Issues for Boomers: Planning for retirement

[lunatica]

1. I had a 401k which was growing nicely then I had to retire early to

take care of my mother who became bed ridden and had Dementia. I rolled it over into another account I had because I was going to need it to live on. I was still not 59 and a half years old so every time I took money out I had to pay a 10% penalty fee. But she had a pension and a 401k and after a couple of years my son decided to help out with her so I could go to work full time (I made more money than he did). He took care of her for three years. For the last few years she only had a pension with the Teacher's union. Credit cards saved us because I had a very good credit rating, but only for a while. When she died her pension was gone too. In 2008 after the economy crashed the banks refused to allow the use of the credit cards which was pretty much what they did to everyone. They would send the bills late so it was impossible to pay them on time so they could hike up the interest rate. The year she died I had to declare bankruptcy and after a few months wasn't able to make the mortgage payments which started the foreclosure process. A year after she died I was able to finally get a break and my mortgage company gave me a loan modification which payments I can barely make. There are many months when the money simply doesn't stretch quite the whole way for other things, but so far I've made the mortgage.

It's been tough. I'm hoping things will get better. And I'm very aware they can easily get worse.