Having owned an employment agency for twenty years, Linda Miller thought she was well-off enough to retire four years ago, and she did.
Now, she’s back at work selling Avon cosmetics. Why? “All the money is going for gas and groceries,” she laments. As the Lexington Herald-Leader reports,
Miller and her family aren’t below the poverty line; in fact they consider themselves to be upper middle class, but that doesn’t exclude them from making some lifestyle changes to save money.
Between an SUV that gets 10 miles to the gallon and a sports car that gets 18 mpg, the Millers are driving less to help save money. They also go to restaurants less frequently.
A sign of the times? Most definitely. Rising prices, especially for essentials like food, relentlessly drive down retirees’ standards of living. If you’re a future retiree, the continuation—or more accurately, the worsening— of this trend must be factored in to your plans.