Social Security and the Promise of Retirement

Retirement on Social Security, the pot of gold at the end of a long awaited journey; yea and if you believe that one I have some land in West Texas you might be interested in. I wouldn’t have brought the subject up had it not been for an article I read on CNN’s website. According to Ruben Navarrette Jr, “imagine the burden on younger workers of having to keep legions of aging flower children in a comfy retirement”; comfy retirement; really?

I’m approaching that golden number where I can submit a form, sit back and watch the money roll in from my social security checks. I can see the grapes growing row upon row as Lucy and I relax from our vantage point on the hill, naked as the day we were born in our individual old fashioned bathtubs, holding hands and waiting for “just the right moment”, the sunset fading; sorry, wrong commercial. Maybe our grandchildren are worrying about us as we have a fling at Disney World; golfing, playing tennis, up all hours dancing and drinking. I suppose that might be a tall order since neither of us golf, play tennis or drink. Just how far does Ruben think we’ll get on a social security check of $ 1600 a month?

The dollar amount might be off; but not more than a hundred either way. Is that enough for a comfy retirement? I better do some quick computations before hunkering down in that tub to watch the grapes grow. Thank goodness the house and cars will be paid for and those vehicles had better last another twenty years because a car note will be out of the question. Then there’s auto and health insurance, property and school taxes, utilities, food and a little for the never ending list of things that wear out or break when you least expect it. That $ 1600.00 is looking pretty thin and Alice, you remember Alice, that lady who owns the grape vineyard, the one who told us we could spend our golden years on the top of her hill; I can’t even see Alice.

I know how to make it all work, retire in Mexico. I’ve heard that many folks are living very comfortably down there, complete with house servants. The advantage to being in Mexico; those house servants would be legal down there. It would help if I spoke Spanish and learned how to assimilate into their culture; I wonder, do they grow grapes down in Mexico?