Today

Today I had to call my sister and tell her that our grandmother had fallen and broke here pelvic bone. My uncle gave my grandmother two options; move into a nursing home our move to Alabama and live with him and his family. She supposedly has chosen to live in a nursing home.

I called my sister and told her this, and somehow we got in a conversation about the economy. She wants to move out here and take care of my grandmother but cant afford to do that. She works for the post office in California and has for over 20 years. They are downsizing out there drastically, and she cant quit here job for fear of loosing her benefits. I think that's where the conversation about the economy came into play. She has a 401k account that she has been putting money into since the day she got hired. She found out that she cant borrow from it for 13 more years because the government has been "borrowing" from it and there is nothing left of it. She is being charged taxes on her two homes that she owns because those houses are not her primary houses (meaning that she doesn't live in either one of them). The cost of living has gone up and the paychecks are  going down. There has been no cost of living raise in a long time.

This scares the heck out of me. As a recovering drug addict, I haven't held down a legal job for 10 years. I have no 401k plan, no insurance, and no way to retire in 20 something years. Its a shame I didn't think about all this when I was in my addiction. And now, at 40 something, I am starting over with nothing and trying to build something out of that. Thank God, as a parent, I have talked to my kids about the importance of school and finding a career instead of just a job. Too bad I didn't follow my own advice.