Retiring on SS alone (move, social security, retired, gifts)

[whateverblahblah]

Let's say you retire early and then your money runs out about the time when you start collecting Social Security.

It seems like you could do OK even as a single person. Let's say you get $1,500/month in Social Security.

You can move into a subsidized senior complex where you pay 1/3 of your income, which would be $500. You'd also get $200/month or so in food stamps, and you would also get Medicaid. If you live in a city, you could get senior bus/train passes which should be very cheap.

So really, your monthly expenses would be as follows:

$500 Rent
$50 Bus pass
$300 Food (since $200 is covered by food stamps)
$0 Medical since you get Medicaid
$50 cell phone with unlimited data
$100 household goods
------------
$1,000 total expenses per month

That means you would have $500 left over for whatever you want. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

[charlygal]

Originally Posted by whateverblahblah

Let's say you retire early and then your money runs out about the time when you start collecting Social Security.

It seems like you could do OK even as a single person. Let's say you get $1,500/month in Social Security.

You can move into a subsidized senior complex where you pay 1/3 of your income, which would be $500. You'd also get $200/month or so in food stamps, and you would also get Medicaid. If you live in a city, you could get senior bus/train passes which should be very cheap.

So really, your monthly expenses would be as follows:

$500 Rent
$50 Bus pass
$300 Food (since $200 is covered by food stamps)
$0 Medical since you get Medicaid
$50 cell phone with unlimited data
$100 household goods
------------
$1,000 total expenses per month

That means you would have $500 left over for whatever you want. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

Only if you want to lose your free to choose where you live, what you eat, and where you receive medical care. As someone who's been dirt poor, I'll take my personal retirement savings any day. Any SS I get will be a bonus to my own money.

[whateverblahblah]

There are websites that have the subsidized senior housing units listed, so you should be able to pick which one you want. Most of them have waiting lists though, but it seems like once you get in you're all set.

As far as food goes, if you eat most of your meals at home, $300/month + food stamps should be fine. The food stamps would cover most of the meats, rice, and frozen veggies at the grocery, and the $300 in your food budget would cover everything else and the occasional splurge on a restaurant.

I take good care of my body, so I don't really care where I'm treated. Any healthcare in America will be much better than in some third-world ****hole.

[BucFan]

Originally Posted by whateverblahblah

Let's say you retire early and then your money runs out about the time when you start collecting Social Security.

It seems like you could do OK even as a single person. Let's say you get $1,500/month in Social Security.

You can move into a subsidized senior complex where you pay 1/3 of your income, which would be $500. You'd also get $200/month or so in food stamps, and you would also get Medicaid. If you live in a city, you could get senior bus/train passes which should be very cheap.

So really, your monthly expenses would be as follows:

$500 Rent
$50 Bus pass
$300 Food (since $200 is covered by food stamps)
$0 Medical since you get Medicaid
$50 cell phone with unlimited data
$100 household goods
------------
$1,000 total expenses per month

That means you would have $500 left over for whatever you want. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

SS wasn't originally established to be the sole income for folk's retirement - but it appears that in the next several decades, more and more Americans will depend on it as their only source of retirement income....

[southkakkatlantan]

Please also give estimated costs for:


Auto maintenance (I assume most retired people actually still own cars?)
Auto insurance (see question above)
Cable/internet (lots of free time once retired...no cable or internet?)
Travel (will you never go anywhere ever again?)
Personal (will you stop cutting your hair?)
Electric bill (do people in senior facilities not pay this?)
Water bill (see question above)
Gifts (will you not give to any charity and/or give any gifts to anyone ever on special occasions and/or holildays?)
Hobbies/socializing/shopping (will all the things you do be free? will you never eat out? will you never buy anything you want for these hobbies or shop for clothing again?)

[luzianne]

My parents did it. They owned a home and 80 acres, though, and sold that and bought two houses and lived in one and rented the other one out so that was some additional income. They didn't get Medicaid.


They seemed to do okay. When they died they had already prepaid their funerals and had almost $8000 set aside that we used for a headstone and to do some other things they had expressed they wanted done.

[jim9251]

Subsidized senior complex? $500 a month rent? Food stamps? Bus pass - what's a bus? I have no idea where any of this is, certainly no where near here.

[BucFan]

Originally Posted by southkakkatlantan

Please also give estimated costs for:


Auto maintenance (I assume most retired people actually still own cars?)
Auto insurance (see question above)

see item about having a bus pass in OP

Originally Posted by jim9251

Subsidized senior complex? $500 a month rent? Food stamps? Bus pass - what's a bus? I have no idea where any of this is, certainly no where near here.

Cities and towns across the USA.

[Southern man]

Wouldn't work for me. I like new cars, steaks, travel, decent bourbon.But heck, if thats what you want go for it.

[VTsnowbird]

you think a single person would get $200 a month in food stamps? what do you base that on? And how about waiting lists for subsidized housing, as the population ages, they are just going to get longer.