Where do older people go that don’t have money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 75 year old relative is working at a department store in the south.

Belk? There are some sweet old ladies that work at Belk.

[Anonymous]

They move somewhere like Panama or SE Asia that has a really, really low cost of living.

[Anonymous]

A lot of them live in public housing. I live in a Southern city and a couple of the residential neighborhoods closer in to downtown had some public housing high rise apartments--I used to live somewhat near one of them. It was mostly poor senior citizens living on social security. Then when they are no longer able to take care of themselves, they go to nursing homes that accept medicaid, which are pretty depressing places. My ex-husband's uncle had a stroke and moved to a nursing home in a rural area that accepted medicaid when he could no longer take care of himself independently. Very little privacy, somewhat poor quality of care, bad food, but what other options are there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do older people living on social security live if they have no additional money and aren’t close w family to take them in?

A lot of them live in public housing in NYC.

And then they go to nursing homes.

This, they live off social security or what ever they have and then go into a medicaid paid nursing home (its a different long term care medicaid). My MIL did the best she could, got dementia, lived with us till I couldn't do it any more as needs were too great and then nursing home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parent both had not a dollar in savings and lived exclusively off social security their last few years. Actually, my dad worked until age 80. Then he was unable to work and lived exclusively off SS. My mom was 20 years younger but unwell. She was 64 when he died and lived another 9 years off SS alone.

She moved into public senior housing around age 67. It was a nice one bedroom apt and her rent was a sliding scale based on her monthly income. It wasn’t bad at all, but she was in a wait list for 2 years. Then, when her dementia got bad, we had her admitted to assisted living 5)-5 would take Title-19, which is CT’s version of Medicaid. They took her whole check each month and left her with like $75 spending $ a month. But everything was paid for...food, transportation, housing. It was a really nice place. It was a 40-hr a week job for a while for me to navigate the various social service agencies and paperwork to get her in there.

Then she got sicker and needed skilled nursing care, that was a nightmare b/c the places that would take her as a Medicaid patient were hellholes. Luckily, she ended up having a long hospitalization and then was accepted to a nursing home under Medicare, which pays a higher rate than Medicaid. After her Medicare days ran out, they couldn’t kick her out so she stayed under Medicaid.

Again, it was a full time job for me navigating all this for a while. I also subsidized things like medication and vitamins not covered, monthly haircuts, that kid of thing. I am ashamed now that I didn’t do more. I had gotten married and just bought our first home and was pregnant, and I was really pinching pennies. I pinched them too tightly and wish I had treated her more. I couldn’t afford, either financially not mentally, to have her closer to me; her mental illness was really hard to manage.

In most states, there are social supports for destitute elderly people. But you have to work HARD to access and activate them and navigate many layers of bureaucracy and paperwork. The social workers at out local hospital were godsends...they told me about a number of programs that I wouldn’t have known about from just internet searching.

Thats really nice they paid for assisted living. In MD they only pay for a nursing home. But, it was still the same about the $75 or so a month and we had to supplement a little but I was good at managing the money well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a happy existence. If you don't have family, hope you die before you get old.

+1

I’m unmarried and have no kids or family. Before things get bad, I plan to go to the Netherlands to do assisted suicide. I’m probably good until 55-60. Then I want out.

[Anonymous]

Buy a $1 house in Ghana

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a happy existence. If you don't have family, hope you die before you get old.

+1

I’m unmarried and have no kids or family. Before things get bad, I plan to go to the Netherlands to do assisted suicide. I’m probably good until 55-60. Then I want out.

I plan on doing the same. Can’t believe the people who Don’t mind burdening family. Entitled much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They move somewhere like Panama or SE Asia that has a really, really low cost of living.

You don't even have to go that far, just go just south of the border to Rosarito, Mexico.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends. Our 4 sets of grandparents lived on social security. Grandpa got like $1800 and grandma got $1100. Their house was paid off. They lived well off of social security and didn’t tap their savings until grandpa died. I don’t know the specifics of dhs grandparents’ amounts but I know there is no other savings and they only have social security. They live in a cheaper city and their houses are paid off.

One grandma bought into a senior community. I think it was 300k. She then moved into a ranch home in the community. Lived there for 15 years and then moved into the apartment style living on the property after that (for 10 years or so). She couldn’t drive and needed more help. And then she moved to the nursing home part. When her savings were completely gone, Medicaid paid. She was happy and loved the friends.

The question asked about old people with no money. You answered that your grandmother had 300k!!!! Do you think that’s no money?!?

Pp here. They didn’t have any money other than houses. She sold her house for 300k. They were all lower class. Maybe lower middle class. None had any retirement savings or pensions.

[Anonymous]

Following with interest. My 60 year old mother recently told me she emptied her retirement savings to buy a used car.

I’m not rich and I’m very worried about supporting her. My only sibling is an addict who’s out of the picture. Wondering if I should get her on a list for subsidized housing now ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a happy existence. If you don't have family, hope you die before you get old.

+1

I’m unmarried and have no kids or family. Before things get bad, I plan to go to the Netherlands to do assisted suicide. I’m probably good until 55-60. Then I want out.

55 or 60? Are you treating your body like a toilet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a happy existence. If you don't have family, hope you die before you get old.

+1

I’m unmarried and have no kids or family. Before things get bad, I plan to go to the Netherlands to do assisted suicide. I’m probably good until 55-60. Then I want out.

I plan on doing the same. Can’t believe the people who Don’t mind burdening family. Entitled much?

We don't have that option here and its not about burdening your family. Old age is part of life. You set a good example if you have kids and take care of your family, if they were good to you, etc.

I would much prefer assisted suicide after watching my MIL suffer for years with dementia. No one should have to go through that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends. Our 4 sets of grandparents lived on social security. Grandpa got like $1800 and grandma got $1100. Their house was paid off. They lived well off of social security and didn’t tap their savings until grandpa died. I don’t know the specifics of dhs grandparents’ amounts but I know there is no other savings and they only have social security. They live in a cheaper city and their houses are paid off.

One grandma bought into a senior community. I think it was 300k. She then moved into a ranch home in the community. Lived there for 15 years and then moved into the apartment style living on the property after that (for 10 years or so). She couldn’t drive and needed more help. And then she moved to the nursing home part. When her savings were completely gone, Medicaid paid. She was happy and loved the friends.

The question asked about old people with no money. You answered that your grandmother had 300k!!!! Do you think that’s no money?!?

Pp here. They didn’t have any money other than houses. She sold her house for 300k. They were all lower class. Maybe lower middle class. None had any retirement savings or pensions.

Lol. Stop - a fully paid off house that sold for $300k is MONEY. And plenty of it. Don’t ever tell this story again in this context. Ye gods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends. Our 4 sets of grandparents lived on social security. Grandpa got like $1800 and grandma got $1100. Their house was paid off. They lived well off of social security and didn’t tap their savings until grandpa died. I don’t know the specifics of dhs grandparents’ amounts but I know there is no other savings and they only have social security. They live in a cheaper city and their houses are paid off.

One grandma bought into a senior community. I think it was 300k. She then moved into a ranch home in the community. Lived there for 15 years and then moved into the apartment style living on the property after that (for 10 years or so). She couldn’t drive and needed more help. And then she moved to the nursing home part. When her savings were completely gone, Medicaid paid. She was happy and loved the friends.

The question asked about old people with no money. You answered that your grandmother had 300k!!!! Do you think that’s no money?!?

Pp here. They didn’t have any money other than houses. She sold her house for 300k. They were all lower class. Maybe lower middle class. None had any retirement savings or pensions.

They had that money to buy something and had social security. They had a lot more than others.