Senior Citizen looking to move to San diego

[eastcoastbias]

Originally Posted by msgsing

Some people get by. We know a couple who are retired and survive. Believe their only income is social security. They also get some degree of financial help from a son. They are low income in regards to apartment rents. They rent in Carmel Valley which is not exactly ghetto living.

According to them their rent is subsidized and they only pay 60% of the going rate. They have a free cell phone courtesy of the state of California. I believe they use food stamps and also get canned food items from charitable organizations. Their car doesn't run and the husband uses a bicycle and public transportation.

No car, canned processed foods, getting help from family and the government. That's no way to live for an extended period of time.


Time to pack some bags and head to Middle America.

[moved]

Originally Posted by msgsing

Some people get by. We know a couple who are retired and survive. Believe their only income is social security. They also get some degree of financial help from a son. They are low income in regards to apartment rents. They rent in Carmel Valley which is not exactly ghetto living.

According to them their rent is subsidized and they only pay 60% of the going rate. They have a free cell phone courtesy of the state of California. I believe they use food stamps and also get canned food items from charitable organizations. Their car doesn't run and the husband uses a bicycle and public transportation.

If they have subsidized rent, they're not paying very much each month. I know someone that lives in subsidized housing downtown (3rd & G), and she pays around $246/mo for her one bedroom.

The free cell phones aren't that good, and the numbers aren't original, they used to belong to someone else. I had one at one time, and was getting calls from a collection agency, but hey, they're free.

Charitable organizations give out more than just canned food. All of the food is donated, so it all depends on the day that they go, and I'm sure that they go to more than one. When I lived in City Heights, my next door neighbor would go to them, and he would bring back fresh produce, along with canned good, and various out her items, and some of them give out frozen chickens once in while.

There's noting wrong with using a bicycle and taking public transportation I have a running vehicle, but take public transportation most of the time. By keeping my driving to a minimum, and not driving to work, my insurance went down $300/year, and 1/2 tank of gas will last over a month.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

There is a guy that lives in an apt off Balboa and he just walks out the back with is cardboard sign and begs on the median. Every time I'm at the light I see people hand over money so he must be doing ok. He's been there for years.

[jkoz]

Originally Posted by Gingercoyote

Check out Sierra Vista or Tucson, AZ. Also Las Cruces, NM or any one of a number of smaller towns in those two states. The cost of living is considerably cheaper.

And from Tucson we're close enough to visit often

[signalfire]

I'm in San Marcos a half hour north of San Diego proper. It's gorgeous here, sunny days almost year round with just enough rainy and cloudy days to make you appreciate it all the more. Far enough inland to be out of the foggy mornings on the coast, but not in the desert, either. I ended up here quite by accident; was asked to house-sit for an elderly aunt in a +55 mobile home park and befriended the 99 year old (!) man next door, who asked me to move in with him instead of returning home to Oregon. He's now 101, legally blind but has more marbles than I ever thought of having. He provides me with housing, I'm the driver and chief cook and bottlewasher; I use my SS money (I'm 63) for my incidental needs. Neither one of us is hurting monetarily. I get free healthcare through Medi-Cal.

There are literally DOZENS of over 60 women in the park living alone in 2 BR houses who I think would be happy to trade that extra bedroom for a congenial roommate, especially a man who could do some of the work around the house they're not up for. Many of them also want their 'privacy' - read that as the extra bedroom is chock full of junk, and/or they haven't had much luck with men or roommates in the past... but I'm telling you all this because if you search on Craigslist, housing, shared, and then 'senior' as a sub-search, you'll come up with a lot of people wanting to rent their extra room in return for ~$500 or so... it varies; sometimes it's for caretaking of them or the house. With that, you'd get the run of the house, usually a big clubhouse with a pool and spa, workout equipment, billiards, etc, in a very nice suburban town with every convenience close by and all the stuff to do in San Diego a half hour away, as well as a built-in group of new friends in town. Mobile home parks are little villages with a mix of social animals and quieter types. The HOA fees vary; if you wanted to buy in, be aware that the least expensive houses for sale generally have the biggest HOA fees; my particular circumstance here, the HOA is $140 a month, utilities another $200 or so and the land is owned by the buyer; houses sell for the $100K to $200K range depending on age. You can buy a mobile home in the area for $40K but the HOA will be in the $1K range (!) and never go down, only up.

The other thing to look into is buying a boat already with a slip (same search Craigslist/SanDiego/for sale/boats/ 'with slip' as a sub-search. For some reason there's always a dozen boats for sale, people get in over their head paying for both a boat they seldom use, plus their 'other' housing in SD. There's often a waiting list for liveaboards. The people that get away with it without being official are called 'hideaboards' but if you have a van outfitted with a bed (see the Reddit subheading 'vandwellers') which an estimated tens of thousands of people are doing now in the US - a van plus solar panels on the roof, plus boondocking or parking for free = a very cheap lifestyle and you've solved your problem... you can live on the boat and/or live in the van, and/or rent a second bedroom and/or get a 'job' paid or not, as a caretaker for one of the tens of thousands of well-off elderly people in California that are begging for such, like I did. The need and opportunity is there, it all depends on what your ideal life is like. Vandwelling can cost as little as $500 a month depending on how much your van itself costs and how much you drive, and the boat appears to be doable for around the same; an anchorage/mooring rather than a slip is cheaper but you have to row to the dock to do anything on land. SD has sailing courses available, or if you ask around in the marina, you'll learn the ropes (quite literally, that's where the phrase came from). I've read that many people buy a boat on a slip and spend the next six months learning how to sail it, then end up going all up and down the coast or even worldwide which can be done solo if you've a mind to.

I'm preparing mentally for any of the above situations when my now 101 year old friend passes, if ever. I'm beginning to think he's immortal and I'll not outlive him!

[moved]

Living on a boat isn't free, and if you live in a van, or any vehicle, you have to keep moving to a different place every night.

[oddstray]

Yeah, I agree with moved on the boat and van thing.

And the live-in help/roommate is a possibility. But what happens when the other partner in that duo dies? That needs to be planned carefully.