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"They bought a 25-foot RV for $13,000 and started looking for work near their three sons, one of whom lives near Bar Harbor, and their six grandchildren. After finishing at the Maine campground this fall, they plan to look for work in Texas or Wisconsin, near their other children. (the Molnars)"
This article contains a lot of truth and alarm bells should be ringing for some folks but the couples chosen as examples are not very good ones. There are at least three million Americans roaming around the country, mostly in campers/RVs with no real permanent address. This couple's retirement plan is to cruise the highways between the three sons' homes rather than be stuck in Connecticut with a house and a big tax bill and no one coming to visit. They are good at complaining but they made life choices that might seem a little sour as they get older. In their early/mid 60s, they probably won't be able to sustain this forever but can for a while.
People work while in retirement for different reasons. Three months into retirement I found a part-time job because I completed my "year-long to-do list" in 90 days...I never really retired and was bored. The part-time job lasted seven years and turned out to be more enjoyable than the last few years at my career. My neighbor was well-off in retirement because he made some great decisions and owned a hardware business. He worked as a handyman because he liked to keep busy and enjoyed fixing or improving things. He did the "honey-do" work for all the local widows because he had the skills and a shed full of tools. Another friend worked construction jobs most of his life in various places. He is nearing 70 but still does home improvement work and is good at it...usually has back-logged jobs. He is more of a craftsman/artisan than just a carpenter or electrician. He likes what he does and is proud of his work. I don't know that he is secure enough financially that he can stop working but he is able to take long weekend trips and do what he wants.
The ability to roam around the country also assumes neither of them have health issues they need followed regularly, or that neither will break a hip and no longer be able to get in or out of the RV, let alone use a walker in it. My grandparents once took a cross country road trip in a car, and my grand mom got very sick while they were in Nevada (they/we lived in Jersey).
If anyone does consider it make sure you have traditional Medicare and not an Advantage plan, which are state-specific.
I knew a retired couple who take an RV down to Orlando every winter and work at Disney World till spring. That sounds fun to me. But they had resources if anything happens and they mainly do it for fun. I don't think it's a good plan for purely financial reasons.
The ability to roam around the country also assumes neither of them have health issues they need followed regularly, or that neither will break a hip and no longer be able to get in or out of the RV, let alone use a walker in it. My grandparents once took a cross country road trip in a car, and my grand mom got very sick while they were in Nevada (they/we lived in Jersey).
If anyone does consider it make sure you have traditional Medicare and not an Advantage plan, which are state-specific.
A more flexible option than an Advantage plan is a Medigap plan, which is what I'm going to be getting next week. Advantage is cheaper but it's not as portable as Medigap.
If you have to live on a lesser amount of money, you will. And no, the sacrifices aren't just foregoing Starbucks every day. Cutting back means not going to the dentist, not buying as much food, and not buying new shoes when the one pair you have has a hole in them. But you will survive and you'll be much more appreciative of the money you have.
I've been training myself to do so for the past couple of years: paying off all my debts, keeping a tight budget, reviewing each and every expense and deciding what what really necessary, finding cheaper alternatives. I don't eat out very much. My suggestion to people is: start thinking about these things, planning, and cutting back on expenses a few years before you retire from full time work.
I am not sure why Op is surprised.
Dominant idea in the country is:
You live once
You have to live it to the most
Most being satisfying any possible pleasure that either comes to your mind or is offered to you.
As the result, frugality and common sense are not embedded into minds. Spending at whatever it takes to satisfy mostly thought up wishes is good for corporations. Also, it forces slaves, sorry, workers, to work longer as habit of "living the life" stays. Again, good for corporations. More profit.
So exactly what did you expect? Uncle Sam come and grant you free funds to live pleasant ample retirement without cutting down on what you spent your life for? Really? You rip what you sawed. To get free grants you got to go to them oil countries.
I also have objection to the use of term "people live longer". people are kept alive longer, so that they can keep working (good for corporations)
There is rather not that much subtle difference here.
I am not sure why Op is surprised.
Dominant idea in the country is:
You live once
You have to live it to the most
Most being satisfying any possible pleasure that either comes to your mind or is offered to you.
THIS. And people like to remind everyone of someone who died young or became physically disabled preventing them from living life. So why save for today when tomorrow is never guaranteed. Live now and worry about the consequences later. Better to be old and broke than dead leaving too much money in the bank.
A more flexible option than an Advantage plan is a Medigap plan, which is what I'm going to be getting next week. Advantage is cheaper but it's not as portable as Medigap.
They're not the same. A medical plan is a supplement to Traditional Medicare, purchased to pick up the. 20% Medicare doesn't cover. Advantage plans are stand-alone plans, you can't get Medigap as a supplement. Yes traditional Medicare with a supplemental policy is very portable, Advantage Plans are not
Nobody's saying you can't enjoy life to the fullest. But there's ways to enjoy life without bankrupting yourself. How hard is it to sit outside and enjoy a sunset?
Completely overlooking those of us who were responsible and lived within our means. We both grew up dirt poor and vowed to work hard to not live our lives that way.
We are retired, doing fine, and spent a month in Europe visiting Amsterdam, a 10 day Viking River Cruise, and driving around the south of Ireland for 17 days. Next year it's a month in Italy and southern France. After that? Well it depends on a lively discussion (or discussions) regarding where we want to go next, and my health. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'll be near death before we stop traveling and then it will be in the U.S. and Canada.
People have lived on less, with less, in the past than they do today. The majority of seniors have enough resources to live well if they use their heads, and live within their means. If not, there's public assistance. No one has to starve or freeze to death in the winter. i'm 71 now, but 40 years ago there were news stories about retired people living on dog food. What amazed me was that with just a hotplate and a pot and running water and a refrigerator, they could have cooked very low cost nutritious meals from scratch, rice and beans with cheap cuts of diced pork or beef, lentils with cheap cuts of stewing beef diced in, and bread and butter, pasta and sauce, peanut butter and jelly, boiled eggs, grilled cheese, etc. Instead they ate dog food.
I think the same thing. Dog food is expensive. There is cheap nutritious food for humans such as:
bananas
rice (brown rice a bit more, but not that much)
carrots
oatmeal
whole wheat pasta
beans (lentils tend to be the cheapest, but all beans are pretty cheap and very nutritious). m
Meat is supposed to be eaten as flavoring. You're not supposed to eat huge slabs of it. The healthiest and longest lived populations in the world do not eat a lot of meat (except maybe fish).
People like to say poor people can't afford to eat healthy. I say the processed foods poor people eat are often not cheap.
I know not all Baby Boomers were spendthrifts, but as a generation they were much less frugal than the 2 generations that came before them. We're now seeing the results of that. That whole "live for today" hippie mentality isn't looking so good. Yes, I know most Boomers weren't hippies, but many did adopt that sort of "it will all magically work out" hippie type of attitude toward money. It's not working out for a lot of them.
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