Has saving gone out of style?

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

I feel so fortunate that I was brought up to live frugally. It all paid off when my husband needed monitoring round the clock after he suffered a brain hemorrhage and later a broken pelvis. When he finally came home to be cared for, we hired wonderful people who could help out. But that all costs money in a society that doesn't provide health care.

Total care in a professional home care center would probably be less expensive in the long run. The fact remains that no care center is set up to meet all of a client's social/emotional needs. I learned early on that valuables and hearing aides could not always be protected there and the comfortable surroundings of home could not be duplicated. Sitting in a straight chair by my husband's bed was not a great way to be a loving wife.

Health care at home is not perfect either. Managing home care and sharing our home with people outside our family is always an adjustment. And no telling how long our savings will last but so far we are managing. After looking back over the years of our marriage, now 62 years, we are glad that we didn't squander every paycheck and max out our credit cards. Read on and you will learn what we did to prepare for our aging years:

- Rarely getting our hair done by professionals (yes, we put up with squeals from our children who said we pinched them with the hair clippers.)

- Expecting our children to work for the extras they wanted (paper routes came in handy.)

- Planning our children's birthday parties instead of hiring the corporate clown (I even made favors out of toilet paper rolls covered in crepe paper.)

- Making sure that we both prepared for occupations that had retirement systems (even with people asking, "Your husband is teaching in elementary school?)

- Driving used cars (oh, oh, now we say previously owned.)

- Never buying season tickets to anything (in my youth I listened to the opera music on radio every Saturday.)

- Ordering all our movies and books from the library (except during the women's movement years when I had to have every feminist book that came out.)

- Buying all our clothes at thrift shops after we retired (got lots of notice for my purple outfits.)

- Potlucks for most family occasions instead of going to a restaurant (special family recipes are always welcome.)

- Exchanging names at Christmas (Why? Because Norman and I both come from large families.)

- Doing our own yard work until just recently (my husband still supervises)

- Taking advantage of church social life and special events (I love Open Mike Night.)

- Exercising at the YMCA where our health program pays my dues (I always say that none of us oldies would be around without modern medicine and our Silver Sneakers program.)

- Doing more exercises at home (never ever joined a profit-making health club.)

- Growing fruits and vegetables in our back yard (You should taste our family favorite, blueberry hotcakes.)

- Never driving to the store for only one item (Unless my favorite chocolate bar is on sale.)

Now here's your chance to write some suggestions for your own savings plan. If you save off the top of your salary when you begin your career, you can build up a reserve for that rainy day. Most people are one paycheck away from the street if they don't save anything. It is scary to find that out when it is too late.

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who has written two books, one with her husband Norman, and who has just finished producing her first DVD called Caregiving Journey. You may contact her at gnkunkel@comcast.net