Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have been paying a premium for it for 23 years (because I was self-employed, and then retired at 60), and have NEVER used it (ok, I did see an ophthalmologist in 2016 because I had some scary symptoms that proved to be just a minor harmless retinal bleeding, but I have a high-deductible policy, and the cost of that event was way below the deductible, so I paid it myself - health insurance never paid anything for me in these 23 years). I did get some tax refund of the premiums in the past 2 years because after retirement I don't have too much taxable income.
Count your blessings and I do not say that lightly.
Count your blessings and I do not say that lightly.
Of course I am counting my blessings. But I didn't "self-medicate" with street drugs, and I didn't get pregnant - those were my own decisions rather than blessings.
NO ONE wants to steal your money OP!! If people are poor enough to qualify for government assistance I don’t envy them but feel sorry for them. Some people literally can’t afford the basics such as food, shelter, medications, etc. You truly lack an empathy gene.
I’m grateful for what I have and have worked hard. Many poor people worked just as hard but have had bad experiences out of their control happen to them. Sure some people are just lazy and don’t want to work but there’s always a few people like that but not the majority.
It seems that inexpensive housing needs to be #1 on the list. My SIL gets by on SSI (although she thinks it is SSDI) by living in a Low Income (i.e. subsidized) Senior Apartment Complex rather than a standard apartment complex.
But openings in such complexes are difficult to find. Even Mobile Home Parks have monthly lot rents in excess of $500/month. Additional fees if you have a pet, a small storage shed, need to rent a larger off-site storage unit, have a non-related roommate. Fines if the grass is too long, your shed or porch needs painting, a windstorm loosens a piece of skirting, etc., etc., etc.
Bear in mind that Federal SSI only pays ~$941 per month! Subtract rent, utilities, food, and medicine from that amount. Where does the money come from for clothing, telephone service, transportation, gifts? Fortunately my SIS lives in Michigan which provides a ~$360/month supplement to the Federal amount, but it is still a painfully frugal existence.
It seems that inexpensive housing needs to be #1 on the list. My SIL gets by on SSI (although she thinks it is SSDI) by living in a Low Income (i.e. subsidized) Senior Apartment Complex rather than a standard apartment complex.
But openings in such complexes are difficult to find. Even Mobile Home Parks have monthly lot rents in excess of $500/month. Additional fees if you have a pet, a small storage shed, need to rent a larger off-site storage unit, have a non-related roommate. Fines if the grass is too long, your shed or porch needs painting, a windstorm loosens a piece of skirting, etc., etc., etc.
Bear in mind that Federal SSI only pays ~$941 per month! Subtract rent, utilities, food, and medicine from that amount. Where does the money come from for clothing, telephone service, transportation, gifts? Fortunately my SIS lives in Michigan which provides a ~$360/month supplement to the Federal amount, but it is still a painfully frugal existence.
MA also provides a supplement, and I think (am not sure) it comes somewhere around $1,300 with the suplement. No, it's not much, but it IS possible to live on that, considering that your healthcare is free, you qualify for food stamps (again, a single person in MA can get $281 per month worth of that), and you can get a subsidized apartment where the rent is 1/3 of your income (and, while waiting for the apartment, you split the rent with a roommate - maybe someone in the same situation).
But if a person wants more money, don't you think that person should be working, rather than expecting someone else to work to support them? Why is the expectation of a handout automatically warranted, and why do I "lack empathy" if I point out that one should work if one wants more money than what just covers the basics?
Btw, regarding a subsidized apartment being difficult to find, that depends upon geographic location. I have posted somewhere here a link to a table of the length of an average waiting list in a couple of hundred cities in the US. There are places where you wait just 3 months on average (I think I remember that in Las Vegas you wait on average about 9 months). I can tell you there are smaller cities in Upstate NY where there are always vacancies, ie, probably no waiting at all.
Yet, I'm still worried, solely because I'm single with no children and I am fixated on having enough money to "buy" quality, dignified personal care when I can no longer take care of myself. The stories I've heard about nursing home abuses scare me, and there doesn't seem to be a lack of predators waiting to take advantage of diminished seniors. It's not today I'm concerned about. It's 25-30 years from now.
My fears exactly. I spend way too much time dwelling on this in fact. Worried. I do have two children but I have no expectations that they will be able to provide that sort of care for me. It's the sole reason I'm waiting until 70 to pull SS--because I think I will need that higher monthly income to cover the late-retirement years and housing/care. It's SO expensive. But putting the money thoughts aside, the quality of care of seniors in most places is kind of scary.
My fears exactly. I spend way too much time dwelling on this in fact. Worried. I do have two children but I have no expectations that they will be able to provide that sort of care for me. It's the sole reason I'm waiting until 70 to pull SS--because I think I will need that higher monthly income to cover the late-retirement years and housing/care. It's SO expensive. But putting the money thoughts aside, the quality of care of seniors in most places is kind of scary.
Regarding nursing home care, my eye is on a lovely, inexpensive foreign land, where people are devout Buddhists who expect they'll reincarnate very badly if they abuse/neglect a senior. Re waiting to take soc security at the latest possible age, I'd be ok if they allowed delaying it til 75 (with continued annual increase in the size of the delayed check). To me (and I suspect to many seniors capable of supporting themselves with their savings) that would be far more acceptable than further reduction of soc security checks based on means testing.
I'm not a US senior...my city has been voted the most unaffordable place to live in all of North America and it's not actually something to brag about. If I was low-income I think I could create personal happiness but I believe income does indeed have statistically significant effect on happiness.
But if your city is the most unaffordable in the nation, why would you insist upon living there if you were low-income?
They did a study of connection between income and happiness a few years ago, and found that happiness increased up until the income of about $75k, then it stopped increasing. Like with anything else, you could find any kind of explanation for that. My personal feeling is that people who make less than that maybe work in simpleton jobs associated with sense of low self-esteem, which surely doesn't create much happiness. But it could be their sense of inferior personal identity (based on their low social output), rather than low earnings, that is making them unhappy? Because an income of $75k doesn't buy you too much more than the income of $50k (and it certainly does not buy you financial independence), so why should it be associated with maximum happiness that does not increase further with a higher income?
I grew up in Europe, where there were horrendous social upheavals in the past 350 years, where it had been not unusual for aristocracy and then industrialists (eg, in France, Russia, rest of East Europe, Nazi Germany...) to suddenly become dirt-poor, if they could even survive the upheaval. Particularly ask Jewish big business families about that. But they bore the financial misfortune without loss of any self-esteem; they knew they were from a good family, which was more than enough for high self-esteem with consequent happiness. In my own country of origin, where communism had made all old affluent families suddenly very poor 15 years before my birth, poverty was seen as an aristocratic badge of honor, and people of that kind still displayed amazing elegance, personal style, and - yes! - happiness, while living on financial resources lower than a person on SSI in the US.
At some point in life I worked at a hospital (in the US) where there was a Black nursing aide doing the usual minimum wage menial jobs of emptying bedpans etc. that nursing aides do. But she had a beautiful voice and an interest in opera, and was constantly performing operatic arias while cheerfully emptying bedpans, making beds etc. She also wore heavy theatrical makeup with colorful scarves wrapped creatively around her head, and massive costume jewelry, making her quite an extraordinary sight. Everybody loved her - she was something really sublime in that miserable hospital environment, and she was a very happy person on a minimum wage. It was definitely a matter of finding her identity via her obsession with opera, not a matter of $.
But if your city is the most unaffordable in the nation, why would you insist upon living there if you were low-income?
I'm not low-income BUT if I were, I would still live here because the city is so esthetically pleasing, bursting with scenic natural outdoor wonders to explore that bring me much joy and delight.
But at least the point I was trying to make in every one of the threads is: if your income is very small (say, just SSI), why do you focus on ways of extorting more $ from people who work (or have worked) hard, rather than on creative ways of making yourself happy with the little that you have? Let's talk about that: ways in which a US senior living on a shoestring can create personal happiness.
In other words, FYIGM.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
