NOVEMBER 9, 2023, RETIREMENT PERSPECTIVE 1

 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023 - FliP MaSS

Well, that sure is a strange title for a blog - FliP MaSS.

I am trying to make two words out of FPMSS.

Hey, Karen, FPMSS doesn’t make any sense either (but it isn’t words!!)

Well, here we go.

F is for Financial

P is for Physical

M is for Mental

S is for Social

S is for Spiritual

Okay - that helps a little.  But why are you playing with those letters? 

I’m doing a philosophy (with some traditional input - and my interpretations.

Zig Ziglar had a “Wheel of Life” (see illustration).  His “Wheel of Life had seven sections:

Mental

Spiritual

Physical

Family

Financial

Personal

Career

I’m looking at retirement issues and deleting “Career” from my list.

Karen- you still aren’t correct - even with deleting “Career” - you have six items.  I’m combining “Family and Personal” into an item called “Social.” 

Mental

Spiritual

Physical

Financial

Social

But I wanted a word framework - so switching around, I got FliP MaSS.

I wanted the “F” first and the “P” second.  Getting your finances in order and keeping healthy are (at least to me) the most important.  

In retirement, many people have worked on the financial side first.  Financial Planners specialize in “F.” If you work for a large enough company, your human resources department (HR) might have access to some financial plans.  

I'm picturing a fat man lying on his back with a massive weight on him.  He needs to flip the weight to get up and get going.  Weight is also considered mass (especially in the metric system) - so he needs to FliP the MaSS to stand up.

Let's look at "F".  I know retired friends where the "F" is barely available.  They have minimum social security benefits.  They are on some additional government assistance.  (For health, they have Medicare - and some have Medicaid).  Two of them live in income-subsidized housing (I think they call that "section 8 housing".)

How much money do you have to have to retire?  Good question.  From some of my friends - you need housing (shelter), food, and health insurance at a bare minimum.  The government can help with these. Section 8 housing is reasonable.  Food can be obtained through food panties; if you worked, you should have social security income and basic Medicare insurance.  This doesn’t leave much else in life.  For your housing, you will also need electricity and water.  Most people will also want some basic television.

I’m not a big television watcher, and my neighbor (one of my low-income friends) suggested an antenna box on the wall.  So, (other than buying the antenna for about $30), I have ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and maybe 20 other channels (free!!).  No, I don’t have Fox, ESPN, or a weather channel.  I like sports, but I don't get it if it isn’t on one of my channels.

So, you can get pretty cheap entertainment.  The government does offer low-cost internet to low-income people.  

If you are low-income, you can get clothes at thrift shops - free or cheap.

A guesstimate of $1,000 a month is about the minimum a person could have and retire and not have to live under a bridge.

If you want a house/home - you will want something like $10,000 a month minimum.  (Property taxes may eat up that income.  

My low-income friends don’t have cars and thus don’t drive.  Cars are expensive to buy (even used cars aren’t cheap) - and you must have insurance, gas, and maintenance.  My low-income friends can get rides from a local charity (Faith in Action in Georgetown, Texas) or other options.  

So, for the first factor for FliP MaSS - Finance - can get by from about $1000 a month - but that is NO frills - and using public services to help.  

You need more income if you want vacations, cable television, eating out occasionally, and more.  If a person can, they can work part-time, low-income jobs.  (All three of my low-income friends can’t work because of physical issues).

We will look more at retirement issues next week!!

LOVE WINS
LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, NOVEMBER 9, 2023