Senior Citizen concerns

[Niddi]

Don’t know how many members are Senior Citizens, retired or about to be, but I would love to see a discussion board where concerns pertaining to our age group could be discussed.

how do you deal with your ever declining IRA?
are you back on a job after retiring?
best medigap policies?
anyone making it just on your Soc. Sec?
health issues?
when to downsize? regrets on downsizing?
how do you deal with no longer being able to do all the yardwork/housework?
boredom?
new hobbies?
frustrations?
when you can no longer drive?
readjusting after loss of spouse?
helping grown children?
senior discounts/benefits/organizations that help ?
having to be parents again and care for grandchildren?

lots of topics that could be discussed. Are there enough age+++ members where this might be of interest?? If so, how does it get started?

[Janice Terrell]

Niddi – I think this is an excellent idea. I, for one, would really like to see this. I’m sure there are people who have answers to others questions.

[Margaret K]

We are senior citizens. We do have only our Social Security to get by on. It be real tough, but we have no other choice, can sometimes be tough.

We get by on $1500.00 a month. I have several serious health issues & dh has to do most everything around here, plus meds are quite costly. we have friends that have ira,s, etc, but they are all quite worried about their futures & they have all lost most of their money.
i have a grandmother from scotland & she taught me to be frugal when i was young.

dh grew up on a farm in mi., 9 kids & his parents were very frugal & taught them to be.
Everybody will be a senior sooner or later & the sooner you get ready for it the better you will adjust to it. It can be a fun time. We figure that you can either enjoy this time of life or be miserable & we aren’t miserable!

LOL

[JoAnn]

Niddi,

Quote:

i think this is an excellent idea

maybe a sub forum also to the main one—-how to prepare for this part of life and what some have done or are doing to prepare ( could this be put into this suggest as well ?). i know that there are alot of people out here that could help anwser these questions too from their own experiences.

i’m always looking for ways on how to be better parpared for this part of my future (not really that far away)..

thanks again niddi. this post makes it look like you have had your thinking cap on… !!!!!

[JoAnn]

Margaret K,
What a wonderful outlook to life.

Quote:

we figure that you can either enjoy this time of life or be miserable & we aren’t miserable! lol

you two sound like you have found one of the main keys…. :060:

[mcnerd]

I’m a senior on Social Security, living in a mortgage-free home, paid-for 10-year-old car, and a “granny bike” for times when the car is not practical. I walk with a cane most of the time because of Arthritis in both ankles, and my IRA disappeared with the economy.

And I’m happier now than I have been most of my life. Old age is great time. Health care is at the local Community clinic, a good amount of food comes from the local food bank, and I get reduced rates for telephone and utilities.

The electric company even bought me a brand new 21 c/f refrigerator to replace my ’70’s ones. The gas company fixed my furnace.

I can’t work on my hands and knees anymore, so some things don’t get done, but things are grabbed with those extension grabbers. Now have 3 of them around the house. The garden consists of pots sitting higher up but they give me tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers and herbs.

Even tried ‘upside down’ tomatoes with good success.

Being frugal is fun and something I look forward to and I’ve learned how to (properly) can foods, helping me build a stockpile that can carry me for a year, which fortunately I was given a message to do several years ago because times would become rough soon and I was to help others do the same. Yup, did that and I can smile today.

[mimisbuddy1]

Even though I’m not retired yet(have another 10 yrs) my husband is retired and gets social security and works a part-time job. I think your ideas would be of interest to us and lots of others.

[Niddi]

Thanks ya’ll, it’s nice to know that there are some other seniors on this site who are struggling but still enjoying this time of life.

DH and I are retired, with only one Soc Sec income so far, he’s wishing I were on it also but have 2 more years to go(told him to quit wishing my life away). We are drawing a monthly amount out of ira (what’s left of it) to supplement his ss until i get mine. then we’ll try to make it on that and hope to have some left in ira for emergency situations or major house repairs (like a new roof)
house is paid for, car is old but paid for and running, except air cond.

went out and needs to be fixed before our 100 degree summers set in. Old truck still running (standby vehicle) no bills other than monthly expenses.
DH is diabetic and heart patient, can’t do what he used to. Has riding lawnmower and one of the extension grabbers for pinecones and sticks.

I try to do all the raking, trimming and spraying bushes etc.

but landscape has gone downhill in the last few years.
My health is still good and I have thought about going back to work but have been out of the jobmarket for over 10 years (was fulltime caregiver for parent w/Alzheimers) and with the job market the way it is I have doubts about being able to get hired.
It is just very disappointing to have raised our kids, put them through college, paid off all our bills and looked forward to retirement and maybe taking some trips to now be faced with struggling.

Our only pleasure trips have been two trips to Fla to visit friends and 3 hour drives to the mountains where we have our old camper parked on a leased lot (open 5 months a year). We go there about once a month during that time and stay for a week or 10 days. The lease has gone up drastically so we may have to give that up too.

Afraid to take any more money out of ira than we need to meet monthly expenses. still dreaming of seeing the grand canyon, niagra falls, and some other places we had hoped to get to.

margaret k,
do you mind sharing some of the things you guys do to enjoy your time??

mcnerd,
i’m curious to what state you live in. it is wonderful that you get reduced rates on phone and electricity. have never heard of that is sc, all we seem to get is regular increases.

what a blessing to have the power co. get you a new fridge and the gas co. fix your furnace.

in sc we’d just be tough out of luck.

ok, i’ve shared and rambled enough for one day. life is still good, i woke up this morning with a roof over my head, food in the house and a beautiful sunny day to get some yard work done.

[mcnerd]

@Niddi 110957 wrote:

mcnerd,
I’m curious to what state you live in. It is wonderful that you get reduced rates on phone and electricity. Have never heard of that is sc, all we seem to get is regular increases.

what a blessing to have the power co. get you a new fridge and the gas co. fix your furnace.

in sc we’d just be tough out of luck.

i’m in southern california waiting for the final earthquake. :angel4:
The subsidies by the utilities appear to be from annual grants or funds allocated for that purpose to help the low income. Your may provide some assistance and you may not even know it.

The refrigerator program was a one-year thing to replace old ones with energy efficient ones. I figured the state or federal government may have subsidized it. I don’t know.

[brchbell]

We’ll be retired fully in Aug. 2010. got retirement pension coming in from one company now and got active duty pay coming in and retirement from that starting in Aug 2010.

SS will start a few years later. Our kids help a lot with the family farm. They have each selected 5 acre areas to build on when they can afford to do so.

401 K went from 55,000 in 2000 to $5,798 now. So not worth much any more. But thankfully we have good pension income coming in to live on.

We are also growing most of our own food and get free water from our pond. We’re working on solar panels and wind turbines and hope we’ll be able to provide our own electricity in a few years. We got a full years supply of food to live on that we keep replenishing along the way.

Have learned a lot from this site to help us also! One of our kids volunteered to help some ladies build a straw house. Taking them a couple years to get it done.

He’s going to build one on his piece of land to live on once they get done and he learns all he can. Another is leaning toward making a log cabin. Great to have them close at hand.

They help alot!

[Janice Terrell]

I live in a Seniors Independent Living Community where the rent is based on your income. Also, if you meet certain criteria, the phone bill is only $1.00. By signing up for the internet when the phone company had a special my total bill is $11.52.

The other utilities are included in the rent. There are numerous food banks around town if you can get to them. There is also one food bank that comes here once a month.

One of the major bakeries delivers free bread once a week. There is also Angel Ministries for those who have transportation. It doesn’t take a great deal of common sense to keep from going hungry around here.

. . .

.The biggest legitimate problem around here seems to be medical care and/or prescriptions. And there is help for some of that if people will investigate a little. .

. . .We have a lot of homeless & elderly here who, I guess, just don’t know that the Okla.

City Housing Authority will help them. Of course, to qualify for most of this help you have to be pretty bad off to start with. I guess I should be grateful I was pretty bad off!!!

[mcnerd]

Congratulations on being in one of the best housing situations for seniors. There is usually a long waiting list to get in them. My family was a consulting firm involved in building such projects through HUD mortgages.

Built 32 of them in Southern California until my parents’ deaths and then I was kind of out on my own (my background was computers and legal, not housing). Our first project in 1968 looks brand new even today. Yours may be under a different program, but all designed for low-income seniors to live independently.

Yes, there are a lot of homeless and elderly who don’t take advantage of these programs, often because they don’t ‘trust’ the system to acquire or they have other issues. Then there is the opposite, those that would not normally qualify who take advantage of how the system works so they can bleed it for what they can get. Its a complex world.

[Niddi]

Janice,
your independent living facility sounds pretty nice with a great benefit on phone and internet service as well as food bank and bakery coming there.
The only thing we have around here is a few converted apartment buildings, not in great neighborhoods, (a few I wouldn’t feel safe in) and two high rises that have studio and one bedroom apts. One is about 40 years old and is just now getting some renovation to the apartments.(a 2 or 3 year waiting list) the other is about that old but things have been updated inside and it is within walking distance to a drug store and a grocery store. (the waiting list is even longer there) .

you have to qualify when you put in an application. Guess that means you have to be pretty bad off when you apply and then what are you suppose to do for the years you have to wait????
Oh well, not there yet, maybe we won’t get there if we are reaaaaal frugal now.
Good to know though that there is a safty net and some services are available if you know about them or ask around.

[mcnerd]

@Niddi 110979 wrote:

Guess that means you have to be pretty bad off when you apply and then what are you suppose to do for the years you have to wait????
You don’t have to be “bad off”. Most of them is an age requirement primarily with limited income and you pay 30% of your income, no matter what it is.

Of course anyone that could afford a large apartment or house would not be moving in to a 500 s/f studio apartment. The demand is so high for these that there is a 2 to 5 year waiting list on most of them and probably going to get worse with these economic times. The only openings occur when someone dies or needs to go to an assisted living or nursing home.

[Janice Terrell]

The waiting list for these apts. is 3 to 5 months. There are about 2 dozen “facilities” here in OKC.

As I said earlier the rent is based on income with the minimum being $50.00 and the maximum is $369.00 (at least in this city). Sorry if I said “bad off” when I shouldn’t have. Most everyone here was.

All of these apts. are one bedroom and they are rather small. If I could afford a large apt.

or house then I would be there instead of here. The turnover here is probably larger than other places because the younger disabled people don’t usually stay too long.

[gburglinda55]

Depending on where you look or who you talk to, I might be considered a senior citizen. I am 57 and had a well-paying job for the past 15 years. Four years ago, I was laid off for the 3rd time in 8 years due to the lack of economy.

I’ve been unemployed or under-employed since. Unfortunately, discrimination is alive and well if you are over 50. Companies don’t want to pay for our expertise, they would rather hire younger people and let them work through the ranks.

I have had to spend all of my retirement money just to survive these past 4 years (and my husband died, therefore losing his income, too). It goes without saying that I also lost my home in all this, so am at the mercy of renting at this point. Where I once made $26 an hour, I make minimum wage, part-time.

I have had to humble myself greatly and struggling isn’t even the right word for what I’m going through. But, I’m resourceful and persistent, so I want to learn all I can on how to do well with much less.

I am digging my bread machine out again and plan to make up some of the mixes on this website. I just hung up a clothesline so I don’t have to use my dryer. I keep my heat turned down to 62 degrees and the A/C at 78 degrees.

I go out of my way to not drive past fast food places or anywhere that I might want to stop on a whim. Church dinners on Wednesday nights give me a lovely home-cooked meal away from home each week. I look forward to seeing other ideas from others here.
Linda

[brchbell]

Oh my goodness! In my area they beg me to work as we older folks (I’m 58) know how to work and show up as expected. The younger kids don’t like to work and only show up when they feel like it.

I make all my own mixes up because I’m allergic to Gluten, dairy and eggs. Rarely eat out and when we do it’s restaurants that will allow me to bring in my own salad dressings and rice cheese and will cook to meet my diet needs. My husband is making me an indoor drying rack and made me an awesome clothes line that holds 3 loads of laundry.

I can freeze the clothes in winter and knock off the ice to dry the clothes but I just assume dry them on a rack behind the wood stove. Learning skills that most have forgotten can be a real blessing as we learn to live on lower fixed incomes. I listen on Dr Prepper blog talk radio and learn so much more including medical info.

I vacuum seal my mixes and dry goods into glass jars so they have a much longer life span. (10 to 15 years instead of 1 to 3 years) This week I have help so I am making up apple pie filling and canning it. 10 lbs of apples yields 6 quarts of pie filling.

In exchange I’m teaching my helper how to make pie crust and fillings. I’m also finding things to sell and using the money to get the things I need but can’t afford on our SS income. (My husband is 62) Best of luck to you Gburglinda!
Cherlynn

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