The safety dimension is also worth considering ... as we age. Night vision deteriorates. Don't forget cataracts. For years mine had been slowly developing and I'd been getting more and more anxious about both night and daytime driving. I sold my car the day before arriving at my CCRC. Within a year I had the cataract surgeries, and I'm still glad not to be driving. Lots of our residents have happily stopped driving. No fear of isolation, of course, living in a community. I take advantage of our frequent free bus trips in and out of town, and, now that I've also had the desperately needed hip replacement, I walk or ride my semirecumbent (nonelectric: flat Ohio terrain) trike all over town. There's also a free driver-driven e-bus operating on a daytime fixed-loop shuttle route around town that includes our CCRC. If driverless technology with pickup and drop-off communication can eventually handle e-bus transportation here, too, I'll be interested to try it.
Andrew, thank you so much for this. The advances in transportation and communication in the last century have wakened us to the perspective that we are all one human family. The images of Earth from space have, for the first time in history, shown us that national boundaries are artificial — we are all world citizens.
Here's what worked for me in the late '60s to early '70s; maybe some of these ideas of how one might manage without an allowance will help: Dad paid tuition, room, and board, for undergraduate only. Although I was not on financial aid, the college had other jobs available, so I was able to pay for discretionary expenses. I had no car; I don't remember who paid for books. In those four years I found jobs including dorm reception desk, mail distribution, dining hall work, resident assistant, dorm manager, and some local babysitting. I spent the summer after freshman year with a classmate at her awesome home while working on a research project with her that paid a little stipend. After spending the second summer at my home (and vowing never again), I spent the next three summers, including between the two years in graduate school, working for my undergraduate college in various positions in dean's offices, as a dorm director for summer conferences, and as a house sitter for faculty. My master's degree was a one-year program done in two years, studying half-time with a teaching fellowship that paid tuition and a stipend, and serving as a dorm director half-time that paid room and board and a stipend.
I didn’t used to scare myself when looking at my reflection in a mirror. Ha! For me it was this: I'd had cataracts developing for over a decade. Looking in the mirror the morning after the first surgery, I was shocked to see I'd aged ten years! On a financial note, thanks to Medicare and Medigap G, no out-of-pocket cost for that shock beyond the monthly premiums.
Here's a handy use for the Google Keep notes app that's in the right edge panel of the web Gmail window. Say you have a group of people you occasionally need to email, and you don't want them in your contacts, nor do you want the complication of a Google group just for this. I create a note and title it with the group name. In the note I list the email addresses separated by commas. Then to address the email, I simply open that note, do a quick copy of the batch of addresses, and paste them all at once into the To: (or Bcc:) field.
an accommodation to folks that are too sensitive Perhaps if you were an HD commenter who in recent weeks has been targeted with abuse, you would feel differently. I noticed on 3/27 when the experiment removing downvotes began that I immediately felt happy again to be reading HD. Life is difficult enough without having such additional negativity intruding. Thank you, Elaine and Bogdan!
Wow, you are correct! I stopped earning when I retired midway through 2021, so I didn't bump up against this special case. Apparently SS says in that first partial year if you earn more than the monthly limit ($2,040 in 2026), then you "aren't retired"(!) so that month's benefit is indeed lost. So glad you knew that!
Comments
The safety dimension is also worth considering ... as we age. Night vision deteriorates. Don't forget cataracts. For years mine had been slowly developing and I'd been getting more and more anxious about both night and daytime driving. I sold my car the day before arriving at my CCRC. Within a year I had the cataract surgeries, and I'm still glad not to be driving. Lots of our residents have happily stopped driving. No fear of isolation, of course, living in a community. I take advantage of our frequent free bus trips in and out of town, and, now that I've also had the desperately needed hip replacement, I walk or ride my semirecumbent (nonelectric: flat Ohio terrain) trike all over town. There's also a free driver-driven e-bus operating on a daytime fixed-loop shuttle route around town that includes our CCRC. If driverless technology with pickup and drop-off communication can eventually handle e-bus transportation here, too, I'll be interested to try it.
Post: Ageing and the Open Road
Link to comment from May 2, 2026
Andrew, thank you so much for this. The advances in transportation and communication in the last century have wakened us to the perspective that we are all one human family. The images of Earth from space have, for the first time in history, shown us that national boundaries are artificial — we are all world citizens.
Post: One World, One Kind of Work
Link to comment from April 30, 2026
Here's what worked for me in the late '60s to early '70s; maybe some of these ideas of how one might manage without an allowance will help: Dad paid tuition, room, and board, for undergraduate only. Although I was not on financial aid, the college had other jobs available, so I was able to pay for discretionary expenses. I had no car; I don't remember who paid for books. In those four years I found jobs including dorm reception desk, mail distribution, dining hall work, resident assistant, dorm manager, and some local babysitting. I spent the summer after freshman year with a classmate at her awesome home while working on a research project with her that paid a little stipend. After spending the second summer at my home (and vowing never again), I spent the next three summers, including between the two years in graduate school, working for my undergraduate college in various positions in dean's offices, as a dorm director for summer conferences, and as a house sitter for faculty. My master's degree was a one-year program done in two years, studying half-time with a teaching fellowship that paid tuition and a stipend, and serving as a dorm director half-time that paid room and board and a stipend.
Post: How much to provide a college student monthly?
Link to comment from April 25, 2026
😂
Post: Scent of a Cheapskate: Frugality Gone Wrong
Link to comment from April 17, 2026
The quote was "Don't just do something; stand there" (swapping the word pairs of the familiar other saying). quoteinvestigator.com explores it.
Post: Resist the Urge to Act
Link to comment from April 11, 2026
Your comparison that a stock token is like "a gift card issued by a retailer" helped me wrap my head around this. Thank you!
Post: Stock Tokens
Link to comment from April 11, 2026
I didn’t used to scare myself when looking at my reflection in a mirror. Ha! For me it was this: I'd had cataracts developing for over a decade. Looking in the mirror the morning after the first surgery, I was shocked to see I'd aged ten years! On a financial note, thanks to Medicare and Medigap G, no out-of-pocket cost for that shock beyond the monthly premiums.
Post: Getting Older
Link to comment from April 9, 2026
Here's a handy use for the Google Keep notes app that's in the right edge panel of the web Gmail window. Say you have a group of people you occasionally need to email, and you don't want them in your contacts, nor do you want the complication of a Google group just for this. I create a note and title it with the group name. In the note I list the email addresses separated by commas. Then to address the email, I simply open that note, do a quick copy of the batch of addresses, and paste them all at once into the To: (or Bcc:) field.
Post: Simplify Everything
Link to comment from April 4, 2026
an accommodation to folks that are too sensitive Perhaps if you were an HD commenter who in recent weeks has been targeted with abuse, you would feel differently. I noticed on 3/27 when the experiment removing downvotes began that I immediately felt happy again to be reading HD. Life is difficult enough without having such additional negativity intruding. Thank you, Elaine and Bogdan!
Post: Let the Arrows Speak for Themselves
Link to comment from March 28, 2026
Wow, you are correct! I stopped earning when I retired midway through 2021, so I didn't bump up against this special case. Apparently SS says in that first partial year if you earn more than the monthly limit ($2,040 in 2026), then you "aren't retired"(!) so that month's benefit is indeed lost. So glad you knew that!
Post: Wrapping It Up
Link to comment from March 27, 2026