Little is said of her financial situation prior to that point. No mention of a husband (who may or may not have been pensioned, may or may not have had a lengthy illness or may or may not be still around as in dead or divorced).

Debt is more accurately a case of management. We will always have the opportunity to use debt to our advantage, it is how well we manage it – and this can only begin when we are still working – that will make all of the difference in our retirement plan.

Debt acts like one of the three retirement taxes: inflation, debt and taxes on earning and investments. Many of us fail to save enough all while looking at the return on the investment rather than the “what-will-be-left”.

Then again, your Boomer parents and their friends may be simply wrapping themselves around the idea that they will always be working because kids are not moving out when they should, parents are coming back to live with them when they shouldn’t, health insurance costs much more than they had ever planned on paying and the invention of the 401(k) still mystifies far too many of them. In that kind of scenario, debt is almost inevitable. But it can still be managed.

Perhaps you’d consider taking a gander at my philosophies on the subject in Retirement Planning for the Utterly Confused (McGraw-Hill, 2007).