I am getting so sick of hearing social security recipients whining "I live on a fixed income" I could puke.
I now respond "wow, you're lucky. folks on SSI are the only ones with reliable incomes these days".
I enjoy the deer in the headlights look as they realize that I'm right!
I work with "old" people. In fact -- some of the people in our building have been "retired" LONGER than they actually worked! The
longer you are out of the workplace environment -- the more detatched from reality you become.
When I ask them to raise their hands if they were "just" a housewife and never worked outside the home.....NOW about 1/2 the room raises their hands. Just about 6 or 7 years ago that number was probably about 2/3! Many of these people still honestly think that "poppa" is making more than enough
on his own to sustain the family! They wouldn't have "dreamed" in their productive earnings years of putting anything on "credit" just so they could live a more "comfortable" life! (In fact --- there WAS no credit available to most of them in their younger days -- you just didn't DO that)! This was the generation that had no problem living within their "means"! Sacrifice and denial were very much in their vocabulary! So their "mindset" is simply, "Well -- WE did it -- why can't TODAYS young people do it?"
And then you try to explain how just living "barely" doesn't even work any more. A family of 4 living off of less than $30,000 per year CANNOT do it without dipping into credit. This "old" generation just cannot understand why people don't "save" anymore not quite understanding that for a LOT of people -- there just isn't anything left to save!
While they fully understand how the "cost" of things has gone up in direct co-relation to their resources, THIS generation simply would take the steps of ---eating less; wearing heavy clothing in winter and keeping the heat down; driving their cars ONLY where it is absolutely necessary and being proud of the clothes they've mended for the umpteenth time and are still wearing as "fine" after 25 years! But they can only stretch THAT income so far............and if their spouse has died........you DO realize that if they happened to be drawing 2 social security checks -- they're down to one. IF they were drawing their husband's pension -- the benefits of that pension are usually diminished for a surviving spouse.
I truly believe that if some of them COULD go back to work at age 85 to "supplement" their income................they would! But as you age.....once the paychecks WITH a "raise" are replaced with Social Security and if you're lucky a pension.............whatever anything costs.........YOU
WILL adjust your life to live within your means (unless you want to leave a nice large debt behind as your legacy!)
NOW -- for some of you posters on here who think that "grandma" is living high off the hog in her old age................I would venture to say that out of our 140 residents (average age 87)........
most are spending the majority of their income on medications! They are STUNNED when a bill for a 2 week hospital stay comes to $85,000+ when that amounts to what many of them made in their working years to about 5 or 6 years of pay!! When a trip to the Doctor means a medication CHANGE -- many of them finish taking the old prescriptions they have on hand BEFORE they get the new prescription filled!
I asked them recently, "If you actually HAD to pay a higher percentage of the cost of what your medical bills have amounted to over the last 10 years (instead of Medicare picking up the tab) --- the whole room just sighed!
I agree with the Republican Medical plan instead of "Obamacare" -- I agree with the Republican plan to slash Medicare benefits for those 55 and under..................but only if you do what I think they'd like you to do..............................................DIE YOUNG!!
