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I don't really get the point of the OP and why this kind of topic continuously generates so many replies.
This person seems like an edge case. I can't think of anyone I know personally who owns an RV, much less anyone who uses it to travel from site to site looking for employment. Even with gas where it is now, I can't imagine you'd even break even by doing this. There are plenty of counties here in Indiana with a relatively low cost of living where a retiree could find a simple, low paying job without much effort - here in the Indy metro, unemployment has been hovering from the high 3s to the mid 4s for the last six months or so. Virtually every low wage retail place is hiring, and wages are improving. I've seen local grocery stores starting at $11/hr.
This person needs to find a low cost place and just settle down. What they're doing is stupid, but makes for good headlines.
Some people are just wanderers. How &/or why is it necessary to tie down a wanderer?
I wrote a poem once about this:
No one can catch the bird when she's flying
There's few that would even try,
Most seem to know that the beauty of the bird
Is the sun on her wings as she flies.
Oh for goodness sake. I did read the article and I live on SSI of $889.40/month. I do not feel sorry for this woman who ordered a filet minon and can't afford it. Give me a break. Her monthly income is far above mine. I live in affordable senor housing. She could do the same with lots of disposable income to spare.
I don't really get the point of the OP and why this kind of topic continuously generates so many replies.
This person seems like an edge case. I can't think of anyone I know personally who owns an RV, much less anyone who uses it to travel from site to site looking for employment. Even with gas where it is now, I can't imagine you'd even break even by doing this. There are plenty of counties here in Indiana with a relatively low cost of living where a retiree could find a simple, low paying job without much effort - here in the Indy metro, unemployment has been hovering from the high 3s to the mid 4s for the last six months or so. Virtually every low wage retail place is hiring, and wages are improving. I've seen local grocery stores starting at $11/hr.
This person needs to find a low cost place and just settle down. What they're doing is stupid, but makes for good headlines.
I totally agree. The article in the OP seems to trying to paint the people in it as "typical" retirees when they're anything but that. It's how they've chosen to live their retirements that resulted in them having to work crappy part-time jobs to support their retirement lifestyles. They made choices, so they live with them.
What angers me the most about this article is that it seems to be another one of a growing trend of authors and publishers pushing outliers as being representative of the typical. The OP article isn't written as "how retirees travel the country on a shoestring" POV but from the "how the Great Recession forced retirees into homelessness" POV, which is total bull manure. It's like that story somebody posted on the Economics or Retirement forum weeks ago about how "the college loan burden prevents couple from retirement". Well, it turned out Mommy and Daddy couldn't retire before they were even 60 because they were still supporting "artist" son with $120k in student loans and semi-employed other son with $60k in student loans which they had co-signed for. Cry me a river!
Trying to pass these extreme cases off as typical denigrates the real plight of people who have real problems not of their own making.
I read most of the article about the RV woman. I didn't get the impression that she was complaining about her situation. People can be honest about their situations without necessarily complaining. She said early on in the interview that she had several options, but chose to travel the country in her RV.
Maybe I missed her whining, I don't know. The website crapped out by the time I was almost done reading the article.
In any case, it seems to me that she is doing exactly what she wants to do, and her situation has little to do with being 'too poor to retire'.
I think this thread is very funny in a way. We've become such a socialist entitlement country, that not only is food, shelter, telephone, and health care considered a right, now it seems people think everyone is entitled to a carefree and leisurely retirement that includs travel around the country. Personally, imho, retirement is a well earned rest. If people have been serious getting an education, saving and investing money, not living beyond their means, not taking risks with their body and health with drugs and alcohol, and risky behavior, then they may get to retire in comfort. But if they haven't and they have to keep working in their later years, there's no reason to feel sorry for them. In most cases, they probably made some or a whole lifetime of bad choices. Even then the govt. will still supply a housing food and medical care. Therefore, I don't see any reason at all to feel sorry for them or to lobby for more benefits for the elderly. How much longer will it be before the whole country completely runs out of money and becomes like modern day Venezuela? And when did not working to support yourself become a right, for anyone at any age?
I am not advocating this at all (I have no debt) but if a person dies having $50,000 in debt, doesn't the debt just evaporate, if the person is single without children?
Wouldn't it seem that older people nearing the end of their lives can just ignore big debts and make small payments on it until passing away? Unless larger payments are demanded....
Similar to how people declare bankruptcy and all their debts are erased. (again, not advocating this at all, just bringing up points of discussion)
As I understand it, that debt can be collected from the person's estate, if they have left one. Although I'm not sure how often that money actually is paid back. I know when my Dad died his credit card debts and a couple other outstanding debts he had ( nowhere near $50,000) were paid out of his estate before the rest of the money was distributed according to his will.
I don't really get the point of the OP and why this kind of topic continuously generates so many replies.
This person seems like an edge case. I can't think of anyone I know personally who owns an RV, much less anyone who uses it to travel from site to site looking for employment. Even with gas where it is now, I can't imagine you'd even break even by doing this. There are plenty of counties here in Indiana with a relatively low cost of living where a retiree could find a simple, low paying job without much effort - here in the Indy metro, unemployment has been hovering from the high 3s to the mid 4s for the last six months or so. Virtually every low wage retail place is hiring, and wages are improving. I've seen local grocery stores starting at $11/hr.
This person needs to find a low cost place and just settle down. What they're doing is stupid, but makes for good headlines.
I agree with you there. Seems to me she spends a lot of money traveling around the country to find those low wage jobs, travel expenses that could be saved and used for repairs of her mobile home. Although I think I also read in that article that she wanted to do all that traveling, and this was one ( very inefficient) way to do it.
I read most of the article about the RV woman. I didn't get the impression that she was complaining about her situation. People can be honest about their situations without necessarily complaining. She said early on in the interview that she had several options, but chose to travel the country in her RV.
Maybe I missed her whining, I don't know. The website crapped out by the time I was almost done reading the article.
In any case, it seems to me that she is doing exactly what she wants to do, and her situation has little to do with being 'too poor to retire'.
I read the whole article, and it went on to describe the situations with two other couples. I don't recall either the first woman, or any of the others complaining about their situations, or asking for help. Seems to me they were just describing their circumstances for the article.
Oh for goodness sake. I did read the article and I live on SSI of $889.40/month. I do not feel sorry for this woman who ordered a filet minon and can't afford it. Give me a break. Her monthly income is far above mine. I live in affordable senor housing. She could do the same with lots of disposable income to spare.
Lady, dial 1-800-wah-wah.
IMO the woman wasn't complaining about her situation, just stating it as requested for the article. But i'd bet the author/editor of the article meant for readers to feel her plight, so to speak. You didn't, I didn't either.
I think there is a disconnect from when we grew up and news articles were really researched and actually had facts and now. Now it is all sensationalism. They want us to believe that say all poor people are welfare queens and all old people spent their money foolishly and are now destitute and making poor decisions.
It seems like presenting things that way makes the news article reader feel better about themselves. They are smarter, more disciplined etc than the person in the article. The person in the article thinks they are just telling their story, but the author uses it as a springboard for sensationalism.
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Cry me a river! 
