Aleta Laurence has been retired for the past 19 years. She learned money management by necessity when pregnant with her first child, which was ME! In this episode she shares how she saved diligently and budgeted carefully to build up enough retirement savings to last her throughout her later years. Reflecting on her first full-time salaried job she points out that the take-home pay is never as much as you think it will be.

“Of course, then the taxes come out, and the social security comes out, and the copay for the health insurance comes out. And so of course I had a lot less money than I thought I was going to have, but I saved anyway."

More than once Aleta mentions how fortunate she feels to have had all the money stuff work out. She occasionally needed a little bit of help along the way in the form of loans which she paid back, but overall it was her consistency in saving and spending wisely which made the difference. She does mention that in hindsight, she thinks it would have been beneficial to have taken more vacations and time off to avoid burnout. Join us for a trip down memory lane!

Aleta has a matters degree in urban planning and is the former planning director for Riverside County, California. I feel very fortunate to have been able to interview my mom on the show.

After we finished recording she added that she should have told everyone to exercise and brush their teeth. She says if you do those all along you won’t have big problems later but if you don’t, you will struggle, and you can’t make up for it later.

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