Affordable Retirement and Simple Living

[HKPassey]

We have a member who is writing (another!!) book, this one about the simple living model in retirement. If you'd like a chance to make a difference by sharing your story, perhaps with a national audience (and with somebody else to do the nitpicky writing work besides!), check out Abe's post (http://www.simplelivingforum.net/showthread.php?2473-Affordable-retirement-and-simple-living), and see what you think. Here's what Abe has to say about his goals:

"I'm looking for real world experiences from retired citizens who more or less are following a simple living model - nothing necessarily extreme, but the point is to illustrate that one can live modestly but happily in retirement. I have plenty of time before I'm finished with this project, but I do want diversity in my sources, including geographic diversity (I'm based in the Indianapolis area)."

I'm sure we have a lot of expertise and experiences in this group that can be of help. If you're willing to be interviewed (which can actually be fun), you can contact Abe directly (aamidor at gmail dot com) to let him know, or if you're not sure or perhaps not even sure your experiences would be valuable, you can jump into the conversation here and see. Abe, can you tell us more about what you're looking for, maybe? A brief idea of what you have planned for this book? Or...?

[Aamidor]

This reply is from Abe Aamidor, the published author looking for sources from around the country to interview for a new book on affordable retirement that includes chapters on simple living and aging in place, but also other issues such as healthy lifestyles and staying active in retirement, finding affordable health care and medicines, confronting death and dying, and more. As for simple living or living simply, there are just too many scare stories out there that middle class Americans will not be able to retire, etc. For the most part, the fears are unfounded, especially if one goes back to basics and makes more modest choices in life and steps back from our often crass consumerism. It was Buckminster Fuller who warned in a non-political way against the 'specialization of everything,' largely because it deskills each of us, but it also means we're paying experts for this or that all the time when we can all do so much more for ourselves. We can't all be completely self-sufficient, but we can all do better. And the old adage that the best things in life are free remains as valid as ever. But I feel I'm preaching to the converted now. I need to interview "real people" and learn of their real experiences in living simply in retirement, and living comfortably and happily at the same time. It's not all about money - that's my main point. Also, I always need to learn about other experiences in retirement, and I need to hear from diverse sources in every sense of that term, including geographic diversity, or else I'll be interviewing too many people from Indianapolis. Contact me anytime at aamidor @ gmail dot com or by phone at 317 694 7506. As my former editor at The Indianapolis Star used to say at the end of all his columns, "Thanks for reading this." Abe Aamidor

[puglogic]

I have worked with this gentleman and he's a wealth of information, and a terrific person:
Ed Brown
http://www.mysustainableretirement.com/