Who lives on social security alone & how are you making ends meet? (divorce, divorced)
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I shared a 1 bedroom with my best friend years ago - he took the bedroom since he was paying more of the rent and I took the living room. I also did all the cooking, cleaning and laundry. He had a stroke one day, was admitted into the hospital, 11 days later he had 2 heart attacks in a row and was dead. Talk about having your world flipped on its head. Not only did I lose my best friend but I had to find new housing quick as I couldn't afford to pay the rent on my own.
I was able to find a room in an SRO that allowed pets (my yorkie). I use 2 different food pantrys a month and cook all of my food. Crockpot gets alot of use. Thrift stores are great for finding gently used clothes. I've got a bike so when the weather is great, I put the yorkie in the basket and away we go. Huge tv addict who will be buried with my remote. I'm certain they have cable in the next life. We also head up to a local watering hole to socialize with the other thirsty fellas. The owner loves my dog so she gets to come too. Not my best life but it could be a helluva lot worse. As my mother always says "be grateful for what you have and dont worry about what you dont."
Not being able to keep your hands off The Money: I call that The Fatal Flaw.
I won't point fingers, but I will speak up for the benefit of the younger members of our forum. You MUST keep your hands off your savings, regardless of the way you save money. You absolutely MUST.
My step daughter has The Fatal Flaw. At age 53 she makes 150K+ and has a net worth of very little. 3 cars, condo at the beach, 3000 S/ft home, and endless appliances and toys. No savings. This is not going to end well.
There are lots of ways to save and invest, Boys and Girls. Pick one and stick with it. You don't have to have a 401(k). We don't.
With all due respect, you are not getting by on SS alone. You are getting by on SS plus discounts and subsidies from the government and charities. I understand that it's a very modest lifestyle but it's not SS alone and I wonder how that picture will change as more and more baby boomers retire with no other substantial income but SS. I suspect there will be cutbacks, more stringent eligibility requirements and fewer "cute little subsidized apartments" to be had.
For those of you who are doing fine now, a few questions:
1. If you have no car payments, what will you do when the car needs replacement or the transmission dies?
2. If you develop dental problems and need a $1,000 root canal can you come up with the money?
3. If you have a paid-off house, can you handle the expense of a new roof or a new furnace?
4. What are your plans if you can no longer live on your own?
I understand that thrifty habits in the day-to-day things (using the public library, no fancy cell phone or cable plans, no credit card debt, replacing shoes and clothing only as they wear out) can keep your cash flow healthy in an average month- I've got pretty much the same habits even though I could afford to spend more. But what do you do when the major problem occurs? Right now I've a got a friend who hasn't been to church in weeks because her car windshield is broken and she's waiting till she has the money to get it fixed. SH'd told me before she and her DH lived on SS alone.
We do live on SS alone. Husband made good money and we did save but it all got used on a couple of unfortunate events, no need to go into.
We have a mortgage of 155 a month and taxes of 32. a year, but we have other high costs, utilities, insurance, medications even with drug plan. We just about make it month to month but are gradually slipping behind, I need to try to sell some possessions.
in answer to your questions
1. had no car payments, but car just failed and I had to sell three guns and take loan on life ins. to get a 2500 replacement.
2. I do have dental problems and no I cannot come up with the money
3. All I can do is hope when that happens to be able to refinance in order to get the money for such large repairs.
4. When I bought this house, I bought large with the idea that one of my children and his family would move with us and take care of us, both of us are disabled and declining.
One of the expenses is life insurance which I have held for many years. If husband dies first, I would get his SS but lose mine and I could not make it then, nor would I have funeral expense money. So I need to keep my insurance, even though premiums are not high.
With all due respect, you are not getting by on SS alone. You are getting by on SS plus discounts and subsidies from the government and charities. I understand that it's a very modest lifestyle but it's not SS alone and I wonder how that picture will change as more and more baby boomers retire with no other substantial income but SS. I suspect there will be cutbacks, more stringent eligibility requirements and fewer "cute little subsidized apartments" to be had.
For those of you who are doing fine now, a few questions:
1. If you have no car payments, what will you do when the car needs replacement or the transmission dies?
2. If you develop dental problems and need a $1,000 root canal can you come up with the money?
3. If you have a paid-off house, can you handle the expense of a new roof or a new furnace?
4. What are your plans if you can no longer live on your own?
I understand that thrifty habits in the day-to-day things (using the public library, no fancy cell phone or cable plans, no credit card debt, replacing shoes and clothing only as they wear out) can keep your cash flow healthy in an average month- I've got pretty much the same habits even though I could afford to spend more. But what do you do when the major problem occurs? Right now I've a got a friend who hasn't been to church in weeks because her car windshield is broken and she's waiting till she has the money to get it fixed. SH'd told me before she and her DH lived on SS alone.
I am getting by on SS with just a gentle tap on savings to pay my property taxes on my mortgage-free home. I have no subsidies. I lease a car and have a monthly payment and must carry insurance on same. Since I'm 83, I'm probably going to turn in the car this year and will then rely on family/Uber for transportation. (I'll have money to pay for Uber since I won't have a car/insurance payment)
If I need a new roof or furnace, I'll figure it out. That's what life is about, right? You figure it out?
Plans are not something one makes lightly. Plan all you want and then there's that big bad bugaboo staring you in the face that shoots your well-made plans in the foot.
I plan on waking up tomorrow. As long as the coffee's hot and I'm vertical, it's going to be okay.
For those of you who are doing fine now, a few questions:
1. If you have no car payments, what will you do when the car needs replacement or the transmission dies?
2. If you develop dental problems and need a $1,000 root canal can you come up with the money?
3. If you have a paid-off house, can you handle the expense of a new roof or a new furnace?
4. What are your plans if you can no longer live on your own?
I understand that thrifty habits in the day-to-day things (using the public library, no fancy cell phone or cable plans, no credit card debt, replacing shoes and clothing only as they wear out) can keep your cash flow healthy in an average month- I've got pretty much the same habits even though I could afford to spend more. But what do you do when the major problem occurs? Right now I've a got a friend who hasn't been to church in weeks because her car windshield is broken and she's waiting till she has the money to get it fixed. SH'd told me before she and her DH lived on SS alone.
1. We bought a new Toyota SUV the end of 2017, it should outlast us. We don't even have 5000 miles on it.
It has a good warranty for quite a while in case....
2. My husband recently had all his teeth pulled so this won't be a problem for him. As for me, At this stage of my life I'd get it pulled before paying for a root canal. But with that said, we are pretty frugal and we don't spend all of our SS each month so we do have a little money in savings.
3. Right now everything is in good shape BUT if we needed a new of AC unit we'd buy one. (No real need for heat down here) We do have good credit and we keep a card with Lowe's for our 'Just in case' That would cover any emergency and the payment would be low enough to afford. For other emergency's we also have another credit card but as I said previously, we're frugal and do put back money each month.
4. I would never put my husband in a nursing home as long as I was of sound mind and halfway sound body even if it meant having someone come in once in a while to help with things I couldn't do. We realize one of us will be left alone at some point and if we get to the point we can't be left alone we'll have no choice but to enter a nursing home and they take your SS to pay for that.
Life is what happens when we're busy making other plans. None of us knows what the future holds. We didn't know we'd lose most of our retirement in 2008 and we couldn't predict that my husband would battle cancer not long after that which really wiped us out. All we can do is continue living and make do the best we can. We will handle what comes our way as always. And in the end we can't worry ourselves sick about what might happen.
I'm 46 and OBSESSED with retirement and planning for the future. I don't make a lot of money but I save what I can, and am already looking at retirement communities for myself and my husband. I refuse to go into retirement without having saved as much as I can.
I was also driven my entire adult life by a fear of being old and poor even though I didn't have family members as examples as you did. There's a balance- I DID make good money but I made sure to put some aside from every paycheck before I had fun with the rest, and I never tapped retirement savings for anything else. I know there are other factors involved- I was fortunate to have marketable skills, no long periods of unemployment, great health, parents who valued education, etc. Still, a lot is up to the individual.
Paid-for condo on the beach. HOA is $160 a month and property taxes are $45 a year.
No car---public transpo is great here but we mostly go with friends.
Our SS is miniscule so this how we handled it. We can still take cheap cruises and month-long vacations because of this choice to live in a way lower COL area. Our day-to-day expenses are often just $800 a month.
Health care is $80 per couple per month, but we sometimes go private since it's so cheap.
Even in a condo, things come up. Like we just got 2 new air-conditioning units since the salt air is hell on them. $1,100. Or a couple new crowns at $400 each.
Wow, that's incredibly cheap for a crown! I haven't paid that little for a crown since the 1980s. The going rate here is between $1000 and $1500 if one doesn't have some kind of dental coverage.
In OH, that's about right. $400 - maybe $500.
I'm not retired, and I am not in that situation, however, living in affordable areas with a lower cost of living, might be helpful to some people, when they consider their last move.
Housing costs are not that expensive if You bought a house and paid off the mortgage before you retired.
Renting is like flushing money down the toilet.
Well, it would seem that way but renting smooths out the maintenance costs and even utilities if they're included (rent doesn't go up or down month to month based on your usage). My mortgage payment is $700, which isn't bad at all for a 15-year mortgage on a very nice house (LCOL area but lakefront). BUT- the monthly amounts I accrue for property taxes, insurance and maintenance add another $600-$700 so then it doesn't look that cheap. We're trying to increase the annual HOA dues enough to improve our reserves since the dam needs maintenance and the lake needs dredging every 10-12 years but we're running into resistance form the homeowners- which just means that when these things HAVE to be done there's gonna be a giant special assessment.
Add mowing and snow removal (which I do myself) and sometimes renting looks pretty good.
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We also head up to a local watering hole to socialize with the other thirsty fellas. The owner loves my dog so she gets to come too. Not my best life but it could be a helluva lot worse. As my mother always says "be grateful for what you have and dont worry about what you dont." 
