Who says lightning doesn't strike twice?
When I told friends that my retirement account was with AIG, they assured me I meant ING no matter how many times I told them no, it's AIG. You know: the company that the government had to bail out? The company whose executives came to the desert and spent half a mil in one weekend for a relaxing retreat? That's where my nice cushion of retirement funds used to be. Yeah, I still have an account there, but barely.
Who woulda thunk that this week it's the bank that houses my savings account that was closed by the government? Oh, sure, the funds are insured, but it does not instill confidence in an aging retiree to have two sources of retirement income go belly up. Another bank has bought them out, but what does that mean?
STRS continues to assure all retired teachers that our monthly checks will keep coming. Last time finances dimmed for the state, the Governator illegally seized STRS retirement funds to bail out the state and had to be sued to get the money back where it belonged. So far, he hasn't tried that trick again, but you never know what will happen when the bills come due and there's no money to pay them.
Had I known it was going to turn out this way, I woulda spent every damned dime myself on whatever I wanted -- and waltzed away from it all, just like all the other fine citizens are doing. NO, I have to be RESPONSIBLE. I don't want to be a BURDEN for my children in my old age. I had to SAVE FOR A RAINY DAY. Now that it's pouring buckets, I'm going to be lucky to afford a new umbrella.
What the hell was I thinking?
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1 comment:
I understand your frustration regarding responsibility. As you know I recently moved to Arizona with my family. Like idiots we put a large down payment on the new house.
The smart move would have been to spend the money on toys/vacations/cars so that I could be rewarded with better terms on my loan, maybe even some cash in the form of principle reduction. However, my parents raised me to be responsible, which the government now sees fit to punish.
Having your pension with STRS is much better than the millions of people with pensions through private companies like GM.
As a non-retiree, I'm having to deal with the big "L" word for the first time. We don't know when the pink slips will start in North America, but they've already started in Europe. Frankly, I'm not sure how I'll handle it.
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