I thought days would slow down some once I retired, but it doesn’t seem to be how it’s working out. The truth is, the days seem to whiz on by – maybe even a little faster than they used to during my younger years. Only one thing seems to have remained the same over the years, I’m still waiting for the changes needed to make stretching my budget easier, but that isn’t happening either.
I remember my earlier days, just after I passed my driver’s license test and bought my first car, when I looked forward to getting a few years older so the cost of insuring my car would go down. That didn’t seem to happen because the cost to insure my cars kept rising – maybe there was a discount when I reached the ripe old age of 25, but that was a long time ago, and I don’t remember anymore.
I also remember that during my earlier years, I was told things would get easier, the older I got, but what I recall is every time it seemed I was getting close to getting a break, prices started rising – most times faster than my income – and I was still fighting the same battle, only with bigger numbers.
One constant I’ve noticed is the cost of living always seemed to be higher than the salary increases I received. It was never easy to build the savings account my parents told me I would need “for emergencies”. Those emergencies always seemed to come along at the wrong times and required me to use what savings I could put into bank accounts, only to start trying to save all over again.
I started working before I was 12 years old. At first, I was mowing lawns. A couple of those were so big it took over two hours to mow one lawn, but I was pretty happy when I was handed that five-dollar bill. It meant I could stop at the grocery store to buy a candy bar and bottle of pop (it’s called soda in the South), and still have some money left over to go to a movie (the first movies I went to cost a quarter) and I could put the rest into that savings account I was told I needed.
Once I started driving I delivered Sunday newspapers and a few years later I started bartending to supplement the income I made at my regular jobs – still trying to save what I could and keep up with those emergencies that kept popping up over and over.
I admit, I started looking forward to the day I could retire and not have to go to work every day, but once that day came I found myself feeling like I still needed to do some type of work to supplement my fixed income and feel like I was using my time wisely – but as time goes by I’m getting over those feelings and I’m starting to find ways to enjoy not having to work.
I’m still waiting for that break that will make it easier to budget my finances, but when I walk down the aisle of the grocery stores, especially the meat aisle, that break feels farther away than it ever has.
Oh well, maybe something will change soon.
Have A Good Week!
