About
Hi Folks,
Welcome to “Retirement On A Budget”, my (hopefully) friendly, cheerful little blog site dedicated to publishing informative, helpful and encouraging articles for today’s retiree. My purpose is to inform, encourage and inspire today’s senior.
My name is Woody Woodring. My wife Janie and I live in beautiful Greenville, South Carolina, where we retired a few years ago after living all over the United States and Europe.
After retiring I started this blog as a means of exploring ways retired folks could save money and get more for less. Good theme! But the more I delved into this retirement living thing the more areas of interest to retirees I found. So I began another blog, “Woody’s Retirement Blog“, to talk about other areas of interest to retirees. Well, frankly two blogs are a bit much to maintain, considering all the other things I’m involved in, so even though I still maintain ”Woody’s Retirement Blog” I do not post to it very often. Now Retirement On A Budget is my number one retirement blog, dedicated to talking about anything and everything of interest to retirees and other seniors.
I hope you enjoy your visit to my site and that you will come back often. Your comments are welcome, encouraged and appreciated.
Happy retirement,
Woody 
Hi Woody,
I have a quick question for you. Just wondering if you track the audience reach of retirement-on-a-budget.com. The reason I’m asking is because recently you posted an article about one of our clients. The article was How to Retire Happy. I’m in the midst of compiling a media coverage report which is why i’m wondering if you track the unique visitors per month to your blog.
If you could let me know I would really appreciate it, Woody!
Thanks so much,
Samantha
Samantha Giovenazzo
Gail Bergman PR
905-886-3345
samantha@gailbergmanpr.com
http://www.gailbergmanpr.com
Hi Woody,
I enjoy your site – lots of helpful and interesting info!
Thanks for including my book on the retiree reading list – wondered if I could send you an attachment of the second editon (your site has a picture of the first edition).
Thanks so much,
Jan Culliane, co-author, The New Retirement: The Ultimate Guide to the Rest of Your Life (Rodale)
P.S. Please send me an e-mail I can send the attachment to if that’s okay with you.
Hi Woody,
I’d like to share with you (and others) what I have learned during the past 20 years about the financial exploitation of vulnerable older adults. While some of this information is linked to my website, other information, including correspondences that I exchanged earlier this year with AoA Secretary Walker, is not. In order to share these correspondences with you, please provide me your e-mail address.
Meanwhile, I am familiar with several excellent books by reputable experts that relate to my letter to Secretary Walker. One of these books, The Retirement Nightmare by Diane Armstrong, focuses on the abuse of involuntary guardianships. Consider, for example, Diane’s quote of Lawrence Frolic and Alison Barnes on page 27 of her book: “the laws as they now function are ‘procedurally inadequate, substantively archaic, demeaning to the elderly, and operated in a manner that permits widespread abuse and corruption’”. How are these procedures inadequate, and what needs to be done to make them adequate? This is what I address on my website and in my letter to Secretary Walker.
(End)
I pay $29 for one oil change. Where can I get 4 for under $100?
Hi Joyce,
I don’t know where you live but $29.00 is just about the going retail price for oil changes in Greenville, SC. For several years I had my cars serviced at the Goodyear Auto Service Center and they mailed me discount coupons for oil/filter changes. They were always less than $25.00. I now have all my service done at the AAA Auto Service Center in Greenville and they also mail me discount coupons for oil/filter change for less than $25.00. I am a member of AAA so I purchased a 200K Club package which includes all sorts of annual checks and services for $100.00 and includes four oil changes a year.
Thanks for writing,
Woody
Hi Woody,
I saw you featured in an article in the October 2009 U.S. News and World Report. As a leisure travel consultant, I am glad to hear someone like you validate my thoughts on traveling and the economy-people of all ages still want to travel! We just want the best price! I thought you and your readers might be interested in learning about Rovia-if you haven’t already. We’re a company like travelocity or expedia but better- but we guarantee to meet or beat the best on-line price. We offer 1/2 hour free concierge service with every trip booked by Rovia as well as $200,000 travel insurance to preferred customers. We can plan group vacations, activities, flights etc. and show you how to travel wholesale with a product called Dreamtrips. Please check it out at http://www.smyers.rovia.com and let me know what you think!
Thank you,
Chris Anne
Hello Chris Anne,
Thanks for writing. One of the pleasures my wife and I looked forward to during our retirement was travel. We traveled extensively during our working careers and have hundreds of other places we want to visit but alas the economy and rising cost of travel are limiting us severely. So if you can show my readers and me how we can travel with Rovia less expensively, you have made a friend forever (or maybe lots of friends).
I’ll visit your site and report back to my readers.
Woody
I am so glad I found your blog (it was in an article in US News and World Report).
I am also faced with the challenge of traveling on a limited budget. I am particularly interested in spending some serious time in national parks, although I’m not partial to sleeping on the ground. I have been looking for part-time work or volunteering in them, but haven’t had much luck. If you, or any, of your readers have any advice, I would most apprectiate it.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Ivan,
Thanks for writing. I have talked to several people I ran across working in the national parks. Most worked for vendors and are commited for the season. Lots of these folks are retired and work in one of the parks each year.
Go to http://www.coolworks.com/national-park-jobs/ and check them out.
Anyone else out there have some good advice or ideas on working in our national parks?
Woody
Hi Woody,
Thanks for reprinting my article about picking up extra income by doing property field inspections. It’s an ideal part-time business for retirees as the schedule is flexible and the cost to start is almost nothing.
Your readers might like to know that there are dozens of free articles about part-time businesses that are perfect for retirees at my web site, extraincomebulletin.com Just click on any topic in the “Popular Articles” list to view a complete listing of all articles.
Craig Wallin
P.S. Your readers might want to try Walmart for low-cost oil changes. The local store’s auto service center charges under $20 for the service.
Hey Woody,
I am writing to present you with a new book from Greenleaf Book Group that I think would be great content for Retirement on a Budget. Developed by an industry insider, the surefire financial strategies discussed in “Retirement Breakthrough,” a new business book by Dick Duff, show everyday people how to create and protect their income for a secure retirement.
As someone who has recently gone through all of the planning and financial decisions necessary to retire, your readers are able to view a personal account of the process that is invaluable. I feel that a review of “Retirement Breakthrough” would serve as a wonderful resource for your readers as well! The current economic disaster wiped out huge chunks of retirement savings across the country, throwing many consumers into a financial panic. Instead of going broke in retirement, readers will be able to thrive in any market by following the essential retirement plans presented in this authoritative book. Unlike most other books, “Retirement Breakthrough” provides readers with simple explanations of effective and underutilized financial strategies. An expert on annuities, insurance, and other financial instruments, Dick uses an engaging mix of case studies and step-by-step explanations, providing a reliable path for everyone to move profitably beyond 401(k)s and other standard investments.
Dick Duff, JD, CLU, has over forty-five years’ professional experience as a financial and estate planner. A prominent columnist for several professional journals who frequently appears on radio and television, he makes his home in Colorado.
I would be pleased to send you a copy of “Retirement Breakthrough” for your review. Dick is also available for interviews or guest blogging if that would be of interest to your readers. In the meantime, feel free to check out Dick’s website (www.retirementbreakthroughnow.com) for more information on the book.
I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Carrie
Carrie Winsett
Marketing Associate
Greenleaf Book Group LLC
PO Box 91869
Austin, TX 78709 USA
Phone (512) 891-6100
Fax (512) 891-6150
http://www.greenleafbookgroup.com
An Inc 500 Company
Hi Carrie,
Thanks for writing and telling about “Retirement Breakthrough”. I would be pleased to read Mr. Duff’s book and review it in my “Retirement on a Budget” blog. Perhaps this is a book my readers can use to help them make sense of their financial dilemma.
Woody
Hello Woody,
My name is Ryann and I just visited your site at retirement-on-a-budget.com. I would like to congratulate you for maintaining such beautiful site and would like to contribute an article on retirement topic, to your valued site. The article would be unique by all means.
Let me know how to proceed with this. Waiting for your positive response.
Regards,
Ryann
Hi Ryann,
Thank you for your kind remarks.
I will be pleased to consider your article(s) for inclusion on my site. My email address is woody@retirement-on-a-budget.com.
Best regards,
Woody
Hello Admin,
I was hoping I could write a guest blog on your website ( retirement-on-a-budget.com ) , with an article related to your site, I believe this will be of interest to your readers.
The article will be 100% original, written just for your blog and will not be posted elsewhere. Of course this will be completely free for you, however I would appreciate a live link back to our site. If you’re interested in this idea, please get back to me.
I would like to add one more thing, I will promote the content on social networking sites which will help the post to get traffic and serp ranking.. If you are looking for li–nk swap from a high page rank site, let me know I can go for that deal too which will be free..
Thank you so much for your time and consideration.
Thanks & regards,
Charles
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001922079933
Hi Woody,
I found your blog because you recently re-published an article I wrote about how to make a retirement survival kit as a retirement gift.
I really enjoyed browsing through your blog and appreciate the timely articles that you are providing for your readers.
I run a website about finding great gifts for soon-to-be retired folks and I was wondering if you would be interested in having me write some more articles about retirement gifts for your readers?
I would be happy to contribute creative and original articles for your site. Looking forward to hearing from you.
All the best,
Gloria