Why do I have to look after everything myself?
By Lindalinda
@Lindalinda (4111)
Canada
May 6, 2010 9:06am CST
This is going to be a bit of a rant. I am a retired person and all my life I had to look after other people. Now I am 71 years old and it does not stop.
I live in Canada in the Province of Ontario. As of July the Province will institute a harmonized tax on all goods and services which will cost the average citizen about $ 560 a year more. Well, guess what? My pension is not going that much so my standard of living has to be adjusted.
I decided to take a close look at my expenses. I cancelled the paper since I can get a free daily little paper at the bus stop boxes. It carries the news in brief. The cancellation of the paper will save me $ 15 per month.
I received my phone bill. I had noticed for the past 2 month that it was about 10 dollars higher than usual. So I decided to check it in detail. I have a bundle which includes television, internet and landline telephone.
I noticed my internet charges were way higher than those of my friends and other family members. Now I am told I was on a plan with unlimited usage which I never use. So I reduced it to plan with usage of 25 gigs, which is still huge and I will never use up in a month. It will save me about $15 a month. I also pared down my phone services to what I actually make use of. That will save another $5 per month.
With these measures my saving per year will be $ 420, not enough to offset the increase but to mitigate it. What else is there to do?
What is my question? Why does this looking after everything never stop until we are institutionalized and treated like children? I guess until then we must look after everything ourselves. What do you think?
2 people like this
4 responses
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
6 May 10
I have no idea, because I feel when you are retired, your children or your nephews or nieces should help you a little bit. I also hate the idea of harmonizing taxes. That means that some of the things that you do not pay federal tax on you now have to pay, and of course the same happens to the provincial taxes. I do think that people often assume that if you are over 65 that suddenly your brain turns into mush and they can really take advantage for you.
But there are others who assume that your brain works just as well when you are retired as when you were young. The trouble is that even if your brain goes like wild fire, you may not have the energy to do all these things.
I have a theory that once you are retired, people assume you have all this time on your hands and nothing to do.
I wonder if that is why you are still having to cancel the paper,reduce your internet yourself. I myself would not want people to think that once one becomes 65, their brain turns to mush. So there is another way of thinking about this - the alternative is not that pretty.
@Lindalinda (4111)
• Canada
7 May 10
Thank you for your thoughtful response. I guess you are right we can't have it both ways.
You are correct in saying people think you have all the time in the world once you retire. Not so. As we get older it takes longer to do certain things. Also health problems crop up and there are numerous appointments to go to. If one has gotten rid of the car it takes forever to get there and back on public transportation. So yes, older people could use some help from children and younger relatives. But they are always in a hurry and don't have enough time to keep up with their own tasks.
I have also noticed that people assume you are loosing your faculties once you reach a certain age so I suppose we must look after our bills, and all the things that make a household function.
In my case daily living takes a lot of time since I am a diabetic and the only way to stave off serious problems such as eye damage, nerve damage, kidney damage and obesity requires at least 30 minutes a day of physical exercise such as walking as well as group programs such as Tai Chi, weight training and aerobics or swimming. In addition to this a program once a week of excercises for diabetics to maintain flexibility and balance.
Then of course there is planning the meals and shopping for special items to keep the blood sugar under control.
I guess I am so busy with all of this that sometimes it just becomes too much. That was the rant.
Take care.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
8 May 10
I find that people assume that once you are retired, the money tree has started to grow thousand dollar bills. The trouble is that many of us did not have good paying jobs, and so we cannot fork over a thousand for this and that. We now have a van and we have to pay for the insurance, it needs repairs because it is a Ford (Fix or Repair Daily 
). Our sons help out and have done our income tax. I could do it myself, but I hate doing income tax and since one of them is an accountant, he knew how to talk to the tax people in case something came up.
I have lost a bit of weight, but I find that since I have to look after my husband I cannot go out for a walk every day and I do not think running down stairs to the basement to do the laundry would cut it. So now I am worried that it might come back. So far it has not.
Oh and maybe I should have a rant about waiting at the cashier's for half an hour just to pay for that potato masher. Yes, I have the time in the world and I was afraid I would not get back in time before the home care worker left. I did though.
Oh and thanks for the best response.
). Our sons help out and have done our income tax. I could do it myself, but I hate doing income tax and since one of them is an accountant, he knew how to talk to the tax people in case something came up.
I have lost a bit of weight, but I find that since I have to look after my husband I cannot go out for a walk every day and I do not think running down stairs to the basement to do the laundry would cut it. So now I am worried that it might come back. So far it has not.
Oh and maybe I should have a rant about waiting at the cashier's for half an hour just to pay for that potato masher. Yes, I have the time in the world and I was afraid I would not get back in time before the home care worker left. I did though.
Oh and thanks for the best response.
@ronaldinu (12422)
• Malta
9 May 10
Hi LindaLinda it is a good idea to start saving money and cutting out unnecessarily expenses and save for a rainy day. What else is there to do? Hmm that is a hard question to answer since you know your financial situation best and you know best which things you can do without or not. We have higher electricity bills here in Malta. I tried to save 10Euro bill a month by subscribing to the same company for telephone/internet/television services.
@Lindalinda (4111)
• Canada
10 May 10
Yes, Ronald it is a good idea to save for a rainy day. My rant came about because as you get older it becomes harder and harder to keep up with the daily chores, all the medical appointments and keep an eye on the expenses.
I also have a bundle for my TV, internet and phone. That is where I noticed I was enrolled in an internet deal with way too much capacity for me and phone service features that I do not use. Hopefully my bill will be cut by $ 15 per month starting next month.
Thanks for responding.
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
23 Jun 10
i am also in ontario and i see the hst as a big tax grab for which the government has given us back some our own money. you are best to look after your interests now before the tax kicks in. i find that if you dont look after yourself and your interests, no one else will.
@Lindalinda (4111)
• Canada
6 May 10
who is looking after me? So far it is me that is looking after me. The internet company did not point out that I was not using all the capacity that they sold me and proposed a cheaper plan etc. etc.
