After retiring from a college teaching job, Verner, 74, has had to focus on “stretching a dollar.” For one, the former public television talk show host skips pricey proteins on her grocery runs to help ends meet throughout the month. She lives alone in low-income senior housing in Chicago, but is often unsure of affording rent on her social security income alone. Without additional income, Verner finds it impossible to save money for life’s inevitable emergencies. Her biggest financial regret? Cashing out her pension from her job at a local college rather than getting the income in monthly installments.

The self-published author earned a master’s degree and hosted a local access show for nearly 20 years, but even with a higher degree and award recognition for her show, she found it difficult to save her income as a single-mother raising four children.

These days, Verner feels she has few people to turn to for help. While her children visit from time to time, she’s uncomfortable burdening them with her financial realities. But Verner is not ready to call it quits just yet, she’s working tirelessly to sell her already self-published memoir for additional income. One day, she hopes to take another cruise or to make it back to Italy, a country she got the chance to visit while completing graduate school.