Never expect your job to last. A natural disaster took my job, home and former life from me 3 years before I was set to retire. Everything turned upside down and my life is very different today. I live on very little, do not on a home and my future is quite uncertain. But, I try to live in the present moment because, really, it's all we ever have.

This exactly the situation we are in. I can't wait to read what others, in similar situations have to say.

We have spent 5 years looking in Georgia and Florida for that 'last' place - our retirement home.

We look at 55+ and then others; like condos. The issue in today's environment is simply safety - then comes the 55+ lifestyle.

As we all now both are a state of mind. And as we are finding out - both are expensive!

Safety usually means a gated community and if you get extravagant a 24/7 gate official. 55+ lifestyle is a clubhouse, swimming pool, exercise area, and all the whistles and bells - like Christmas morning!

We keep finding the 'perfect place' but when we look at the bottom line it is very, very expensive. That perfect $250k home finally ended up costing a whopping $378k with all the extras; including those things we needed. So what do we give up?

Square footage? No

Safety? No.

Lifestyle? Maybe.

To replace the lifestyle we could always join the YMCA, VFW, or sneak into to the Hilton Gardens every now and then.

What have you to say, I say . . .?

Those of us born between the Depression and WW2 have had a lucky go of it. I'm with Tom. My kids will just have to hope that Mom and Dad are able to leave something behind for them. Because a part of our good luck was enhanced by post-depression frugality, and because I've seen what happens when the kids won't listen to good advice, I can only repeat my favorite mantra, "Save Your Money; Don't Get Into Debt". Fat chance in this era of huge college costs, two jobs families, and the lure of expensive toys.

BTW Ronni and all, I ran a test on this page to see if it was affected by this new "Heartbleed" malware, and you will be pleased to know that, at least on Chrome, your safe,

I belong to that small in between demographic born during WW2. I "retired" earlier than planned. I sold my house before the real estate crash and bought a smaller home in E. WA. I was lucky enough to find employment here but at 2/3 of my old salary so there was no last five years of increasing salary or increasing of SS.

I worry about outliving my money. I believed it was adequate but now I'm not so sure. The so-called cost of living doesn't reflect the reality of the inflated rise in the costs of housing, food, gas, medicine, and insurance for anyone on a fixed income.

I'm doing okay. I have a car but where I live now I can walk to downtown, the library, a grocery, my doctor's office and the post office. The condo costs are less than my former home. I'm sure they will go up but they would have at the house too.

Both my sons live here very close by. I have the best daughter-in-law in the world and many grandkids. There are also three colleges here providing many events to attend, lots of them free. One of them, Whitman College, is within a few blocks so I can also walk to there. It has lovely grounds, an art gallery, a science building with marvelous displays and many free events of music, art, and visiting writers and other creative people and are open to the public.

We're in a condo community that is not 55+ so that my neighbors are all different ages, many still work & others babysit grandchildren so they also add to the mix. Also we have adequate savings invested because both of our parents struggled mightily during the depression & we learned much from them.
That's the good news.
Health wise it's a different story. I'm a caregiver & if/when a nursing home or in home care is required we may be strapped. I really wanted to have some money to leave our kids, but that may not happen so I help now when I can. I'm like Darlene........live in the moment as much as I can. Also have seen an elder care attorney x2 & have my ducks lined up. For the most part, I feel secure. Fingers crossed. Dee

I think that poll is 'way off-base. Or only the very-rich replied.

We sold our house in 2004 and got twice what we had paid for it. However, that is very misleading, because we had put an awful lot of money and sweat into the house that was never factored into the purchase price.

We moved to a small town in Tennessee where we planned to start a small manufacturing business. Unfortunately my husband had an abdominal aortic aneurysm that ate up a large chunk of our money (we had no health insurance)and so weakened him that he was barely able to get around by himself. So the business was just a pipe dream.

The Depression of 2008 meant that our house here in TN is probably worth less than we paid for it, although it is completely paid for, and it is difficult for us to do the maintenance by ourselves and even more difficult to get professional help in this small town.

We still hope to sell our place here and to move back to the Denver area where our son and daughter live and where the stores and services are closer to where we would live. We would downsize to a much smaller place, one with minimal yard work. Both my husband's and my parents are dead, so we would not have to contend with them living with us.

I resent your constant digs at baby boomers, Ronni, but I try to ignore them. You are so sensible in other matters, but you must have had some bad experiences with baby boomers in the past that have soured you on us. We are just people and I doubt we are any more self-centered than any other generation.

If my husband and I were to participate in a poll like the one you cite, we'd have to say that we're much poorer than we would have anticipated, although we could never have had a second home even in our wildest dreams!

I have enjoyed and appreciated these testimonials immensely. I should be retired by summer and will draw upon Ronni's blog as well as these comments. Some are on relative easy street while others truly struggle, and that's life and the luck of the draw, I think. In the end, life passes as we all do with it, and we must all find meaning in wherever we are and how we are. Good luck to all of you that precede me. My main goal, personally, is to make and keep my wife happy above all other goals and I'll be fine, hoping that I just don't drop dead, suddenly, like many men often do.

4 and a half years into my second marriage, this 1946 boomer is in a totally different financial situation than I was in my first 26 year marriage.

We are cash-poor but property-rich. Dave is still working as an electrical contractor and we both have SS, Medicare and I have a small pension. Rental income kept us solvent during the recession, when construction slowed in Arizona. This week we will put one of our houses up for sale, then decide what to do with the profits.

In my previous marriage, I thought my attorney-husband would be able to support us and so I quit teaching with our first child. Two bankruptcies and years of lean living later, I was back teaching and divorced. At times we did not even have health insurance or money for food.

I so appreciate being able to pay our bills now, be generous to charities and kids, and to not worry.

In looking back, I realize that my ex's difficult personality made it hard for him to keep a job and that his poor choices made it hard for our family. At the time, I did not blame him but now I realize better what happened.

Make good choices throughout life-

(save, invest, have goals, keep up to date on economy and investing by reading about it)

and pray for a lot of luck.

I think that Victoria said it pretty well--make good choices along the way. We moved into our house 20 years ago, and even then in the back of my mind I thought ahead to retirement and what would be within walking distance. Although we are not yet at the point where we can no longer drive, we have no longing to live elsewhere. Nor did we need to adjust our expectations. Extra payments and refinancing along the way allowed us to pay off the mortgage a few months ago. This might not work for everyone, but it is one example of how to find "home" in retirement.