“Go read your books; someday you will be a teacher. I don’t want you be a pot-walloper like me, your mama.” Your words must have come from the eight year old child who, arriving in America, was put to work in a cigar factory, stripping stems out of the leaves. When you told us your job, we teased you--“Our mother was a stripper!”

You always demeaned yourself, though you were the finest baker, the best cook, the creator of dresses for me and suits for my three brothers. You knitted sw

I received a fun little comparison between 1965 and 2013 and wanted to share it with the Stage of Life community. If you're a Baby Boomer, you may get a kick out of this (or it'll depress you!)...

1965: Long hair
2013: Longing for hair

1965: KEG
2013: EKG

1965: Acid rock
2013: Acid reflux

1965: Moving to California because it's cool
2013: Moving to Arizona because it's warm

1965: Trying to look like Marlon Brando

A New Chapter: Surviving Retirement
By
Maddy Olson blogs on a variety of subjects that are deep topics and can change lives. Writing for Brookdale assisted living is a very rewarding passion she enjoys. Several losses in her family to Alzheimer’s Disease has prompted her write about the topics she has researched or practiced.
Some dread retirement, some look forward to it. There are ways to enjoy these later years, it ju

"These don’t match," said the Social Security clerk, comparing my birth certificate and my SS application, unamused at my response, "I wasn't born married."

Sometimes, I feel that is the case because life as I knew it is over. Now I belong to that vast sisterhood of unemployed ladies, dismissed from careers as wives, lovers, caregivers and caretakers. To keep busy, we are consummate volunteers, competent babysitters, and advice-givers to teenagers and young marrieds. We play canasta,

Empty nest and retirement is something that has never crossed my mind. I don’t have a “nest” to be emptied, and I have yet to begin my career.

I’m only twenty-two years old. Ask any person in their early to mid-twenties, and I bet they are less than stable. It’s the age of the quarter-life crisis! It exists, I swear! Wikipedia says that it can last until our early-thirties. We know so much, yet we don’t have a clue what’s going on. If most twenty-something year olds are like me, they

Granddaughter Elishe introduced me to Facebook, thus opening the email portal with former high school students, friends and relatives. The latest round of emails began with Elishe, announcing a pregnancy and describing the parent-teacher conferences in the school where she teaches in Jerusalem.

Then an email from Nephew Lee, the talented composer in Brooklyn, giving me access to his 7000 picture gallery and editing my family tree.

An email from Cousin Chuck in California

Recently, as my brother was taking his turn keeping vigil at our dad's bedside, the two of them relived many a coon hunt of his boyhood nights gone by. That's when he thought of a question he had always wanted to ask.

"It was so dark out there in the woods," he mused. "How did you always know exactly where we were?"

The faintest smile flickered across Dad's face as he held up a weak forefinger and answered, barely above a whisper, "One star."

Later, my brother

Dragons, it seems, are the ultimate evil. In fairy tales, when the hero slays the dragon, he is considered the bravest of the brave, he wins the treasure and the adulation of the townspeople, they throw a parade and he marries the princess. The dragon is his final obstacle between Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After.

If my life were a fairy tale, my dragon would be $100,000 in unsecured consumer debt.

Over 25 years of married life, Downtown Dad and I fully own the fac

I received a renewal notice for my Driver's License about two weeks ago and finally got around to taking care of it yesterday. My procrastination was brought on by a pre-determination that it was going to be terribly inconvenient. And it was. But not because the office was inefficient or that the lines were unbearably long - it was inconvenient because I failed to read my renewal notice carefully.

The last time I renewed my license, all I had to do was surrender the old license

Our neighborhood is not classified as a "retirement community," but it does have a higher than average number of retired couples living among the "still working folks." The community lures the newly retired with a variety of home choices ranging from condos to estate homes and with its proximity to fishing, golf, tennis, culture and great healthcare facilities. It has an active social climate that invites neighbors to participate weekly in both organized and private events. Parties are a re

She announced to the class that this would be her last year teaching as her face graced us with a smile. You could see the relief wash over her mind as a weight was lifted, as the words crossed over her lips and reality sank in.

My favorite professor leaving, after decades of putting up with tests, papers, excuses, and every other drama she dealt with outside of the classroom. I never experienced it firsthand, but I could imagine how stressful her job could be. I never asked, never w

We were finally going to do it.

After eight years of making do with the threadbare, dog and kid stained, lifeless green carpet (picked out by the previous owners) in our bedroom, Downtown Dad and I decided it was time to do something nice for ourselves for once, and replace it!

But – replacing flooring is never JUST the flooring. Pffft! If you replace the flooring, you MUST paint the walls, and if you paint the walls, you HAVE to repaint the ceiling, and once you’ve change

In September, I started teaching at the elementary school my four daughters attended when they were growing up. The opportunity presented itself and, being an empty nester with time on my hands, I jumped right on it. I have to say that, even before the most recent event, the thought of some psycho walking into the school with a gun had a place in the back of my mind. Following the Newtown incident, the thought has taken more of an up-front position. I also have to say that I have no idea what

What happens when you turn 55 years old, and have no money for retirement? Simple arithmetic shows you that it is impossible to save enough for a decent retirement with so little time left in your working career. But wait, the fear and misery gets worse. What if you are too old for the job market and find yourself jobless to boot? And to further compound the hopelessness, there is household debt to service. The author of "55 and Scared Sh*tless" found himself in that exact situation.

“I’m buying a bond because I don’t want to lose any of my principal!” Not great reasoning or logic and not exactly accurate.

An investor buys bonds (or bond funds) for many reasons but their investment objective(s) must drive that decision. The two primary reasons to invest in bonds (also called fixed income securities) are diversification and/or steady income. Although investment portfolios normally include a fixed income component, if either of these are not your investment prior