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Crow’s Feet Writing Prompt #80 — Finances
Security
Social and otherwise
Many decades ago, when we were 27, my husband began participating in an optional retirement fund program his company was running. At the time, I thought he was completely mad! This fund expected you to contribute money and not be able to withdraw it for decades. We would be taking a percentage of his pre-tax income out of the budget every week and not be able to access that money for 32 years.
At the time, we were young parents with two kids and a brand-new mortgage. I was a stay-at-home mom. I robbed Peter to pay Paul every single month. I had no idea how he thought we had extra money that we could do without for over three decades. But in the end, he opened the account and deposited a lowly 1% of his gross income into it every paycheck.
As the years ticked by, with every raise, he would bump up that percentage until by the time he left that company — he was depositing the maximum allowed by federal law. I had watched over the years as that account grew and grew into the six-figure mark.
When I was 34, I became a registered nurse and we moved to North Carolina for my husband’s work. I listened to my gut back then and only applied to work at one facility. As it happens, that facility was owned by the good people of North…
