Nancy, sorry, but I would double-check rules about homemade products since soups are perishable. I think any part-time business runs into the problem of making a few extra bucks and being a "real business". For example, homeowners insurance does not cover if a customer falls on your steps and you are considered running a home business. You might be better off working for someone else in a food business. You should talk to your insurance agent. You can get free business advice from SCORE (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) found in the phone book under US Small Business Administration. They also have a website where you can leave a question for a volunteer to answer (check volunteer biographies for a good match). You can also check with your local county cooperative extension for information on home food businesses esp rules and regulations. Perhaps you could supply frozen soups to a small local market. That's the kind of thing sold at the food coop in town and small grocery stores around here.

I know this comment is very much after the fact but I would just like to offer Seattle and the greater Puget Sound area as a wonderful place to retire. I have lived here my entire life and while I have traveled extensively across the country, there is nowhere else I would consider living. First, the area is extremely scenic.......make that drop-dead gorgeous!! Anywhere you might choose to settle will provide views to mountains and natural areas and you are never more than a few miles away from water.........lots of water!! The Sound, many lakes and rivers and streams. Because of the geography (nothing here is really flat), view properties are plentiful. Any outdoor activity you are interested in - skiing and other winter sports, hiking, camping, hunting, boating, etc. - can be easily addressed without any extensive car travel. Second is the weather. Most who have never lived here have huge misconceptions about the weather. IMO, it is excellent. Never too hot, never too cold and contrary to common opinion, it does NOT rain here constantly!! In fact, total average annual rainfall in Seattle is much lower than many other places in the US. Summers are sunny and very dry........winters damp and cool and snow infrequent. Seldom a need for any A/C and no summer humidity. There are 4 distinct seasons and each offers its own attractions. And no strange weather issues that generate ferocious storms.......no hurricanes, no tornadoes and while we do exist on a major fault line, earthquakes are extremely rare. Seattle is a vibrant, active and very cosmopolitan city. Lots of cultural activities, a major sports center and a foodie paradise. Yes, it is expense to live in town but there are scores of smaller communities within easy access of the city that are far less expensive. I live across the Sound, just a quick ferry ride away from downtown Seattle but a world away in terms of a rural feel and reduced cost of living. Puget Sounders for the most part are extremely well educated, entrepreneurial, friendly, and polite and many have a very artistic bent with many smaller communities known for their support of the arts. In short, living in the Puget Sound/greater Seattle area will provide all the advantages of a big city (colleges, employment, superb medical care, museums, theatres, restaurants and shopping) combined with a very strong community feel of the smaller, more rural and very scenically located surrounding towns. What's not to like ??

Canada provides an Old Age Security that starts at 65, and has a residence requirement (10 years, 18 years or so residence in Canada) so I applied for it then, 17 years ago. If one earns over about $65,000./year, they begin to claw part of it back, with full clawback at about $110,000. - that provision does not come close to affecting me, with annual income something under $50,000.! Canada began a mandatory public pension plan, with both employer and employee contributing, about 45 years ago, looking to retirement at 65, with a reduction of 1% for each 2 mos. that one chose to retire early, or an addition of 1% for each 2 mos. that one delayed, up to age 70. I more or less officially retired 15 years ago at 67, at which time I applied to receive my Canada pension Plan benefit. As I had had a fairly low income for a number of years, thus made less that regular contribution levels, that benefit has been somewhat reduced. I had a private pension to which I had contributed for just over 20 years and I began to receive that benefit at 65. I had a modest self-administered retirement plan with contributions deductible and payments added to income when drawn. I had a part time job at slightly over minimum wage until about 70, but have not been employed since. I have been able to live within those pensions, and save some to add to investments in almost every year. As a personal financial advisor for a number of years I learned money management, which allows me to make use of some tax deductions related to investments, and substantial contributions to various medical, social, international, educational and religious charities, plus some political contributions, which have allowed me to cut my federal income tax recently to zero (with extra unused credits, this year) and only a small provincial cost, most of it supporting our healthcare system, which I feel it a privilege to do, though I have made few demands on such service until this past year. I will be surprised if my pensions, with additions from investments if and when needed, will not be sufficient to maintain me adequately till I reach a hundred and more. I've heard many retirees say that they've become so busy that they don't know where they ever found time to go to work. I garden in summer, have only about 200 - 300 feet planted of something over a quarter mile of row planned, but it's been raining so often that it's hard to plant, and part of the ground is clay: if one works that too early, when it's too wet ... it bakes about as hard as iron. Take the proceeds to a couple of churches to give away, with the proviso that recipients add at least part of the value to their contributions, and some goes to family, friends and social service agencies. I read and visit friends in winter, plus spend time on the internet and do some social activities, in addition to doing a number of volunteer activities, including income tax preparation for low-income folks, a service offered by one of the churches with which I'm involved, in early spring. I learned to live fairly frugally while growing up, and had some additional lessons in that game while helping refugees get re-established in Korea following the Korean War. One of the jolly and heavily involved men at church says that he likes to have me park my car next to his somewhat older one ... for it makes his look good. Never mind - it gets me where I want to go and brings me home (most of the time). I'm thankful to be physically, mentally and emotionally able to get myself out of various issues that come up from time to time. My rent here on the farm is rather low (I have to carry my water for drinking and most cooking ... but I've done that before, so it's not a burdensome chore) and I figure that I can continue to live here as long as I am able to drive my car. I've said for some time that it seems to me to make a lot of sense for up to half a dozen old folks, when they come to the time when looking after their place becomes a burden, to share a house. Living alone doesn't exactly make for interesting conversation. Intellectual stimulation helps to keep Alzheimer's at bay, I've heard. Shared chores are more fun than doing them all by one's lonesome ... and the extra hands would mean that they were much less onerous that in one's own digs. Not only that - the reduced costs of household including operation would mean that they could hire heavy cleaning, etc. done. If someone were to fall over with a problem ... there'd be others on hand to provide or summon help ... and no doubt they'd know whether they could take care of it ... or should call the family caregiver ... or call 911: right now! There'd be a large reduction in costs over maintaining each individual home ... and certainly over the costs involved in entering either a residential or a nursing home. Interesting discussion, today. And there's more info over on the "Retirement" forum, if anyone wants to consider other facets of the situation. ole joyfuelled

I agree with everything said here. I think that we have all, as individuals been collectively sold down the river to get to the point where we have to consider whether we should or should not retire, if we have enough money to do so. We were not ever meant to work most of our days away, most of our lives, simply to continue existing doing the same working in order to keep existing. I am 50 and have never married... I'm not too good socially. But I have saved enough money now to retire, I believe. And I will enjoy the rest of my life... I hope at least another 25 or 30. Even though I live without any love in my life, I have plenty of activites to keep my mind engaged and curious. Over the past year, I have read a lot of books on retirement and what can do in that phase of one's life. This site also gave me some ideas: Here is a link that might be useful: Retirement Joy - retirement advice etc