Retiring on a literal shoestring: support group

[galaxyhi]

Originally Posted by RiverBird

Bluecrab,

Are you 60 or over? On top of your teachers pension, will you get SS?

Wondering if you will be staying where you are now living once you retire? Is it expensive to live where you are now? (house buying, prop taxes, etc). What's it like there for seniors?

There's a lot of talk on other threads about moving to cheaper areas in retirement. I am so torn about this, being a New Englander at heart who cannot afford to live my elderly years here (mostly b/c of property taxes). I've even considered giving up my car. But I don't want to move to a place for lower prop taxes and be stuck out in the country and have to depend on a car to get everywhere.

Some states apparently freeze (or ease) prop taxes at 65. Here, I face an $800+ increase in the next year. What will it be when I'm 65 or 70??

Anyone else have info on the prop tax issue?

Property tax discount, rebate, or senior reduction will vary by state and city/town you live in.

We live in a nice town adjunct to small city. It is, along with a part of that city, and one town across the river a good city, safe but it's also a higher expensive area with the other two mentioned.
I wouldn't want to live in another town across the river or in certain section s of the small city.

My spouse will turn 65 in a couple of years. So I called about the senior property tax discount.
That is administered by both the state and town.

BUT, it looks like we won't get it.
Why? They have an income limit on it!
Both my SSDI and spouses SS (when the time comes) will put us under $1k/yr of being over that income limit!
And gawd help us once we start retirement distribution s! That'll put us way over.

So you'd have to check your town/city, and/or your state to see IF you'd qualify.

Best

[galaxyhi]

Originally Posted by in_newengland

Thank you. I had the pleasure of meeting RiverBird "for coffee." We ended up talking for hours. She was great. Really smart, talented, we had both grown up in the beautiful Connecticut River Valley of MA and that gave us even more to talk about. I was crushed when she passed away. Her sense of irony was well honed. She knew what she was saying when she wrote, "literal."

I save money by buying minutes for my phone from US Mobile. They use T-Mobile's network but you go online and pay a few $$ for talk or text or data. I usually don't go over $10/month but I can top any part of it up if need to by adding a couple of dollars. I also have a cheap landline, mostly for those calls where they put you on HOLD endlessly.

We drive an old reliable car that's good enough. I was never much into cars anyway, not impressed. A Subaru is what is needed in this snowy, hilly climate and we got one cheap. I shop at thrift stores in normal times and I also get deals on ebay. But really, at our age there isn't much we need. It's more a matter of replacing things that get worn out.

Oh, crap! Didn't know that, thanks.

May she rest in peace!

Was she added to the "passed posters" thread?

[Windwalker2]

Originally Posted by galaxyhi

Oh, crap! Didn't know that, thanks.

May she rest in peace!

Was she added to the "passed posters" thread?

If you look at her original post, her name is in black and it says Eternal Member. That means she has died.
Kind of sad to be reminded of her. Maybe you could start a different thread about this.

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by galaxyhi

Oh, crap! Didn't know that, thanks.

May she rest in peace!

Was she added to the "passed posters" thread?

I can tell you River Bird passed at age 64 so her worries about being able to afford old age never came true. She had beautiful young grandchildren and had decided to stay near them instead of moving away. I had the Powers that Be add Eternal Member to her name and that's all we do, as far as I know.

In her last year or two River Bird was teaching a few English classes at a college and she was also involved in other work, at a museum, I think. They would have been okay on their income because her son who lived nearby was helping them renovate their house and things seemed to be getting better until she got sick. She was a very private person, a writer, artist, and probably she worried a bit too much. She would have been okay. Very sad. I hope this is the last time we have to bring this subject up. RIP, River Bird.