Money Management

One of the key things that retired people have to do to maintain a healthy lifestyle is staying busy. Watching TV all day, every day, is a recipe for decay and decline. This is something that working people sometimes have difficulty understanding - because they have to be busy every day, it can be hard to grasp how important it is to remain occupied when work does not fill the day.

Having been retired for a number of years, I stay busy by doing volunteer work. The benefits are obvious when you think about it, in addition to helping preserve my sanity. One of my favorite volunteer pursuits is called Money Management.

Money Management, originally sponsored by the AARP, consists of helping certain people to perform the basic financial tasks that we all need to do: paying bills, managing a checkbook, ensuring that income and expenses remain in balance. My clients often are older than myself and have trouble dealing with numbers. Currently, however, I help a blind lady who, though disabled, has a mind as sharp as a tack. Dealing with numbers is no difficulty for her, but of course, writing checks is out of her reach. So I write the checks and, with a little guidance, she is able to sign them. It takes only a few hours each month.

I started doing Money Management a few years ago, after an unfortunate experience with a doctor who habitually billed his geriatric patients multiple times, even after receiving payment for his services. I decided that Money Management was a way that I could help protect older folks from such abuse. It's rewarding for them and rewarding for me.