SDXB insists that it takes a lot less to live on than we think. But as long as I’ve known him well — a good 15 or 20 years — SDXB hasn’t bought a piece of furniture, a pot, a dish, a glass,a coffee mug, a kitchen utensil, or a picture to hang on the wall that hasn’t come from a yard sale or a thrift store. Ditto clothes…lately he’s begun to dress a little better (i.e., he buys new stuff from Penney’s), but until very recently everything he put on his body either came from the military store at the AFB, the BX (shoes only), or from second-hand shops. He certainly isn’t suffering, and if you didn’t KNOW where his furniture and household items came from, you’d never guess. But…gee.

It looks to me like the best way to increase retirement savings is to develop a side income stream and then salt every single net penny from it into a diversified, balanced savings and investment plan. Or, if you’re a couple, try to live on one person’s salary and stash the other partner’s entire net pay.

And for godsake, pay off the mortgage on the roof over your head!

How are people living on that???? I’m tracking estimated pension, SS (just got my yearly statement and the college years of abject poverty are finally falling off the rolling average) and IRA/401K drawdown. By my calc, I have to work to full 66.5 to be as comfortable as I am today and 70.5 to feel safe. Need to save more………

Then again, I’m not surprised. The first ten years of my RA experiences were with doctors all telling me I was off my rocker and “too young” for the pain I was feeling. Yep, because that was going to solve the problem.

I will say this, though, if you can get a good connection to a good doctor: a referral from a friend, a referral from someone inside the system, happenstancially meeting a good doctor, they will take care of you, HMO or no. There will be limitations on what they can do, but they’ll see you, and counsel you to the best of their ability. So at least, in some cases, there are some doctors taking care of their patients.