Living in the Light VII

[AndrewP]

The bigger problem I see is people who just didn't plan ahead at all.

Based on my limited experience I would tend to agree with this. My xW will undoubtedly face difficulties once the support payments end. She had little in the way of retirement savings. Now, she is capable of squeezing together two nickels and getting a quarter but yes, prefers to live with more than that. OM - and this is pure speculation - retired from his business, sold his house and moved in with her into a very small place where both of them are still driving the same vehicles they were when they met and certainly not going on the trips that my xW certainly insisted on or the new cars she expected.

"S" - well - that's perhaps a special case of someone living off of child support again with absent money management skills and certainly no retirement savings. When we met her longer term plan was to move in with her oldest daughter. She had no concept of saving for the future, only spending whatever was to hand.

"B" - she was a SAHM whose husband took early retirement from a well paid job with a good pension which would have been reduced substantially by taking it early. They spent their money on a house on the lake, boats, toys etc to the point where she had to take a job working retail to cover daily expenses.

I'm sure these are not unique tales at all. None of us came into this expecting to be without a partner. It's said that many marriages break down because of money issues so those who are single later in life could perhaps be representative of poor choices in all sorts of facets of their lives.