DEAR ABBY: My spouse and I are retired and on Social Security. We\u2019ve both worked hard all our lives and are content living a modest retirement. Our house is paid for, and we have little debt. <\/p>\n
However, we\u2019re both experiencing physical and mental decline. I worry about our house. We aren\u2019t able to clean and maintain it like we used to because of our physical limitations. We used to have parties, but we\u2019re embarrassed to have people over now, which means we\u2019re kind of isolated.<\/p>\n
\tWe also worry that our Social Security and Medicare benefits will be stripped away. We rely on them to live. We both paid into the system since age 15. Shouldn\u2019t we expect to reap the benefits of paying into the system all these years? <\/p>\n
We worry all the time about the future, which seems so grim right now. Even if we can survive the next few years, I\u2019m increasingly concerned about the disintegration of our home. I am not sure where to turn. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. — WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE<\/p>\n
\tDEAR WORRIED: If there is a senior center in your community, reach out and ask if there are any services that could assist you in finding reasonably priced help with your house. As to your embarrassment about entertaining friends, that concern may be needless. If you want company, invite friends over for afternoon tea, a picnic or a barbecue outside if the weather permits.<\/p>\n
\tRegarding your anxiety about Social Security, you are far from alone in feeling worried. Approximately 70 million American seniors are worrying right along with you. Every senior should be writing to their local politicians, their state representatives, congresspersons and senators reminding them that those benefits were paid for and, if they are interfered with, it could cost them the next election. <\/p>\n
My dating T-shirt is working too well\t<\/p>\n
DEAR ABBY: I\u2019m a single, never married man. I was having trouble finding a nice woman to date, so I bought a T-shirt from a dating website to show the women at the grocery and hardware stores that I\u2019m single and looking for a date. <\/p>\n
\tI now have a new problem — women at the hardware store and grocery stores keep coming up to me, asking about my shirt and trying to get a date with me. I am grateful for it, although I\u2019m having trouble deciding which one I want to go out with. How do I tell the ones I am not interested in that I\u2019m busy or seeing someone else? They don\u2019t want to take no for an answer. — FLOODED IN FLORIDA<\/p>\n
\tDEAR FLOODED: Stop saying no so quickly. If you are looking for someone special, you are going to have to do some sifting. As you will discover, dating is a process of trial and error. You may find your taste in women will change if you experience a few of them (or more).<\/p>\n
\tP.S. I\u2019m sorry you didn\u2019t mention which website you bought that T-shirt from. Do they also come in women\u2019s sizes? <\/p>\n
Dear Abby<\/a> is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com<\/a> or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEAR ABBY: My spouse and I are retired and on Social Security. We\u2019ve both worked hard all our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-9114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}