Newest Blog Entries RSS

When I divorced, my financial advisor urged me to use my debit card for all purchases so I would never charge or overspend. The goal was to rebuild my nest egg. More than 13 years later, the habit has stuck to me like a post-it note. It’s a constant reminder not to carry real cash that just takes up room in my wallet.  However, on days when I have a few loose dollars, I find it hard to resist buying a lotto ticket or two—for which you have to pay cash. What the heck. The thought of winning boosts my...

Now that I am single, I can live anywhere; I have global carte blanche. But this begs the question: Do I stay or do I go? I’ve lived in the Midwest (St. Louis with a five-year stint in Chicago) most of my life. I still have a son living here and a great support network of friends and family. But two of my children live out of town---one on the East coast and the other on the West coast--and two of my siblings live in the East, too.  After my husband died in 2011, it took me more than two...

This is the conversation that seems to occur like clockwork when someone new asks how I--a native, suburban New York gal who went to college and grad school in New York City but raised my two daughters in the Midwest--ended up in the Hudson River Valley, farm country two hours north.  How did I? Well, there was a slight detour, I always reply. After moving to the Midwest nine years after I married, I, the proverbial New Yorker who viewed its overblown importance in a similar way to how artist Saul Steinberg did in his famous New Yorker cartoon, came...

The desire to own fewer things in our lives can be seen with the current decline in luxury spending or spending in general, and the cult success of listening to the decluttering superstar author Marie Kondo. Whether we buy fewer possessions or just bid thanks and adieu to things we already own that fail to spark continued joy in our lives, all signs point to the fact that for many of us aged 50 plus, it’s time to move on--and with far fewer things.  As we shed our stuff after each of us lost our spouses, both of us had...

Every experience, good and bad, teaches us how to live our life going forward regardless of age. My terrible slip on ice and the breaking of two bones in my arm and wrist has certainly provided a good supply of life lessons--and this time past age 67. I hope you never need these but just in case here are 14 that stand out boldly:  Walk carefully, always, but also look down to check out the ground, whether rough pavement or snow and if ice lurks beneath be extra careful. Wear the right shoes for the conditions. I am now getting...