Older Drivers—When Is It Time to Give Up the Keys?

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A guest post by E. Donnelly

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An article from 2012 came to mind recently: a 100-year-old driver hit 11 people in Los Angeles. As I read through the details again it made me cringe as I have an elderly father and his driving is worrisome. These days, my dad lives with my wife and me (Mom died some time ago), and is well into his senior years. His eyesight is not what it used to be. His reflexes are slower.

It fills me with dread to think of what might happen if he ever got into a car crash. But being the old block of which I am a chip, he is adamant. He calls it “payback” for all the times I snuck the car out in my teenage years (and did some damage, too). All of this got me thinking. Should there be an upper age limit on driving? More importantly, can there come a time when old people just know that they have to let go? Continue reading →

Later Living Reflected in a Single Hour

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Xmas C_060

I met a woman yesterday, yet I feel I’ve known her most of my life. Brigid never left her home area of Glenmore, Ireland and I’ve never been there. We met through William Trevor, her creator, in his short story, The Dancing-Master’s Music.

Trevor’s characters reveal themselves in traits so vivid yet common that we’re forced to compare them with people we know. ‘This guy is just like Pete from work,’ we might think. Or we may feel that we want to meet and talk with them. His people seduce us into their lives.

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Alone for a Week in Retirement

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Country living for a retired man

Country living for a retired man

Barbara is on vacation. She went exploring along the northern California coast with two friends she has known for decades. She has been having a wonderful time, including taking a close photo of a bear near a cabin. When we talked on the phone, she was as excited about the bear as you might imagine a twelve-year-old girl scout.

I have been alone with Cicero and the rain. Since Barbara has been away, it has rained everyday. The woods, bushes and grass are growing fast enough to watch.

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An Ancient Guide to Aging—Part Two: Sensual Pleasure and Death

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Cicero, sensual pleasures and death

Cicero, sensual pleasures and death

Last week I wrote a post on Cicero’s first two points about old age. You may remember that he wrote an essay, On Old Age, when he was 62.

Most of his essay is given to discussion of four reasons for unhappiness in old age. Cicero refutes the notion that old age is necessarily unhappy by offering prescriptions for its common complaints. His first two arguments counter the charges that old age withdraws us from active employments, and that old age takes our bodily strength. His last two deal with sensual pleasures and death.

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An Ancient Guide to Aging Well

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Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero, born into an aristocratic Roman family in 106 BC, was one of Rome’s leading philosophers, lawyers, and orators. At age 62, a year before his brutal death at the hands of Mark Anthony’s minions, he wrote an essay, On Old Age. Written without knowledge of Buddhism, before Christianity, and centuries before modern science, his essay is surprisingly relevant today.

The essay takes the form of a dialogue between two young men and Marcus Cato (Cicero’s alter ego), who was supposedly 84 at the time of the writing. The young men engage Cato with questions. They notice that old age seems not to burden Cato yet to many others it is a hateful weight. So they ask Cato how they might achieve for themselves a graceful old age. They ask particularly if Cato’s large wealth and high position, which are available to only a few, make old age tolerable. Continue reading →

Can Young Workers Meet Retirement Goals? It Depends

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Our children and grandchildren are urged to save and invest for retirement. Their success depends on saving regularly and investing well. Success also depends on how long they work, how much they save, and how successful they are in their careers. Today we look at those three elements.

I have been working on a financial model of retirement savings to learn the principal drivers of successful retirement accumulation.

Here are the main results Continue reading →

How to Help Your Kids Plan for Retirement

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Most of us would like to help our children and grandchildren prepare for the changing retirement landscape. Pension plans are under siege and passing away. Although many current retirees receive generous pensions, our children and grandchildren are not likely to share that good fortune.

Their retirements will likely depend on Social Security and whatever income they can piece together from retirement investments and encore careers. To help, we can point out reasonable investment goals. Today we’ll see how Social Security influences investment goals. Continue reading →

Join the Crowd: Manage Your Own Investments

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On Monday, Karen Damato wrote a lead piece in the Wall Street Journal, “A New Era for Do-It-Yourself Investing,” reporting that investors are taking charge of their investments, yet they are not going it alone. (Readers may meet a pay-wall with the link.) Many investors are using a hybrid approach.They are moving away from having a person or firm control their accounts, yet they are still seeking a-la-carte advice and using on-line tools to guide and validate their own investment decisions. Continue reading →