Rant #3,974: Money Changes Everything

Well, nothing new to report on any front today.

I guess we area all gearing up for the Fourth of July festivities, so everything was pretty calm in my neck of the woods.

And yes, I am still working, still toiling away--

And yes, I just want to be fully retired.

Another friend of mine told me that right after his birthday on June 29, he was retiring the very next day on June 30.

He put in his time, and now his time is his own.

Me ...

I will be working, and working. myself into the grave.

I feel bad on harping on this so much, but with so many people around me retiring, I guess it makes myself somewhat jealous that I can't do the same.

I am beyond help, but I am trying to make it better for my son.

My son is 30 going on 31, and I have told his job coach that I want him to look into the possibility of my son getting a 401k plan from his place of work.

I was fouled up by the places that I worked at over 40-plus years.

None of them were a union shop, and none of them offered a 401k plan--

Until the last stop in my full-time work career, and they didn't offer it until I had worked there for years and I was in my 50s.

That was great, I paid into it at the highest rate that I could, and everything was fine and dandy--

Until the company teetered, and then several years into the plan, they stopped it.

So I poured everything into IRAs--don't get me started on telling you how my work gave me nothing but trouble about transferring the money over the right way--and then, when the company folded in October 2019, I put it all into the stock market, where it resides today.

And it has been a bumpy ride.

Having Medicare means that you really have to be as healthy as you can, because the plans we have had have pretty much been good.

But once your health falters, like mine did, you are really up the creek without a paddle, because Medicare pays for some things, but others ...

Fuggedaboudit!

So I have had to go into my money twice to cover those costs, and I would not be at all surprised if I have to go into that money again--

And again.

I have nowhere else to turn.

So my thinking is that if I can start my son off in his early 30s with a 401K plan, then maybe, when he gets to my age, he won't have to suffer like I am, and he can retire when he wants to retire.

He had a 401K plan at his previous job, but he had to put it into an IRA when he was hired at his current job--

I won't go into the whys and wherefores of that, as I have done that previously here at the Blog, and how he really go screwed for having to do so.

Anyway, start him now--even though he is a part-timer--and see where it takes him.

You have to learn from your mistakes, although with me, personally, I really didn't make any regarding this subject--

I guess you could say that I picked the wrong places to work, but beggars can't be choosers, and yes, being out of work a few times in my life kind of makes you into something of a beggar.

So I can at least give my son some wisdom from what I have gone through, and see if we can make things right for him 30 or more years away when he is going to have to contemplate retirement.

It's the least I can do for him.

Let's see what the job coach tells me.

I am hoping it all makes dollars and cents.