a letter from one of the senior members of our group, that with my problems, I no longer fit into the image of the group. They had packed up all my books and personal items and my husband could "pick them up this week-end, please". So I guess I this is what you would call my "retirement"! That was a few years ago. It was when I received a phone call from a man presenting himself as the husband of the woman my husband was having an affair with that I realized just how difficult this retirement could become financially, I had no idea where to begin to attempt to stabilize a single life unable to work and with no ideas about how to even access whatever retirement funds we might have!
Physically I was quite aware that I was no longer able to work and support myself.
Someone said to apply for SS Disability. Others said that took four or five repeat applications to get them to listen to you at all. Oh well I was seeing at least 6 different Drs so I asked each of them for a letter to give to Social Security. Their letters must have been persuasive, because I got my answer back on the first application: "Permanently and totally disabled". Maybe I was in worse shape than I thought! Hey and Social Security is talking about Medicare coverage.
I am entering a whole new world! This while my husband continues to live in what once was OUR million-dollar mansion. And of course he was still driving his fancy collector cars. His life was going on unchanged while mine had been turned upside down! Try that for a retirement story! Totally unexpected and left out in the cold on welfare with no one willing to give me a job after having been "dumped" by my old partners. And now thrown out of the house and expected to survive on my own with little to no savings, checking, IRAs or any other form of financial "planning for my retirement". Comments?

SandraK of TX 6:41PM May 03, 2008

Unions are the problem with this country. I work for a company in a large company
that is industrial and has to use union workers for labor. pipefitters, teamsters, boilermakers, insulators, etc. Most of them are lazy! They will slow jobs down, sabotage things and just generally bitch, moan, complain; "that is not my job". Wait until the union runs off with your retirement money, they control it. Union made everything un-affordable and ran manufacturing to China!

of NJ 1:26PM April 25, 2008

I was suprized as I read your article on retirement that you did not mention any lifetime of 'union' retirement? I retired at age 55 from a 33 year 'teamster union' retirement account of @ $4000 a month. (my wife draws @ $3500 teamster $$) Now that both my wife and I are just past 62, we are drawing another @$ 3200 from our s.s.a. accounts. If you stick with a union you can have this kind of a retirement nest egg also mabey even more as some union accounts now pay even more in to them than we did when we worked. All the more reason to work 'UNION" if you can.Have a great retirement!!!!...........Dave & Kathy Anderson, Spirit Lake Idaho U.S.A.

Dave Anderson of ID 10:37AM April 21, 2008

My biggest challenge in estimating a retirement budget is estimating future health costs. Will the rapid growth of health costs continue? At what rate of growth?

Sam of CA 10:52AM April 15, 2008