The good news is that my pathology reports came back with negative margins and whatever else they look for in prostate cancer. My urologist, who called about 9:30 last night, said, "We got it all." This actually wasn't particularly a relief for me since I expected to hear exactly that. My concern has been about incontinence and impotence. I'm optimistic about those, as well, but I think it will be awhile before we have a very clear picture.
But still, is my cup half full? It is very half full. Mary especially was relieved.
With all this life and death stuff, you'd think the rest of life would put itself on hold for awhile, but of course it doesn't. In reading and listening to the news yesterday, I was knocked down hard by reports that AIG is one of the struggling financial giants making headlines. Mary and I have all of our non-PERS savings in VALIC, which is owned by AIG.
The picture is not at all clear, but if AIG goes under, which it may well, we might lose everything we've put aside for retirement for over twenty years. In fact, VALIC has been dropped from the company name, and it's now just AIG Retirement. Not a good sign. Our agent hasn’t returned our phone calls, so we can’t yet try to pull our money out and deposit it somewhere else, if that’s even allowed in a tax sheltered annuity. Also not a good sign.
The upshot if this goes bad is that Mary's hopes to retire at the end of the year will disappear, and it might mean I'll have to begin a serious job search. Chances are good she'll have to work an additional seven to ten years. It's hard to say what work I could find locally, especially since I can't work for any PERS-covered agency. At the least, I could continue as an adjunct at the local community college, though that only brings in about $5 thousand a year after taxes. Still, $5 thousand is $5 thousand.
So we're still in the position of believing we're in better shape than most American families. There are certainly a lot of people who would feel no sympathy for a couple of teachers who end up not being able to retire early. You call that hardship?
But it's a bitter pill to watch all our savings disappear overnight with no warning. We've long said that if we're ever in real trouble, the whole country will be in real trouble with us. Guess what?! Alan Greenspan says this is a “hundred year event,” and Alan has never been known for hyperbole.
Maybe, we hope, AIG will survive. Reports at this time are far from encouraging.
But hey, cancer free!
No comments:
Post a Comment