general question:

are you a giver or a taker?

For now; neither.
I am retired and living off of my savings.  I am paying my own insurance and I am not drawing SS.  My home is paid off,

but I still pay property taxes, school taxes, sales taxes, telecommunications taxes, gasoline taxes, income taxes and more.
Also I paid a pretty large "excise" tax on some tires I bought and yesterday I paid $257.50 for radiotelephone licenses and DHS decals to fly to Canada.

I have also donated around $10k to charity so far this year, and I sent $2k to my brother to help him feed his kids and pay his mortgage and car insurance.

So I guess for now, I am a giver.