After eight years of working nonstop to keep my head above water financially as a professional copywriter and more than four decades of working nonstop to achieve paycheck-to-paycheck survival, I’m finding myself smiling and truly living for the first time since I was a carefree kid. Not that I’m entirely care-free–no adult ever is, we know too much and see too much around us to know that another shoe can drop at any moment and upset our tranquility and sense of ease and balance–but now that the financial burden has been lifted considerably, life feels  simpler and less daunting!  I’m looking at new options–some paid travel writing regionally, a new book, even scheduling a few days of doing absolutely nothing every month. I feel wealthy–which is downright laughable!  $300/week does not equal wealth by any stretch of the imagination! But it’s $300 I’ve already earned that Social Security required be set aside by my employers and myself for my later years, so it feels like a gift from the universe. (Thank you, President Roosevelt and all of the stalwart, mostly Democratic, supporters who have kept Social Security safe for nearly 80 years..and fie on those who have raided it to fund unnecessary wars and are now calling it “unsustainable” which is a bald-faced lie; it’s only unsustainable if they keep trying to sabotage it! End of political rant but I have a book for you to read if you want to learn more about the facts: Social Security Works. Thomas Paine developed the idea centuries ago; FDR just put it into action.)

I’m sure my blood pressure has dropped. I feel blessed. Now I have the freedom to consider new avenues and opportunities. I’ve bought new pillows (I don’t remember the last time I bought new pillows–how sad is that?!) and two  pairs of jeans at twice the price of the cheap ones I bought last year–and they are sooo much better quality and worlds more comfortable. My kitties now have top-quality cat food to eat and enjoy.  These are simple pleasures that don’t cost a lot more, but certainly more than I’ve dared to spend for eons, since the writing life is largely feast-and-famine and I could never assume I’d come out ahead every month unless I agreed to become a paid shill for products, services and causes that are sub-par–something I pledged I would never do and never have done!

Social Security works. This is my testimonial for it. Whoever tries to end it or change it substantially, except for the better to bolster it, is a sworn enemy of seniors. I’m a senior. I take it very personally…and I’m an activist and a loudmouth. I’ll call anyone on the carpet who lies about its viability. It can be insured against future failure so easily it’s laughable. Read the book. Get the facts. Vote the scoundrels out of office to are trying to emasculate it.

http://www.socialsecurityworks.org/faq/