Whenever I think about elderly women, of course my grandmother comes to mind. She and I were very close. I remember going up to stay with her from time to time, often for five days or a week, and enjoyed her simple, laid-back lifestyle. She canned, she gardened, she did crossword puzzles, she wrote in her journal—and she always had a cookie jar full of various home-baked treats for her grandchildren.
It wasn’t until I was in my mid-teens that I realized something: Grandma didn’t have a lot of money. It wasn’t something that had ever been an issue, so it never crossed my mind, but as I think about it, she was very frugal with her money. She rarely went out to movies or to lunch with friends, instead preferring to spend her time at home. If I went to a store with her, she only bought the necessities, although sometimes she’d throw in a little something for me, and one time, she took me to the nearby bookstore for a book—hey, books are necessities, right?
She got along well on her limited income, but the sad thing is that many elderly ladies are in the same situation, and many of them aren’t able to live on the small amount they have. Women live longer than men, and whatever money they have saved must last them longer than it would their male counterparts. If they are living off a retirement savings put in place by their husbands, they might actually be a little better off, as men make more money per year than women, and should be able to tuck more away for later. Additionally, fewer women in the work force are offered pensions, making their retirement more difficult as well.
You might not be thinking about retirement right now, although, I hope you are. It might be fifteen, twenty, or thirty years off for you, but you can start planning for it now by tucking away a percentage of your earnings into your savings. I’m not entirely convinced that 401(k) funds are all they’re cracked up to be, to be honest, and I’m of the mindset that money in hand, where you can see it, is a good thing.
If you can start your retirement savings right now, instead of waiting until that event is just around the corner, you will find yourself much better prepared to face your golden years without fear, and knowing that you will be able to take care of your finances even though the cash flow has long since ceased.
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