Ahh—those gloriously happy days of the 1950s! We’d won the Big War, the baby boom had begun. Those were great days and life was good. Incomes were rising and so were lifestyles. Thanks to a homebuilder named Levitt, thousands of Americans were becoming homeowners. Guys were going back to school on the GI Bill. Young couples were hatching kids in record numbers.

But as of January 2008 some of those first baby boom chicks turned 62. The tough fact is; life has gotten very expensive. Modest homes are pushing a quarter million dollars—and much, much more in many areas. Today medical expenses account for roughly 14 percent of our Gross National Product. Science has progressed light years in the last six decades. Today doctors and pharmaceutical companies can do wonderful things. But all that stuff comes with a high price tag.