Friday Fictioneers: Saving for Retirement

Welcome to Friday Fictioneers where each week close to 100 people participate in a flash fiction challenge based on a photo prompt.

sandra-crook
This week’s photo by Sandra Cook

My story:

My urge to downsize is just as strong now as my urge to nest was 25 years ago. The reason I haven’t given everything away is because my job is so insecure I am saving things to sell.

On a recent antique browsing weekend my husband saw an interesting piece of rusted art that looked like a cross between a lawn-tractor and a chopper.

“It’s only $100.00” he said ecstatically.
“That is a good price” I replied barely interested.
“It will look gorgeous in the flower garden”.
“Is it really necessary?”

I’m going to spend my retirement cluttered and broke.

65 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers: Saving for Retirement”

  1. Drat! Had my entire comment done and hit something accidentally and lost it. Anyway, as I once said (more or less)…I can identify with the struggle between wanting to keep (although I’m not acquiring as her husband is) and wanting/needing to downsize. It’s a constant struggle and I take great pride in every bag of things that I either toss or donate! Fortunately for me, the bikes my husband buys aren’t “junk”, but unfortunately, they’ll more than $100. Good luck to her. Maybe she can flog this as an antique some day.

    janet

    Like

  5. those odd bits of junk can be the most fun to collect 🙂 I suspect when I hit retirement age this will be a similar battle between my husband and I…except he will be the one chucking and I will be the buyer

    Like

  6. I think I see what Janet means. Maybe leave off the sentence about job insecurity, because the heart of the story – correct me if I’m wrong – isn’t financial insecurity, but her natural urge to downsize as she ages vs. his continued delight in oddities. Later, instead of “Is it necessary?” – because everyone knows it isn’t – maybe something indicating that however much she wants to downsize, she also wants to indulge him, so she decides to let him have this monstrosity and probably many more, because she loves him more than she loves a de-cluttered home. Honestly, unless you want her to appear bitter, I’d leave finances out of it, and make it about the stuff and clutter, because I think you’re trying to create a story in which an aging wife humors her slightly eccentric and very much loved husband.

    Like

  9. Hehe I couldn’t help laughing at the italicized line at the very bottom…well done, that was a perspective changing post 🙂

    Like

  13. Dear Dawn
    All the former comments aside, I really liked this piece, particularly the last line. I could feel her frustration with her pack rat husband. You made me laugh.
    Shalom,
    Rochelle

    Like

  15. I’m a minimalist, due to many years of changing houses/countries so I can identify with the ‘downsizing’ urge. But it sounds like she lets him have his way. I enjoyed this. Nice work.

    Like

  18. When my mother passed three years ago we began the decluttering she should have many years before. Even now we still have an abundance of leftovers from her sixty nine years on this Earth.

    Like

  22. Personally, I think no flower garden is complete without one. My wife is quite the collector, she is very picky about which items she parts with too 🙂

    Like

  23. She’s got to reconcile to life with a hoarder, eh? I guess $100 isn’t so much, it looks like a cool find to me, and it might make some money later on. Her acceptance of his choice seems quite real, it’s all about compromise isn’t it? I’m sure she gets her way in other areas!

    Like

  24. It is tough to play catch up. But sometimes we must. While I enjoy writing everyday for April for National Poetry Month…I sometimes get behind on my visits. I’m glad I came back for this one.

    I too have too much stuff. One year I tried to do a suggestion that I had read about in the paper…and that was to toss, gift or give away 5 items every day for a year.

    Retirement…I don’t think that is a word that exists in the vocabulary of those of us living in the ‘Sandwich Generation’. I think your piece this week ‘Nailed it’

    Like

Comments are closed.