My wife and I both retired years ago. We were smart or lucky and downsized our house before the bottom fell out of the market. So, that's been a real blessing. I'm disabled and have gotten some money from that and that's helped us a good bit. Unfortunately, as the cost of living goes up each year it makes our margin of error that much smaller. It's a tight window. Like I said, it could go either way.
Carl, 71, St. Louis, Mo.
No, but that wasn't always the case. My ex-wife got our house in the divorce. Ever since, I've been living in a senior community apartment, trying to get the pieces back together. I admit I made some bad choices, both personally and financially. There's no way around that, but feeling bad about it isn't going to make things better. I need to get a plan together. I have some investments, but they took a squat in 2008, so I'm not exactly sure where I am with that either. It's not a good future right now.
Greg, 62, Memphis, Tenn.