Elaine, I'm too far from the site but I would recommend that instead of pansies, you substitute calibrachoa. Much hardier and longer blooming. You can also show them how to make a gazillion plants from rooting slips(in water) of all the gorgeous kinds of coleus. Show them how adding a twig of willow will help almost anything root in water. The elderly with financial limitations will appreciate how one coleus plant will make enough plants to fill a bed and more to share. If each participant got one variety/color in a month they could gather to swap and share.

When my husband had chemo, our insurance paid 80%, just like Medicare. Our portion of the bill was $30,000. Luckily we could pay it. Now that we are on Medicare, we keep the other insurance to pay the 20%, good thing too. My DH has had 2 other cancers with expensive treatments. Thanks to Agent Orange. We would never trust his health to a the Dept. of Veterans Affairs or a Veterans Hospital.

Establish a Traditional IRA account. I believe you can both establish separate IRA accounts, allowing you as a couple to put aside $4K each (if under age 50) or $5K if 50 or over, annually. Any additional amounts you can save should be in separate taxable investment accounts. Any savings are better than none, obviously; so don't let the after-tax issue deter you. Any brokerage can set up automatic monthly deductions from your checking or savings accounts that allow an easy way to contribute without hassle. You'll want the lowest cost brokerage and funds, which means Fidelity, Vanguard, etc. Make sure you can allocate your contributions into at least 2-3 different funds to give you a balanced portfolio. Or, pick a low-cost target date fund, although I don't personally like them. It's difficult to evaluate past performance on them, and many trail the market averages. Good luck to you going forward!

Dances, You sleep in the bath-tub often? _________________ Thanks for your messages, everyone. I'm pleased that so many of you are enjoying your retirement. Tempered somewhat by the fact that some have health problems with which to cope. I did some more garden planting Friday ... and have some left to do. I have some manure left in the barn ... had thought to put some of it between the rows, but, as landlord said the other day, the soil is rich from when it was a barnyard, so I think that I'll hold off on the manure. But there are a thousand or so bales of straw in the mow, and I think that I'll get some of them down to spread between the rows, to see whether they may deter the weeds. Could I have a lazy streak or two in the constitution, somewhere? As I approach 80, I have about 80% of my assets in stocks, slightly over 1/2 in stocks owned directly and over 1/3 in equity-based mutual funds. The nice thing about owning Canadian stocks is that, while the annual dividends that many pay were tax-advantaged earlier, recently the advantage was increased. And part of the average annual return is in their price going up ... ... but I don't need talk to the income tax people about that until I either sell them ... or die. Don't plan to do either, this week or next. There was an offer on the table for a couple of pension plans in Canada and some others to buy out Canada's biggest telco ... but then this big funny-business U.S. mortgage deal hit the fan and there was talk that there'd be a renegotiation at a lower price. It would involve the company being loaded with huge debt in order to pay out the stockholders (it's been known for years as a "widows' and orphans' stock") ... ... and current bondholders sued, saying that their bonds would become like junk bonds. Quebec Supreme Court agreed to hear their case, the other day - and the deal was to be completed by the end of June. So my holding in that issue went down about 14%, this week. But several major mining and processing companies in Canada have been sold to out-of-country new owners, some private, in recent years and the stock in another major one that I bought in early Jan has gone up by almost half ... my best deal in years. Enjoy your weekend, everyone. ole joyful