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Speaking on the bk thing my mother seems to use this as her way to get out of debt. She has claimed BK 3 times in the last twenty years and blames it on her not making enough money. She is 78 and still works 30 hours a week making 30.00 an hour and has her SS. We split expenses on a town home we have rented for 17 years and the rent has never gone up. I have 2 kids (21 and 22 working and going to college but still home). I am now on SSDI and make 18k a year. She blames everything on everyone else but she works that BK thing like a pro. She usually has her credit score right back up within the year. Just amazes me.
Last edited by yellowbelle; 06-19-2016 at 10:24 AM..
Reason: orphaned - quoted post deleted
Absolutely. I know plenty of women who have long out-lived husbands, ex-husbands, or slacker husbands who live strictly on Social Security. The government subsidized apartment complexes are full of them.
Dave Ramsey is not aiming at sophisticated people such as most of the posters in this Retirement Forum. His message is more like an inspirational pep talk for the financially clueless. If you look at him from that point of view, I think most of the criticisms will become more understandable. In other words, he is simplistic on purpose, and it suits his purpose well. He does a lot of good for his intended audience.
My half-sister is 63. She works cleaning hotel rooms for around $12.50 an hour. Her plan is to work until she is 70 if her body can take the physical labor until then. She has been divorced several times but didn't stay married for longer than 5 years. My other half-sister and I fared much better so plan to help her out. She could get senior housing and possibly her Medicare paid for plus SNAP. There are many in her situation. Refugees and elderly who accompany legal immigrants fare better. Google refugee benefits.
I think it would be easier to explain away the criminal record.
To the people saying "I have a cheap cell phone plan", there are four cellular networks in the United States. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T Mobile. Verizon and AT&T are by far the best coverage and you pay for it. If you want data, you'll be hard pressed to find a plan for less than $60/month. In 2016, it's hard to imagine not having a smartphone with internet access. Sprint and T Mobile have much more limited networks. Sprint has limited roaming onto the Verizon network. T Mobile has limited roaming onto the AT&T network. You can get cheaper plans with those carriers. The rock bottom plans are the prepaid mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) that use the Sprint and T Mobile networks and don't have the Verizon/AT&T roaming features. Boost(owned by Sprint) and MetroPCS(owned by T Mobile) are the two biggest. If you happen to live somewhere with good Sprint or T Mobile coverage and don't travel much, you can save huge money with Boost or MetroPCS.
AT&T offers voice, text, and data for about $45/month including tax and fees on their Go Phone package if you sign up for autopay.
To the people saying "I have a cheap cell phone plan", there are four cellular networks in the United States. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T Mobile. Verizon and AT&T are by far the best coverage and you pay for it. If you want data, you'll be hard pressed to find a plan for less than $60/month. In 2016, it's hard to imagine not having a smartphone with internet access. Sprint and T Mobile have much more limited networks. Sprint has limited roaming onto the Verizon network. T Mobile has limited roaming onto the AT&T network. You can get cheaper plans with those carriers. The rock bottom plans are the prepaid mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) that use the Sprint and T Mobile networks and don't have the Verizon/AT&T roaming features. Boost(owned by Sprint) and MetroPCS(owned by T Mobile) are the two biggest. If you happen to live somewhere with good Sprint or T Mobile coverage and don't travel much, you can save huge money with Boost or MetroPCS.
I'd like to present another option for those looking for a fairly low cost cellular plan. I've had Family Mobile for about three years now and am totally happy with them. Family Mobile is sponsored by Walmart. If you own your own phone, you only pay for a $25 starter pack to establish service. They also sell phones if you don't already own one. The monthly fee is $35 plus the junk fees. I pay somewhere between $38 and $39 per month for unlimited texting, voice, and data. Family Mobile uses the T-Mobile cell towers, and was quite surprised one night driving on an icy I-80 through southern Wyoming when I still had coverage, but on a network I never heard of before. On that trip, through Wyoming, into Montana, across to Idaho, then south through Nevada back to SoCal, I had coverage the whole time, and usually on networks I didn't recognize. Never had a roaming charge.
p.s. I do not think you can use this plan to use your phone as an internet 'hot spot', (a gateway for your computer to connect to the internet).
Yes, a professional friend of mine shared this at a luncheon last week. I know nothing of her finances, but she is a wonderful person. She jokes - I hope- that she plans to work forever. She is past retirement age. On another note, many boomers may have worked for religious based organizations domestically or internationally and have little social security credits or savings. I have no crystal ball but I believe a life of selflessness will result in a a satisfied life. Good things will come back to you and that skimpy retirement savings does not automatically make one a slacker. Also, some people have invested very heavily into their children. The children are the retirement plan. I know one family that hocked the family home and made every sacrifice for their kid to finish medical school debt free. Thankfully, it all s turning out very nicely. IMHO too much has been made of building wealth and too little attention has been given to just being frugal. I believe it is possible to do just fine with limited income of you are debt free, have health insurance, and differentiate between needs and wants. I would say good health is more important than wealth. The Bible says that the poor will be with us always. This gives us an opportunity to share. All the best everybody !
And be handy. You can't be a handyman if you aren't handy. And even people who don't need the income from working at age 72, often don't have enough money to pay for repairs. Always be handy, because you never know when you're going to need it.
One problem with being a handyman at age 72 is that you have to climb, get down on your hands and knees, get underneath sinks, etc. At age 72 your bones and joints start to give you pain, especially when you do that kind of work. So you have to find ways to it without the pain. Knee pads, pads to lie on your back on a rough surface while you work above you, etc. Even a pad to sit on the floor, because you might no longer be able to stoop for more than a few seconds without getting dizzy. A lot of old people lose their sense of balance. When they have to work from a ladder, they need a ladder tall enough that they can lean against it while they work. If they were to try to work too far above the top of the ladder, they would be relying on their sense of balance, which they might no longer have.
It's just as well to get rid of a Corvette, because then you don't have to find out the hard way when you're going to be too old to drive it.
I'm 72 and I just completed the under the sink job you described, complete with the foam pads on the floor for my knees and but, a large towel under the sink as a cushion and to soak up any leaks. Wife needed a new kitchen faucet cus the old one was leaking and 20 years old. It's a nice upgrade. I wasn't looking forward to doing it. I was in and out several times and had to go buy a crowfoot flare nut wrench to get the thing apart. It feels good that it's done and I can still do it, but I'm not farming myself out to others.
I know a couple who have a daughter. She is in her 30s now. This couple spent their whole life showering this girl with gifts, groceries and apartment security. The daughter isn't the only problem,( they can't let her go) these two are living like two kids who just got a credit card.
They don't want for anything because they buy most of what they want. They both work but these two never saved a dime. They sold their home and now they are renters. Still dreaming of cars, RVs, and fancy cruises they don't have the money for. I guess they had borrowed against the house so they don't have much after the sale.
It's pathetic, I can't be around them anymore because of their constant dreaming out loud of what they want to buy. They are the ultimate consumers....
Another excellent post! I get really angry at idiots who think that they're superior to others because they've got a fat investment portfolio. If you get to retirement with decent health and no humongous medical bills weighing you down or without having had any prolonged periods of unemployment or without a costly divorce that left you in debt, that means you were lucky not good. A decision made at 17 or 18 when you were a dumbass just graduated from HS could still be haunting you forty years later -- or it could have been the equivalent to winning the lottery. Even events that you had no control over continually influence your life: who your parents were and the kind of family you were raised in; whether you won or lost in the genetic lottery in terms of health, intelligence, and talent, etc.
I am awed by the good luck I've had in my life. Since my thirties, my career has been steady and well compensated. I have a decent pension plus SS in addition to retirement investments. I have had decent health and have not run up medical debt. I've avoided any real losers looking to drain my assets (or do much worse) in the name of "true love". It's infinitely better to be lucky than good.
It's not just luck, it's also planning, and choices we make in our lives.. Things happen, and obviously not all good, and there can be setbacks ( we all have them). But one still has the responsibility for his/her own decisions, and for the consequences of those decisions.
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Another excellent post! I get really angry at idiots who think that they're superior to others because they've got a fat investment portfolio. If you get to retirement with decent health and no humongous medical bills weighing you down or without having had any prolonged periods of unemployment or without a costly divorce that left you in debt, that means you were lucky not good. A decision made at 17 or 18 when you were a dumbass just graduated from HS could still be haunting you forty years later -- or it could have been the equivalent to winning the lottery. Even events that you had no control over continually influence your life: who your parents were and the kind of family you were raised in; whether you won or lost in the genetic lottery in terms of health, intelligence, and talent, etc.
