Senior Housing; Cost of Living is Rising Faster, I Must Sell My Home!
A Senior Citizen Surviving Today on Limited Income
This is a sheer impossibility; until you are in these circumstances you could not know what existence is for countless elders. In the United States seniors are not treasured, the Native American culture looks up to their elders and whom they go for daily advise. And, the Mexican American’s are very good to their seniors and will procure them into the fold of their household. Did you save enough or retirement? Can you predict this outcome?
Saying this, for the remainder of the seniors are pushed aside, even by the medical community. First let’s start with the earnings. For a couple, in many situations the man will bring in income based on his highest three years he secured during his life-time of working. That will be averaged out to his once a month checks. If his spouse on no account worked, stayed home; cooked, took care of the children, was the bond that keep the home together, well she will receive a small SSI check from the government, maybe a few hundred a month or so.
Senior housing is becoming a serious issue, I live in a real nice community and the cost was working for me. However, currently the cost of living has increased to the level where I just can't make it anymore. This is so frightening to me, I am to young to move into a small senior room, I love my beautiful home, and furniture and the stuff I have gathered through my life time. Yet, it is time now for me to look at this situation and make a solid decision for what is best. Oh my heart is broken, I will be under the thumb of our government to this kind of Senior housing. I have NO choice.
Currently, if you are a women whose husband may have divorced you in your later years, you will only get the SSI check for income because you did not work, if he passed away and you were his wife of many years, you will inherit his income to add, which would help a great deal. Sad to say this is rare. After doing a great deal of research if you are single, disabled and worked good jobs all your life. When you did retire or become disabled, the income you received was livable and possible, at the present; you cannot life on this income.
The system depends on which state you live in, foremost food stamps, many seniors are offered $4.00 to $10.00 per month in food stamp, why is this so low, because the families that have a million children, each from a different father, so I am told, get a large amount of food stamps, and in many cases there are numerous family members and friends all breathing beneath one roof. Same with energy assistance called Leap, and it was once a remarkable program except the cost of gas and electric has risen to such an elevated cost that the money they send, now only last one month of in the winter, in the past this would help a family for perhaps a good three months.
Let’s talk about doctors and medication, a sore subject for many seniors, co-pays to visit a doctor is $30.00 let’s declare you need to pay a visit to two or three doctors a month. Not like the old days where one doctor took care of you, now you are required to go to a orthopedic doctor, one for your knee, another for the hips and yet another for your back. Then you ought to see your Psychiatrist every few months, and all they perform is to refill your medications, they no longer psychologically assist you and will only work with you if you are also seeing a physiologist, which would request that you ought to pop in at least once a week, bear in mind, let me repeat these visits are on the average of $30.00 co-pay if you are on Medicare.
Generally, nearly all seniors do not have a secondary insurance, who can afford several more hundred a month? Again, Medicare does not cover for any kind of dental, so our seniors teeth are slowly weathering away, and they pay for the cost of one eye exam every few years, but they don’t pay for glasses, hearing aids, or dental. They will pay for a monogram every few years.
Without hesitation, I see my everyday doctor at the clinic, he gives me prescriptions for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, low thyroid, diabetes, mussel relaxers for stiff neck, etc, you get my point they are so happy to give you pills, even for pain! Pills, Pills and more Pills. Then there is my psychiatrist who writes me some pretty powerful medications that you must take and can never go off abruptly, or they could kill you. So everyday I take so much medication that my body is being poisoned. Each one of these drugs has co-pay that varies. The cost of my co-pays alone comes to about $300.00 a month.
Then there is your car, to clean it, put gas in it and to keep it well maintained is impossible. Paying the rent is the one thing that must be done and that is half or more, for the majority senior’s income. Straight away we have car insurance, homeowners insurance, medical insurance, Medicare takes out $100.00 a month from this small monthly check to pay for my Medicare insurance. To top it off this January 2010 our wonderful government said let’s give money to the Auto and Bank industries and not give our seniors their yearly cost of living increase.
The DMV has raised everyone up $35.00 on all car tags and for each month you are late it will cost $25.00 per month or until you are current. We have the cost of gas to get here and their while the cost of gas is raising daily. Food, in a jiffy is another sad state of affairs, whatever is left over from home utility bills, Internet provider, Cable, and phone? Pronto this is only mentioning the basics.
How are they surviving these elders of our communities, they are invisible to the world, you see them in the grocery store all hunched over carrying one small basket, to buy enough food to last them all month. Does anyone care? Not our Government, they don’t care. There are some organizations that try to help out, although their budgets have been curtailed back to the point that now they need to raise money.
How do these people survive…to be honest with you, they don’t. Everyday they are whisking away, one senior after another has died in their home, nobody noticed them for days, so finally the neighbors might have called 911…Just stop and think about this thought, ponder it, our children will not be getting these checks, no social security for them, and if seniors can’t make it now, what is going to happen to our children. It’s so hard to get them to think ahead. My son had a nice savings, then there was a crisis, just like everyone everywhere, losing their homes and trying to be honest and pay off those bills. Right away his saving is gone, what now? What is going to happen to him as a senior, so very sad, you all know the answer to this last question which is so unfathomable to grasp. You Must save for retirement, planning or retirement, or this will be how you live on retirement!
The copyright to this article is owned by Darlene Sabella. Permission to republish this article in print or online must be granted by the author in writing. (You can, however, freely use the opening introduction and photo with a link to the article here on My Smashing Blog to read the remainder of the article.)
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