'It's becoming too expensive to be alive.'

[mia]

Seniors cope with soaring housing and food costs

Economic insecurity is upending the lives of millions of older adults as soaring housing costs and inflation diminish the value of fixed incomes.

Across the country, seniors who until recently successfully managed limited budgets are growing more anxious and distressed. Some lost work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Others are encountering unaffordable rent increases and the prospect of losing their homes. Still others are suffering significant sticker shock at grocery stores.

Dozens of older adults struggling with these challenges — none poor by government standards — wrote to me after I featured the Elder Index, a measure of the cost of aging, in a recent column. That tool, developed by researchers at the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, suggests that 54% of older women who live alone have incomes below what’s needed to pay for essential expenses. For single men, the figure is 45%.

To learn more, I spoke at length to three women who reached out to me and were willing to share highly personal details of their lives. Their stories illustrate how unexpected circumstances — the pandemic and its economic aftereffects, natural disasters, and domestic abuse — can result in unanticipated precarity in later life, even for people who worked hard for decades.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article265450681.html#storylink=cpy

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Die Broke was supposed to be a good thing

instead it's just a sigh of relief.

[multigraincracker]

2. I've always wanted to figure it out so that

the last check I write bounces.

I feel bad for the next generation.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Why? They got debt relief so they could help the economy

We planned for the future, and lived off old stuff. In retrospect I realize you should live flat out.

Though on the upside, I stand a chance to be the most solvent resident of the whole damn cemetery.

[multigraincracker]

4. I planned too and not to worried about it.

Older I get, the less I need. Plus my partner has a new job.

[llmart]

25. +1

"The older I get, the less I need."

I've never needed much even in my younger years, but now that I'm a senior and living alone, I've often thought that outside of the very basics, I could probably live with whatever I have and not buy anything else until the day I shuffle off. I just don't need "stuff" to make my life worth living. I'm a small woman and 73 years old and I don't even need very much food any longer. Whatever clothes I have, and that is minimal, is enough clothing for me. I live in the same outfits all year long. I have one good fall/winter outfit and one good spring/summer one in the event I need to go anywhere like a wedding, which I haven't in several years. I love living the simple life. I do like to travel a bit though, but even if I never make it to Europe I will still have had a very decent life.

[PatrickforB]

28. I'm sure glad for you. Hopefully, Congress won't get taken over by Republicans, who have

promised to shut the government down if Democrats don't agree to massive cuts/privatization of Social Security and Medicare.

Sigh. At age 63, I worry just a bit.

[Genki Hikari]

43. If you're older than 60

You had access to well-subsidized college tuition at state colleges to make higher education more affordable for you, and could expect to get a decent-paying job and affordable housing afterwards.

If you were poor enough, you would have qualified for Pell Grants that would have had a chance to cover all of your tuition at most community college, and a good deal of your books, too. Pell Grants today can't even pay for half of the books some majors must use for high-tech classes.

I'm 60, and I got to see SOME of the older boomer affordability. But definitely not all of it. Tuition at my local podunk Southern junior college in the very early 80s was five times what it cost in California in the mid-80s. Because, unlike my old state, CA still subsidized their community colleges so that tuition only cost $50 for a full load of coursework.

That would change, and soon, but CA is an example of how much more affordable college was for that state's generation than it would be for the tail end of the baby boomers and for Gen X and beyond.

So don't whine about people getting a break on their loans to pay for tuition when that break was BUILT IN to the education you had access to if you were a college student in the 70s and earlier. You wouldn't have had loans to pay back for decades afterwards, enabling you not only to plan but also to execute your plan for the future.

"Plans for the future" like savings/investments can only be done with disposable income. See how much of that you would have had when wages were dwindling to the point every successive year of barely covering the bare necessities of life. Especially the crazy costs of housing. How much disposable income do you think people have had after paying for food, shelter (have you seen how much housing is for people now?), transportation AND student loans?

See how much "planning for the future" you could have carried out with those odds stacked against you.

Late Boomers, Gen Xers and beyond are destined to be far poorer in retirement than the generations before them, because they were unable to get ahead, even if they did what they had to do to get a higher-paying job by taking out loans to attend college. They haven't been able to prepare for the future as well as their older counterparts did, because the funds they might have used to build savings, nest eggs and equity got spent on student loan payments.

These younger generations need the kind of break you had handed to you, without even having to ask for it, never mind fighting for it like they've had to do.

[doc03]

5. It is bad now, I don't know how the next generation will survive. When I graduated high school

I got a good middle class job with a union, benefits and a defined benefit pension plan. Back in the 60s in this area
you had a choice of going into a steel mill or a coal mine, good middle class jobs where you could raise a family on a
single income. If that wasn't your thing you could afford to go to college. Today if you are not smart enough to go
to college or don't have the money you are pretty much doomed to work until you die. In the future it is going
to be far worse than today. I actually feel fortunate I am 74.

[multigraincracker]

6. Unions are making a come back this year.

Imagine that.

[llmart]

27. I heard that same statement from my WWII stepmother back in 1972.

I clearly remember her saying to me, "I don't know how any young couple like you can afford to raise two children these days." Interest rates for mortgages were in the double digits. Groceries were sky high as was inflation - actually worse than today. Still, somehow we were able to do that, buy a house (and you had to have 20% down) and feed and clothe our children.

I was frugal. I rarely used credit, since credit cards were much more difficult to get back then. I know it's not a popular opinion on DU, but I still maintain that younger generations need to learn that success in life is not defined by what you own, where you live, what car (SUV) you drive, etc.

[Genki Hikari]

44. Housing is more expensive relative to income

Than it was in the 70s and even into the 80s. It was easy to find a decent apartment that was affordable, and a house to buy that was 2.5 times your income.

Try it now. Just try.

The average price of a home where I live is $350K. To afford that under the "old" metric, you would need to make $140k/yr to afford it. Do you want me to laugh now or later at how maybe 5% of people locally make that much?

Now try to save up $70K for that 20% down payment on a house...when wages have been gutted, rent for a 1-bdr apartment is $1000/mo, and you have to make a car payment because the local "public" transit is terrible, if not non-existent, never mind how insurance rates are staggering now, even for older drivers.

And on top of that, you need to make monthly payments student loans--$300, $400, $500, or more.

Every.

Single.

Month.

Because if you don't, you won't get a loan anywhere to buy a house. Your credit is effectively screwed if you don't make those student loan payments.

It was easy for you to set aside money for the future because you had disposable income to set aside. Few college graduates since the 80s have had that luxury.

[llmart]

45. It was easy for you to set aside money for the future because you had disposable income to set aside

Really? And you know this how?

It was never "easy" to set aside money. I had to forego any type of vacation for years - eleven to be exact - no honeymoon. Got married on a Saturday (no reception - ten guests), and I went to work on Monday. Husband was a college student. He worked nights and weekends at a grocery store stocking shelves. Took him five years to get through college so we could pay his tuition without loans.
We had one car for eight years. I carpooled to get to work. Lived in a three-room apartment that cost $120 a month for rent. Every extra dollar went into a passbook savings account so we could have that 20% down. Bought a handful of used furniture that we lived with for many years.

I could go on and on but you just don't want to admit that there are hard decisions and sacrifices to make. I spent my last ten years working (up until I was 69 - started working when I graduated from high school at 17) at a university. Students worked for me. I got to know them very well. Some of them did everything they could to help pay for their tuition and books. One girl even shared textbooks or borrowed them from the library. Others ran over to the upscale, expensive coffee shop across the parking lot four times a day and came back with coffee drinks that cost $6.00. No bringing home-brewed coffee in a thermos for them.

[PatrickforB]

29. It may be the pendulum is swinging back from the terrible economic violence of

supply side (trickle-down) economics, the lack of a Fairness Doctrine, and the legal precedent we live under called primacy of the shareholder (profits over people).

Poverty is economic violence, as bad as war, and we have squandered $4 trillion on two forever wars, spent $783 billion on this year's war bill, and are doing a moonshot, but somehow we cannot afford healthcare, dental care or debt-free college.

Why is that?

At least that's what I ask my US Senators and Representative each month when I make my HEALTH CARE DEBT payment.

[avebury]

7. Every week that I go to the store I

am appalled by how much prices keep shooting up. Chicken and eggs used to be the most affordable proteins. I bought an egg carton with 18 eggs and it was over $5. Everything is getting so expensive.

A lot of people I know buy as much as they can from Amazon if they can keep their costs down a d have it delivered for free thereby saving on gas and wear and tear on their vehicle.

Side note, if you like Alaskan King Crab, buy it now because the price will soon skyrocket. The season as been canceled due to over 1 billion of them have apparent disappeared. Cost will go up, availability will plummet.

[doc03]

8. I hear you but what puzzles me is today and tomorrow all the restaurants especially

the more expensive steak and seafood ones will have people waiting to be seated. There still
seems to be a lot of people that can afford the gas and $50 to $100 to eat lunch. Tomorrow all the
sports bars will be packed with people watching the NFL.

[KPN]

24. There are a lot. Ten percent of Americans have

about 85% of total wealth US wealth. That’s 30+ million people. All of those people can easily afford the night out you described. Maybe a minor percent of the remaining 270 million people can as well — but not many I would guess.

Rabbit trail here: We have a sick economic and tax system. Racism and xenophobia enable it, but our sick economic system underlies today’s MAGA/QAnon nightmare.

[Ford_Prefect]

9. They don't seem to have accounted for recent inflationary changes in fuel and other costs.

I ran the numbers for my area and it came up to just about what I was spending 2 years ago. This year I'm doing less and still spending more due to rising food and fuel costs. Either way the next 15 odd years are gonna be tough to pay for what with all those millennials out of work and the "gentry" avoiding taxes altogether.

We may yet need to dine upon the rich as a simple application of Sod's law.

[GreenWave]

10. I avoided having more than 1 vehicle.

They depreciate and cost extra insurance etc.

With that savings I paid off my 30 year mortgage in 13 years. It was fun watching the lender try to trick me into getting more loans which I did not need.

Got an energy efficient roof and padded up the attic with those savings. Then the windows. Screw you energy moguls!

And with the stimulus check I got a speed queen washer with agitator and adjustable water levels. Maybe 25 years lasting!

And finally turned clay soil back yard into organic food garden with tons of sweat and listening to the song of the Volga Boatmen for inspiration (especially the tugging part) as I tilled mercilessly leaves, table scraps into the clay.

Go DUers! Make it so!

[2naSalit]

14. I have imagined...

This very piece in my days of throwing freight onto pallets! And gardening.


That and this one...

[Backseat Driver]

31. Couple now with a couple of senior pets

DH is still working to cover the high rent, utilities/bills, Medicare gap - I do phones, food, and clothing/pets and lots of the extras, food being the easiest to cut back on - nobody his age should be working FT I'm fantasized of giving the rest, all of it, away by LW&T to the next family that gets burned out - kids will just need storage. They sure don't want any of the ancient furnishings of our lives.

I'm terrified--(statistically, females live longer) - it's all a slippery slope of loss - too expensive to die as well - can't save for much -- it's always something...Medicare won't cover what we need now--glasses x 2, dental x 2 of us; hearing x 1 of us - but one serious illness and it's over!

(with sarcasm at his happiness)

[GreenWave]

36. I figure if I worked that hard the hospital ain't getting it.

If I only have a few days left I will get some BBQ sauce, douse myself, walk in the ocean and await the sharks. That way my kids, etc still can fend off the wolves for a while.

[GreenWave]

35. You mean it's not "Oreos hoorah?"

All that milk with dunked oreos for naught?

[2naSalit]

37. I guess not!

I never knew what they were saying until I found that video... I googled "OEO EOO" and it came up as the first hit.

[childfreebychoice]

15. We were lucky to not have any student debt, no kids, able

To invest, and save for rainy day. All of our friends worried more about luxury vehicles, fancy vacays, designer clothes, and of course some are still paying off their own, and kids student loans. I remember them laughing when we pulled up in our old, but reliable cars. Now we are enjoying retirement, sunning in Panama, and if it weren't for covid, would be back to being world travelers. Happy to say many of our younger friends are planting gardens, and buying gently used, if they must have designer items

[Trueblue Texan]

11. It's quite expensive to get old...

I see this everyday in my patients. It is especially taxing for their caregivers. Caregivers have needs too. If a caregiver needs a break or needs surgery, the patient can go into respite care, but not for less than $150/day--and that's the very cheapest you'll find. Even then they only allow a limited number of days for respite, IF you can find a facility with an open bed. That's way more than most seniors can afford, more than the monthly income for many.

I think living with others (not necessarily our kids) is a good way to save money as we age. Sharing a household can help us with expenses, stay on top of our health, and perhaps prevent us from accumulating so much stuff that it becomes a safety hazard and a giant headache for those who have to clean it up when we're gone.

That's part of my plan. Also, I don't plan on living until I'm 90. Damn! These breakfast cookies are delish!

[2naSalit]

12. Jumping up and down waving both hands in the air!!

Over here! I can personally attest to this, having lived in my car while awaiting approval for SSDI! Living in my car with back problems. Once I got SSDI, I was finally able to find subsidized housing, I would still be unstable financially if I had not inherited small amount* that has helped pay for long needed dental work, car repairs and housing emergencies - landlord sold, had to move with short notice in a nonexistent housing market.

Moving is expensive, with deposits and transporting belongings and extra cleaning stuff, that adds up and if you are living on $1,000/month, you probably don't have it in your savings account, even if you have subsidies for housing.

* Covid death of relative.

If I didn't have SSDI, I'd still be in my car, parked somewhere because I couldn't afford repairs.

I know other seniors who, were it not for some lucky break, a partner with means or some kind of good fortune would be "close to cat food". One is nomadic and shares a home inherited with a sibling so they are part time it there and travel in their old vehicle the rest of the time. Another who rents their home to their daughter with kids and rents an apartment because that was the only housing available in the county.

I have two retired friends who are set, live in homes they own uninhibited.

I see a lot more elderly homeless when I go out and about. All my neighbors, in this complex of low income dwellers, are my age and I am the only one who doesn't work.

I am looking forward to this new upgrade in Social Security next year. The timing was good with this legislation as anyone who, like me, relies of this for income will be voting to keep it. Without it, a lot of us will die in a short time.

[childfreebychoice]

13. Thanks so much for link

I have friends who, due to cola, no longer qualify for program called extra help to pay Medicare premiums, no longer qualify for food stamps, rent have gone up to point where they have to move, with nowhere to go. Waiting lists for senior housing takes yrs, and many are rat holes, for the low income. On the other hand, hubby and I, and other well-heeled seniors are looking at the increase as extra spending change.
Hubby and I have been helping out former neighbor, a senior, who has no family, with food, paying for meds, for yrs, and will cont to do so. When she expires will just increase monthly donations to pp, ACLU, innocence project, and MD food bank

[SheltieLover]

16. "I can no longer afford go exist" is a reality for many on SS!

And qpukes want to take SS away?

[OneCrazyDiamond]

26. Senior Citizen

Should be SC. SS is for NAZIs

[SheltieLover]

30. Social security.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

41. Oops

[SheltieLover]

42. Lol

Laughing with, not at, you.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

46. A sad existence is for folks

Who can't laugh at their own folly.

[William769]

17. It's also too expensive to die.

[TygrBright]

18. Wait, aren't these the "selfish boomers" that accumulated all the wealth and are hoarding it now?

for those who wouldn't immediately recognize that.

Youngsters worrying about student debt, housing costs, an economy that seems to offer only benefit-free, low-paying, insecure 'gig' jobs, etc. - seniors are NOT your adversaries.

We have more in common than you might imagine, and we should be making common cause against the oligarchs who keep putting their money into "tipping the scales" to restructure an economy they've been re-tooling to funnel money upwards since the 1980s.

Keys:

1. Stronger unions
2. Getting money out of politics - particularly PACs, lobbying, and "golden parachutes" for 'retiring' elected officials
3. Restore a strong, FREE public education system from pre-K through higher education
4. Rebuild infrastructure for sustainability and green jobs in energy, transportation, housing, manufacturing, etc.

Seniors want decent living conditions, dignity, and a measure of security for their lives. So do young people. We should be natural allies.

frustratedly,
Bright

[erronis]

34. Excellent list of items to help improve the US (not the oligarchs). #2 Get money out of politics!

As long as the oligarchs control the political machinery it will be very difficult to get any meaningful reform done.

They are taking over legislatures (federal and state), justice (at most levels, especially SCOTUS), and they almost got away with taking over the executive of the US. What they didn't succeed at these last times, they'll try again.

[dembotoz]

19. du does have a frugal and energy efficient living and working poor groups

both underutilized.

good place for tips and ideas on how to save some cash.

Just doing some basic stuff has saved me a bunch of cash

[Ziggysmom]

20. So depressing to read about these people. I save $$ by cooking a lot of vegetarian type meals

and buy dried beans and rice in bulk. They make a complete protein, especially black beans. We make burrito bowls, adding corn and other veggies, cheese if we have it, etc. Less than 2 bucks a serving and they put Chipotle to shame 😋.

I worry a lot about running out of money after retirement; will likely work till I die, if physically possible. It wasn't supposed to be like this; trickle down economics has severely harmed over 80% of Americans. Damn the GQP to hell.

[Puppyjive]

21. Control your greed

At some point, the government is helpless in controlling the greed that seems to have taken over. Rent control is only used in some states. It needs to become a more regulatory standard. Until regulations become reality if ever, the only thing we can do is ask landlords to check their greed. I know someone who bought investment property. She has been making a lot of money on the outrageous rent she charges. Her daughter rents from a local landlord and her rent is reasonable. I asked my friend how she would feel if her daughter's rent went up by $300 a month. What if it went up $600 a month.?She got a little quiet and said it would be bad. I said, 'well they can certainly get that much.'. I don't know if it made an impact, but I let her know that the outrageous rent can come home to roost. It affects everyone. She knows her daughter could not afford that kind of rent and would be forced out with no affordable prospects. Greed must be addressed at some point.

[SheltieLover]

22. Transportation is a big concern for me.

My old Honda gets 47 mpg & has been completely rebuilt. I drive very little. Only to get groceries.

The roads here, & I suspect in other places, are exactly like an intense off roading experience! Even the interstates.

So, a new alternator now costs $1,300! The coil over struts I have (and are, thankfully completely rebuildable - the main reason I invested nearly $1k for this upgrade!) now cost $3,000. For four high end struts, folks!

I could go on & on, but you get the point, I'm sure. And tge prices above are only for parts!

Good luck!

[mia]

39. I have an old Honda, too.

Maintenance and repair costs have been expensive!

[SheltieLover]

40. Fortunately, I have free labor

Gearhead grandson happily coddles my old Civic. Thankfully!

I cannot even imagine having to add labor to ridiculously high parts costs!

I need an oxygen sensor... used to be around $200 from dealer. Now almost $600! Wth!

We are thinking of ordering from Japan, where they are still manufactured in Japan. Denso North American operations moved to China in April of this year. As such, Amazon no longer offers extended (4 yr warranty). Grrrrr!

Dealer's parts guy told me price hike is because there are so many catalytic converters being stolen & oxygen sensors are often stolen right along with them. So now there is a "shortage." (I call bs!)

I hope the roads where you are don't destroy your car.

[Auggie]

23. In the 1980s my then spouse and I met with a financial advisor ...

when we answered the question, "what yearly salary do you want when you retire," they said, "fine, now let's double that to account for inflation."

It made retirement savings real, though I think I knew that anyway based on the financial struggles I witnessed my grandparents had in the 1970s.

[Farmer-Rick]

32. It seems to me that a major problem with surviving old age is rent

An owner is allowed to charge whatever rent they want. Yes, rent control is often instituted in major cities, but outside a few more liberal cities and states...I think there are 6 states that have rent controls in place....most rental markets are out of control.

That leaves the majority of people at the whim of whatever the bank or corporation wants to charge. Unlike individual landlords, banks and corporations are unconcerned about the neighborhood or quality of tenants.

They can leave the property sit for months, not earning income, waiting for a rich person who will pay the excessive rent price they want. Big banks and corporations aren't surviving on that individual rental income so they raise rates over and over, higher and higher. Rent rises until the current resident can no longer afford to live there. Costs of moving aren't cheap and bankers know residents will put up with higher prices until the cost of moving becomes cheaper than renting there.

After the current resident is forced out by excessive rent increases, the corporation will drop the price and lure in another person. Then the rent hikes start again.

I live in a very rural area. Even here corporations and banks own most of the rental properties. The homes of people who went into foreclosure during the 2008 economic crash are for rent everywhere. They charge rental prices more than 3 times higher than what I pay on my mortgage. A small apartment complex in a small town charges $1,700 for a one bedroom. That's over twice the price of my mortgage payments on my farm.

You can tell which ones are bank rentals because they frequently go through phases of poor maintenance and upkeep. As one family is forced out and the rental price is still too high for others, the yard becomes overgrown and shingles and siding gets damaged from storms. Then when they get rented, someone is hired to fix up (or mask?) the damage. Only to be back on the market, not being maintained, a couple of years later.

[snot]

38. I've been saving since I was 16,

which was a VERY long time ago. The 2008 crash ate 1/4 of my life savings, which I never got back because I was too freaked out to stay in the stock market.

Now skyrocketing costs for healthcare, health insurance, and the necessities of life are eviscerating the rest of it.

I was expecting higher inflation at some point, but I asn't expecting financial armageddon (now apparently accelerating).