katebcca and Anne, targeting the future now helps us. I'm 60 and manage to live off what I earn, which isn't much but I can let my savings earn interest. I manage my income (take lunch to work, get books and movies from the library) so if I want to go out with a friend or get special things once in a while I can.

I don't own a home and my rent keeps increasing. Taxes and homeowner's insurance increase at the same rate so I don't feel terrible about it, although owning my little cottage dream home is still a goal. I wonder how high my rent can go and where I will go when it becomes too high.

When my father got sick, I went crazy worrying how I would take care of him and keep him in a nursing home because there was no house to sell to pay expenses since he lived in an apartment. He passed quickly, but I would rather have had him with me.