AARP Bulletin - May 2012

The couple achieved that last year when they moved from a Washington, D.C., suburb to the college town of Lexington, Va., home to Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute. “The two colleges make it a stimulating community,” says Margy Werling, 73, who is taking a class in the arts of India. “You can audit classes, use the library and attend student performances.” Her calendar includes performances by an a cappella group from Venezuela, an orchestra from Germany and a chorus and dance company from Chicago.

Werling says she and her husband, 82, have become more budget-conscious since they began their retirement. They travel but they also enjoy visiting historic sites that are within driving distance, such as Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and Civil War sites in Charlottesville, Waynesboro and Roanoke.

“We constrain ourselves so we can extend
what we have,” she says. “If we don’t spend this
year, we can put it away for next year.”
having fun. They’re just taking a
more thrifty and creative approach—
and reaping surprising rewards.

You can
audit classes,
use the library
and attend
performances.

‘Everything I do is free’

Betty Gerstein’s social calendar is teeming, but her skimpy entertainment budget remains intact. At 80, Gerstein has figured out how to take in shows, concerts, sporting events, the ballet, and even meals without forking over a single cent.

Her secret? Volunteer for just about everything.

“A normal person wouldn’t be able to live on my income. I can because I’m a saver,” says Gerstein, a retiree who lives in Delray Beach, Fla., with her dog, Bogart. “Everything I do is free.” If it’s February or May, Gerstein is volunteering at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, a tournament where some of the biggest pros compete. “I get to see great tennis, and they give me breakfast and lunch every day,” Gerstein says.

She helps out at the Downtown Boca Film Festival, usually in April, when she’s also busy at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. “I get to see all the movies,” she says.

If it’s October, she’s ushering at the Chris
Evert/Raymond James Pro-Celebrity Tennis
Classic. In December, she’s dividing her time
between ushering at the Nutcracker ballet,
working at Palm Beach County’s Jewish Film
Festival and helping out at the Chamber of Com-
merce, which hosts holiday events and provides
her with lunch every day for about
three weeks, not to mention dis-
counts at local venues.

‘The colleges make it stimulating’ Margy and Richard Werling knew what they wanted in retirement: a rich offering of affordable cultural events, access to free or low-cost college-level classes, and an active lifestyle.

‘We love dress rehearsals’

The Wall Street slide snatched a portion of Steve McLaughlin’s savings just as he was phasing into retirement. Fed up with the volatile stock market, McLaughlin, 61, decided to invest with a broker recommended by friends. That decision would cost him dearly and change the course of his financial future.

“All the money we gave him is gone,” says
McLaughlin, a lawyer who lives with his wife,
DJ, 62, in San Diego. “We don’t have much for
retirement now.”
McLaughlin says they both plan to retire and
take early Social Security benefits within a year,
which would replace their current annual in-
come of about $33,000. After paying bills, there’s
not much left for entertainment, he says. They
stopped dining out and seeing movies, instead
renting releases from Netflix for $8 a month. He
searches online for notices of free exhibitions.
“We try to stay busy,” he says.

But the couple haven’t given up on their favorite activity: the theater. They belong to the Shakespeare Society, which puts on free play readings. And with more than a dozen community theaters nearby, they attend shows and invitational dress rehearsals free of charge.

“We love to go to the invitational dress rehearsals,” says McLaughlin, a volunteer treasurer for the San Diego Association of Community Theatres. “Last month we saw Arsenic and Old Lace. It was well done.”