- Share This Post
- submit
- 1
-
Sparkle (0)
In this week’s Ten Money Questions, we speak with Ronni Bennett of Time Goes By and Elderblogger-extraordinaire at BlogHer. There’s the saying, “With age comes wisdom†and Ronni is living proof that we all learn from a lifetime of experiences. So sit back and consider what Ronni has to say about surviving and thriving on a fixed-income, the concept of retirement vs. working-elders and how money still has an effect on this stage of life. Enjoy!
1. You once wrote a post that mentioned hair color and age discrimination in the workforce. What are your thoughts about how age impacts earning potential?
Statistics shows that prime earning years are between about 40 and 55. What has taken a toll on older workers in the past decade or so is the number of RIFs and layoffs. Laws aside (age discrimination is notoriously hard to prove in court for a variety of reasons), older workers are more likely to be laid off and it takes them many more months to find the next job than younger people.
If they can find a job at all. In the past five or six years, we have lost three million manufacturing jobs to overseas outsourcing. Many of those workers had been at their place of employment for decades. There are no other job for them, so it’s not earning potential that is the difficulty, it’s poverty and being forced into retirement long before one’s time.
Countless older workers take early Social Security when they become eligible at 62 – at a much lower rate than if they were able to work until the full benefit age - because they have no choice. Except for the elite few in the highest levels of corporate America with their guaranteed golden parachutes, the earning potential of older people is dismal and will remain so until ageism and age discrimination in the workplace are taken seriously.
2. What experience taught you the value of a dollar?
When I graduated from high school at 17, I immediately went to work. My salary was meager, but with careful budgeting I could afford my tiny apartment, my ancient car and the normal monthly expenses with a little left over for fun. I had five work outfits, one for each day of the week and two pairs of shoes. A run in a stocking, a broken shoe heel or handbag strap (we dressed more formally in those days) were budget disasters.
I don’t remember how it happened because single women of any age could not get credit cards in those days, but I got myself deeply in debt. It reached the point where I could pay the phone and electric bills or I could pay the minimum on the money I owed each month, but not both.
It was a tough lesson. I remember living one week until payday on a ten-pound bag of potatoes that was in the house because I couldn't afford to buy more food. The bus cost 15 cents and many times I carefully counted out those 30 pennies to get to and from work.
During the two years it took to pay off that debt, it was painful every day. Unless a date paid, restaurants were out of the question as were movies, books, a drink with friends after work - any non-essentials. I worked a second, night job at a local coffee house which helped a little, but all that money went to paying down the debt. I've never forgotten that lesson. Emergencies aside, I've never since run up bills I couldn't pay off each month, although I have an uncanny ability to spend right up to the exact dollar limit of what I've budgeted without going over.
3. What is your worst habit around finances?
Not tracking how much I am spending day-to-day. You know the old saying: a dollar here, a dollar there and pretty soon we’re talking about real money. It is why I prefer cash to credit cards for most non-major expenses; I can see in my wallet how much money is there and more easily adjust my spending to my weekly budget.
4. A recent study found that women are less financially prepared for retirement than men. What is holding women back from proper planning?
They don’t make enough money. It’s been stuck at about 70 percent of what men make for the same jobs for 20 years or more. But I think it’s almost impossible today for the working and middle classes – men or women – to
