After a lifetime working, the expected thing is that, as soon as the ordinary retirement age is achieved, you choose to retire and enjoy the years that we have always wanted, practicing hobbies such as traveling. However, that end is not always for everyone and the history of Sandy McConnell, 80, exemplifies it perfectly.
Despite his advanced age, this Nevada woman continues to work as a full -time accounts specialist, for a salary of $ 50,000 annually (around 42,800 euros). With such a salary, anyone might think that he is a millionaire, taking into account that he started working at age 16, but the truth is that he only has 37 dollars (over 31 euros) in his savings account. The main reason is a series of debts that he contracted, added to several family events in which he had to close his shoulder even if he left with nothing.
You may be interested
Alfonso Muñoz Cuenca, Social Security officer, speaks clear about whether they have denied you the child complement to your pension: “Ask for an appointment with Social Security”
Javier Rumbo, financial expert: “With 300 euros a month, I would not complicate my life and invest in …”
“Sometimes it saddens me that people like me are still working so late in life, either because we did not know how to better our money, because they never taught us to do it or because we had circumstances that prevented us from achieving our financial goals,” he says for Business Insider.
In the aforementioned medium, he adds that he was single in 1997, so he has had to face all the expenses and raising of his children alone: “I have to pay the mortgage, the car and a high debt of the credit card.” Just as he was wrong when he did not register in his company’s retirement plan: “I thought it was nonsense; I need money now, not in ten years,” he thought.
Her husband abandoned her with her little children
Sandy has been working since he was 16 years old, when she achieved her first job as a cashier, part -time. In 1963 he had his first child and, at that time, he was already working full, while her husband was in the Navy. How much this returned, according to, became pregnant again, already throughout that decade, had several works as in charge of accounts and charges.
It was in 1971 how much had her last son, at which time her husband abandoned them, leaving her alone with the five young children. He does not even pay him an alimony, which is why he expresses that he has always been “very hurried” economically. Following the Covid, the situation worsened even more, and it lost its work, so it had to declare bankruptcy.
“I have always lived up to date and I have never had many savings”
In addition to all of the above, Andy tells ‘Business Insider’ that on several occasions he has had to help relatives to get ahead, as in 2001 when he had 13 relatives living with her. Therefore, he had to declare himself bankrupt in 2004, again as explained in 2021, due to his loss of employment for pandemic. He has also had to help several of his children in different episodes of his life.
Now, at 80, he still needs to work. “It is partly for economic reasons, and partly because I would bore me; if you have no money to do anything, what are you going to do? Your house can only be cleaned to some extent,” confesses the aforementioned medium.
He currently works from home, ensuring that his company allows him to take rest days when he needs it. Apart from your salary, it also receives $ 1,784 per month of Social Security, stating that it is not enough to retire: “That will not happen,” he clarifies. Your current debt, including everything except your home, is around $ 70,000. “I try to pay them every month, but something always arises and I end up spending my money on something else. Every month I income money into my bank account, but right now I only have 37 dollars in my savings account,” he explains.
“I am satisfied with what I have”
Although he is in a complicated situation, Sandy says he feels “lucky” and “I am satisfied with what I have”, enjoying the life he has. In this sense, he likes to visit his grandchildren and other relatives, walk his dogs and eat with former co -workers. “We go to an affordable restaurant and talk, cry, laugh and remember the good times we spend at work.”
Every night he acknowledges that he connects to the Internet and plays online poker, although he points out that he does not “for money”, although he pays a monthly fee of $ 40 to maintain this ‘hobby’. In spite of this, he says that he does not spend much: “I like to buy in bargain stores and I only buy things at reasonable prices. Not at most and it is enough for me pean butter sandwiches,” adding that it spends between $ 120 and $ 150 per month in the supermarket and another 100 in essential products, such as hygienic paper. “I can put 5 dollars in my wallet and last me forever,” he concludes.