Anita Clemons Swanagan was forced into early retirement at 55 after developing a brain tumor and having several strokes. The medical bills piled up for the expenses that her health insurance would not cover.
At one point, she had over $100,000 in medical debt. She said she’d paid most of it off, but doing so drained most of her savings.
“Right now, I live totally on what I receive from disability,” Swanagan said at the time of her interview with Business Insider in late 2024, adding, “I wouldn’t consider myself financially stable.”
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Swanagan said that one of her financial regrets is giving too much money to friends in need when she was younger and not saving more for herself.
“It’s OK to care about people,” she said, adding, “However, you have to look at what it is costing you mentally and financially. You only have so many years to prepare for retirement.”
Swanagan is one of many in the US whose retirement was derailed by a medical crisis. Dozens of people between 48 and 96 who have emailed reporters or responded to surveys about their biggest life regrets told BI their stories about not factoring medical expenses into retirement planning or prioritizing routine medical appointments.
She regrets not asking for more money
After getting divorced, Swanagan raised her three children on a single salary as a solo parent, but never took government assistance before retirement. She believed being financially self-resilient set the right example for her children to become productive members of society.
However, that meant she constantly worked long hours and juggled multiple jobs to support her family. She spent 15 years as a correctional officer in Texas, Kansas, Washington, and Illinois. She also worked in hospitals, worked side gigs on farms, and provided in-home care for Alzheimer’s patients.
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Looking back, she regrets some of her decisions. “There were times I worked for less than I was worth,” she said, adding, “I never demanded more money or moved on to where I was appreciated. My salary hovered around $50,000.”
She wishes she’d saved more for the future
Despite tight finances, Swanagan said she always helped coworkers and friends who were going through hard times. It was “never more than a couple hundred dollars,” she said, “but it adds up.”
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She said helping people is important, but your future self is someone worth helping, too. If she could go back in time, she said she would tell her younger self not to be so generous because the future is unknown.
“There’s no such thing as a perfect retirement plan,” she said. “Circumstances change, and you can never be fully prepared.”
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Later in life, Swanagan was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive hormonal disorder called acromegaly, which she said caused her brain tumor and was a contributing factor to her diabetes and high blood pressure. It also caused some of her bones, including those in her jaw, to expand, which led her to lose all of her teeth and her joints to ache constantly.
“There’s nothing they can really do about it to take the pain away, so I’m always in some degree of pain, stiffness. I have trouble walking,” she said.
Unable to work, Swanagan lives on inherited farmland in Illinois that has been in her family since 1856. At the time of her interview with BI, she was staying in her SUV, which she converted into a camper while she waited for the tiny home she ordered to arrive.
“I have people around me that are family that are willing to pitch in and help me put my home together,” she said.
This story was adapted from Anita Clemons Swanagan’s interview for Business Insider’s series “Life Lessons.” Learn more about Swanagan’s story and others’ in the video below:
