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I am single and 65 and work a very physical job female and beginning to have symptoms of degeneration. I am scared to death no pun intended. I havent worked constant enough while raising my children, so will have minimal retirement funds not nearly enough to pay my debts and live remotely comfortable no home no assets and am very depressed thinking about what will happen to me. Do I get disabililty or a part time job. I am not happy living in the city for the past decade I hate it but have limited options. Sometimes I get happy thinking there is plenty of options but things always add up to not enough funds or home big enough to work at home.
Can I get a witness? Can I get advise? Being this age is like a whole different ballgame and hard to relate to others as well as feeling a bit unaccepted or treated like a secondary human. Wish I had a home of my own or a nice motorhome to live in while I can visit my 25 grandchildren.
I am single and 65 and work a very physical job female and beginning to have symptoms of degeneration. I am scared to death no pun intended. I havent worked constant enough while raising my children, so will have minimal retirement funds not nearly enough to pay my debts and live remotely comfortable no home no assets and am very depressed thinking about what will happen to me. Do I get disabililty or a part time job. I am not happy living in the city for the past decade I hate it but have limited options. Sometimes I get happy thinking there is plenty of options but things always add up to not enough funds or home big enough to work at home.
Can I get a witness? Can I get advise? Being this age is like a whole different ballgame and hard to relate to others as well as feeling a bit unaccepted or treated like a secondary human. Wish I had a home of my own or a nice motorhome to live in while I can visit my 25 grandchildren.
Wow. this was a good thread to have bumped up. I've read about half of it.
Interesting questions and issues....definitely.
As a Late Boomer, or Trailing-Edge Boomer ...I pray to get older everyday, and closer to Soc. Sec, so there's not doubt no changes will be made before I start collecting.....
I've even seen some talk about taking SS as soon as you can, to take the hit and get a lesser benefit...because if you're already getting in there's likely no way Congress would ever lower what you're already getting. Versus wait to get the benefit and take the chance Congress will lower it before you can sign up.
But that's likely not necessary because any changes they make would be for the next generation of retirees. For example, when they upped the full retirement age even the the oldest people that would have been affected by it had 20 years notice...they were still in their 40s. So at 55, I THINK I'm safe from any benefit changes.
The changes I've seen proposed (the ones NJ's Chris Christie talked about recently) are not to begin until at least the mid 2020s, past when I'd already be on Soc Sec. But Millennials...uh, yeah, they will likely be affected. The EARLY Gen Xers may be OK, but the later ones......Like the Millennials I'd would likely get tagged by changes to the system.
As for the OP question of what will happen to poor seniors?....I just don't think we know yet. Either will keep the safety net we have in place...with minor, or major changes.
WIll more states MAKE kids responsible for their parents...REALLY start digging in and prosecuting under filial responsibility laws?
Will we the people, ourselves, make our own arrangements, like group or shared living, senior communes?
There's thread about that topic.....And I know I certainly will pose the idea to my friends, that 3 or four of us live together and share expenses...should it come to that.
But whether that happens depends on whether 2 or 3 of us need that kind of 'togetherness' support or not. My married friends have kids...will they live with their kids, where will they be living by then .....who would move where to make the idea work, who'd be willing to sell their house and move to the other's. Heck.....who's even still alive by then....
In the meantime all anyone of us can do for ourselves is plan and save the best we can.....
The most I've ever mad in a year is $17K, and most years around $12K. I don't think I've been overspending.
Yes, but maybe instead of the millions of posts you have made on here griping about your plight and the millions of reasons you give why you can't do anything about it, you should take some advice from your "Free Market" ID and do something about it.
The answer to the thread title question is that poor seniors, after they can no longer work, will live from a combination of government and private safety net programs including, but not limited to, senior housing, section 8 housing, food stamps, food pantries, meals on wheels, Medicaid, senior ride vans (in some communities), and so forth.
Personally my wife and I are all set for a rather comfortable and secure retirement but we do worry about others because I realize a good portion of my situation isn't do solely to planning but a good deal of good luck as well.
I'm 67, not drawing benefits while working full time my benefits increase by $50 every three months. If I am able to work another year my benefit will be $200/month more and if I can go another three years my benefit will increase by $800 from my full retirement age benefit.
Extremely lucky me; on social security alone I will collect a tad over $3,000 while the wife collects $1,200 (all tax free) and on that if we can not live on social security alone then we have a real personal spending problem. But this isn't due so much by great planning on my part but luck. What if I had developed arthritis so bad at 62 I had to take ss early as did my wife just to be able to survive? Instead of $4,200 it would be $2,300 and from that would come the $600/month in Medicare Part B and supplemental insurance premiums. I suppose we could live on $1,700 but the quality of life and extra's now plan to enjoy would never happen.
What if the work I did was just hard work? Lifts, cat walks and heavy loads are not safe for a 66 year old pipe fitter much less one who is 68 or 70.
With pensions going by the wayside I would see like to see a voluntary increase where a worker could opt to pay more of his share in order to lower his retirement age. Right now the employee contribution is 6.2% with a full retirement age of 66 (for now) but how about the employee being able to pay 7% over 20 years and be able to lower his full retirement age to 65 in exchange? For labor workers what if they could opt to pay 8% or 9% over "X" years and lower their full retirement age to 62?
Let me tell you something if you don't already know it, the older you get the harder it gets even in a rather sedentary job like mine.
Let me tell you something if you don't already know it, the older you get the harder it gets even in a rather sedentary job like mine.
I'll be seventy-two in a couple of months so I know that that's not true. I couldn't do heavy work, but I didn't do heavy work fifty years ago, I'm better at business management today; I'm certainly an incresingly competent investor.
The people who have problems are the people who believe that they are entitled to become children again, carefree children who have no responsibilities. They demand that mommy and daddy take care of them. Mommy and Daddy are dead. The government will not replace them. The government tries to provide just enough to buy the votes of these would-be children, nothing more.
Old people who have nothing have only themselves to blame. These are the same people who bought cars and trinkets they couldn't afford when they were younger; they never saved a quarter. They deserve their wretched lives. The story about the ants and the grasshopper is true. However, in the real world version the ants do not take pity; they may or may not even notice the grasshopper in his death throes.
When I get older, I'm 64 now down the road I don't see anything for me....My sister is 76. I have no kids and wouldn't expect them to take care of me anyway. That's it. At what point and who comes to my house and says "it's time to go ". Go where ? To a home. Who will pay for it and will it have to be a snake pit because I have no money. I worked from age 19 to last year. No 401K Is that how it will happen ? Just wanting to know so I can plan for the end. Thanks,
When I get older, I'm 64 now down the road I don't see anything for me....My sister is 76. I have no kids and wouldn't expect them to take care of me anyway. That's it. At what point and who comes to my house and says "it's time to go ". Go where ? To a home. Who will pay for it and will it have to be a snake pit because I have no money. I worked from age 19 to last year. No 401K Is that how it will happen ? Just wanting to know so I can plan for the end. Thanks,
Medicaid can pay for a nursing home. Not all are snake pits. We have some nice new ones here in our poor south texas county.
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posts may be shocked, but here is a good article from Fox (yes, I just typed those 4 words in that order 
):
