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If your SS was 1K a month and you lived alone, never had kids, and kind of a homebody, could you make it? House would be paid for, but of course, there is HOI and maintenance (or a condo fee if you have a condo).
Let's say house for the sake of argument, so there is no HOA fee.
I do have cats, but they are pretty healthy and go to the vet yearly.
You most definitely could. Many do. Many on SSDI get less than $1K/month. Often they are in subsidized housing programs where only a third of their income goes to housing, but there are others who do it on their own.
Some live in manufactured homes and pay $400 or so for lot rent and access to whatever amenities the community offers. Sometimes water, sewer and garbage is included as well. Always a plus.
If your monthly expenses for maintenance, property taxes, insurance, HOA fees run about $400/month, you could likely do it.
There still would water, sewage, garbage, electricity, gas, WiFi... add it up and see what you would have left to spend on food and good times.
Driving a car is probably out long-term. There just isn't enough room in this budget for payments, insurance, gas, maintenance of a car. if you have a paid-for car that will last with minimal repairs, you could do it for awhile. But once the transmission goes or ??? there isn't enough slack in the budget.
So chose a home with decent public transportation, a fine public library nearby, monthly expenses that won't leave you and the cats staring at bare cupboards by the 25th of every month.
You could always rent out rooms or get a roomate or two. Live like 60 year old graduate students.
Agree- renting out a room in your house would be a fairly painless way of bringing in a couple of hundred more a month.
I theoretically could live on $1000 a month, but wouldn't want to as it would mean cutting budget to bare bones (and I live pretty frugally now)- no car/car insurance, no internet/hulu, living in a low COL area to reduce rent or property taxes, and using available subsidies for utilities and food- and also no wiggle room for emergencies.
My HOA does in fact pay a number of my monthly bills out of the monthly fees:
1. Trash collection fees to the city
2. Water bills (Water is not individually metered here, although natural gas and electricity are.)
3. Weekly gardening service
4. Twice weekly pool maintenance plus any repairs that come up
5. Insurance on the exterior of the buildings, making the condo owners' policies low-cost sort of like renters' insurance
6. All exterior maintenance including painting and roofing
That's fine if you don't want to live where there is an HOA, but why distort reality to imply that the fees have no rational basis?
There is no distortion of reality on my part, many home owners associations are exactly as I stated.
You are perhaps lucky the one you have is not, until the new board comes in?
I can think of at least two people I know who live on around 1k/mo. I live on about 22k/yr and there is a lot of fat I could cut if needed. I live in the upper Midwest, so LCOL area.
Person #1 lived in small house her son owns. House is outside a small town, 2bedrooms, 1 bath. I would guess about 700 Sf. It does have a basement and a single car garage. Son pays for all major repairs-like a recent new roof and a nice covered deck. I think down the road he intends to use it as a hunting cabin himself. She pays taxes and insurance which she says costs her about about $150/mo. Older but well maintained car. I think she is quite content. She plays cards and bunco in several groups, knits and tats, mostly with supplies from thrift stores, has two cats, reads a lot from the library, seldom has new clothes, is vegetarian and mostly eats at home. She has a track phone, internet, but no cable(rabbit ears) netflex, doesn't have ac in the summer. Her son occasionally buys her bigger ticket items(for example he recently bought her a new mattress).
Person #2 lives in a small(I would guess 500sf) old trailer. My guess is that at one time it had two bedrooms, but they were combined to make one. Tho it is old it is really fixed up nice. She painted all the paneling and a lot of the furniture. It is kinda shabby chic. She paid 5k for the trailer and her lot rent is about the same as person #1 insurance/taxes(we play cards together and they were talking) She volunteers a couple of places. Has AC in the summer(the trailer would be unbearable without it). Altho she isn't vegetarian the rest is similar...Consumer cellular, no cable, has internet, reads from the library, she has a small garden in the summer, doesn't do much for crafts that I know of. She is a great bargain hunter(which is probably her hobby) and is often telling us of good deals, which I often follow thru with. I would say her situation is a little less stable, as she doesn't have a family member backup.
Neither pays anything above medicare. Neither has much insurance as they really don't have much to insure. Both are in the same circle of friends who really help each other out-sharing extra garden produce, car pooling when they can, helping each other do small home repairs etc.
I would say both women seem content and pretty happy with their lives. Neither relies on much for government help(other than no co pays with medicare health care. Neither used the food pantry or other progams. So, yes I think it can be done.
If your SS was 1K a month and you lived alone, never had kids, and kind of a homebody, could you make it? House would be paid for, but of course, there is HOI and maintenance (or a condo fee if you have a condo).
Let's say house for the sake of argument, so there is no HOA fee.
I do have cats, but they are pretty healthy and go to the vet yearly.
I live in a condo and my condo dues are $185 a month (very low for my area), my property taxes are $375 a month, my home owners insurance is maybe $50 a month, electric $200 a month, water/sewer/garbage $75 a month, internet/cable/phone $150 a month (of course, that could be lower) so my entire housing costs ---- even with a completely paid off condo----would be over $1,000 a month.
For some people Uber can help with transportation. My cousin is concerned about her parents driving at night, so are looking to Uber for occasional help.
I have been trying to do that for several years and thank God I have other retirements because I would not make it and am often getting into debt and having to claw my way out with babysitting jobs. I am not a complete homebody and love to help others. Due to retirement funds, I do not qualify for food stamps etc. I take in almost 1600 a month and it is very tight because I rent and there are many additions to renting in this area now a days. Besides rent, one has water/sewer, trash, trash compactor, gas, power, there are fees from different services for 3rd party billing. Then food is not cheap and anyone who says they can live on $100 for food is not eating if so, not good food so they better add to their medical. Even Medicare goes up every year and if you take the cheapest monthly part c and d you still have co-pays and co-insurance plus deductibles. Believe me everyone gets sick or injured at some point.
I do have children and grandchildren out of the area so that adds travel and gifts.
If you are looking to take from your retirement/401/etc., talk to the company and find out how much you can take out a year (usually 4% over 65) because they will give you an actuarial estimate of how long you will live and how much you can take out a month to have money left till you die. Don't forget if it is not a Roth you pay tax on that money.
By the way, Florida may not have state tax but they make up for that in other taxes so watch out. Done that been there.
Property taxes, car insurance, phone, water, electricity, bourbon......
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