How Do Retirees Live On SS Alone? (beach, vacations, retired)

[otterhere]

Well, that's why you have a savings account. Do people have savings accounts anymore???

[JBtwinz]

Originally Posted by otterhere

Well, that's why you have a savings account. Do people have savings accounts anymore???

I think society has changed. Many of us had depression era parents growing up that influenced us but now with dual incomes discretionary spending and credit, saving for that so called rainy day isn’t as important to some.

[otterhere]

Originally Posted by JBtwinz

I think society has changed. Many of us had depression era parents growing up that influenced us but now with dual incomes discretionary spending and credit, saving for that so called rainy day isn’t as important to some.

Right; silly me. Now there's GoFundMe for that rainy day!

[Lodestar]

Everything's paid for. We have what we need.

Savings accounts and investments in place.

Everything else is gravy.

We just plodded along and did it the old-fashioned way never buying anything we couldn't afford until we got here. It worked.

Edit to admit exaggeration: Yes, there were a couple extravagant expenditures over the years, but nothing we couldn't recoup. The general direction was moderation.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by BugsyPal

How Do Retirees Live On SS Alone?

Many of our friends are on SS as their only source of income.


I have been on a military pension since 2001, it is about the same.


If you settle somewhere that has a low cost of living and don't try to carry a mortgage, you can be fairly comfortable.

[Yippeekayay]

$1875 is good pension for me in Southeast Asia.

[Teacher Terry]

None of my friends live on SS only. A friend of mine lives in a building where she pays market rate but many there get their rent subsidized because they are low income living only on SS. She said they get many regular items for free or greatly reduced.

When I got divorced almost 3 years ago my income was cut in half. I knew that the key to staying in my HCOL area was to buy a condo that I could afford. My mortgage and hoa fees are cheaper for a two bedroom than rent on a studio apartment.

I can live on my pension and SS and luckily my pension has yearly raises. It will eventually cap at 5%. I have savings and I still do consulting. By the end of the year I probably will have made 9k.

[MichiganGreg]

Originally Posted by BugsyPal

Interesting piece from Marketwatch.com about retirees living on just SS alone.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wh...?mod=home-page

Living on SS alone is amazingly easy if SS benefits are > than expenses. And there are many, many kinds of both rewarding and satisfying lifestyles.

[allthatglitters]

I could NEVER do it. I live in the most expensive city in North America - according to The Economist.

It's called Canada Pension Plan here, and if I only received that I would surely be poverty-stricken.

[elnrgby]

Originally Posted by otterhere

Drop homeowner's insurance? There's a novel way to save money I hadn't thought of! But with my luck, it would burn down the next day...

If you own a condo, the building master insurance covers pretty much everything except your belongings. If you live on soc security only, it is unlikely that you own belongings worth insuring. I have a minimal insurance on my primary home condo, but that is only because without some home insurance you can't get an umbrella policy to insure your other assets if someone sues you for some type of damages. My condo insurance for something like $20k with umbrella insurance for $1 million (which covers my personal liability worldwide) costs around $270 per year, ie, practically nothing.

My unit did get totalled in a building fire several years ago, when I did not have any home insurance (though I owned the second condo in a different city, where I could stay without extra expense), and the building insurance policy covered the entire gut rebuilding of my condo.