I’ve seen articles several times on the internet explaining where and how people live just on their social security. I’ve also seen people add up how they only spend $20K a year or some low number for living.
OK, fine, but I have never seen mention what they do to pay for health insurance. Why is that left out of the discussion? Because I believe many people could retire early, sell their home, rent an apartment someplace cheaper and live off savings until social security even kicks in. But the cost of health insurance seems high without an employer’s group policy.
I’d be interested to know how people are managing this?
Also, what happens to those who didn’t save a cent for retirement and only have social security where do they live? HUD housing?
Medicare universally covers people over 65, which is the same age at which most people begin to take social security. There’s also significant amount of subsidized housing available to people at that age.
Your post isn’t clear if you’re asking about people who live off social security, or people who retire early and wait for social security to kick in - you seem to indicate both.
My mom is 84 and most of her income is from social security and a small pension. She brings in less than $20K a year. She lives like a queen because she has owned the same car for 10 years now (just broke $20k miles), lives in a senior housing complex (better kept than my house) and just doesn’t do much except wait for relatives to come by and take her to dinner. She spends her days buying stuff off of QVC/Walmart and then returning stuff to QVC/Walmart. She is quite content.
It covers enough, for most people, but it is positioned to be between basic and average coverage, not “absolutely anything” coverage. What it doesn’t cover is some providers, some treatments, and some elevated levels of care when A provider, A treatment and what’s judged ADEQUATE care are covered. Supplemental insurance is like any other secondary insurance: paying out on the gamble you’ll need something the basic ‘policy’ doesn’t.
Healthcare coverage is perhaps the one thing older people don’t generally have to worry about. I am surprised you are/were unaware of this. (Mainly because it’s that selfsame population, living on free and pretty good socialized medicine, that most strongly objected to extension of that coverage to everyone else. This is not hidden news.)
As for everything else - how people who have squandered every dime (or otherwise failed to save any money) survive on SS+Medicare - well, that’s another enormous and not very secret subject.
In the last part, I was asking about people who don’t save anything or want to retire early, because if someone claims they can live on $20K a year from social security, it seems like there are many people in their 50s who have about a million dollars in savings including the value of their home. If that’s the case they can retire early and live off of savings at $20K a year until social security starts. If they were 56 years of age waiting to collect social security at 66, they could use $200K to live off of for 10 years, and then collect social security. This is assuming it’s possible to live on $20K a year as I have mentioned I’ve seen in articles with respect to social security. Unless living on $20K a year isn’t really possible or not for everyone.
Correct. Every year she tells me that once again she has paid no taxes. She does have a sizeable nest egg (savings account and mutual funds) but hasn’t touched them in 20 years. She grew up in the depression in the dust bowel and her family of eight lived in freight car until she was 14. But try telling that to the kids these days . . .
I’m getting the impression that people who are living “large” with all these material possessions who claim they will have to work until they drop and will never be able to retire, it’s because they simply want too much.
The section on “Who can get Medicare?”. It is from the horse’s mouth exactly who is eligible. So if someone is able to get social security payments, then they are eligible for Medicare. Or if they are married to someone who is they will also get it.
I am not really sure what you are getting at. To be eligible for Social Security payments (other than SSI), you must have 10 years or 40 quarters of FICA tax withholding. Hence my post.
I think the free Medicare is hospital insurance. If you want some of your doctor’s visits covered, that’s Part B for about $105 a month, and if you want prescription drug insurance, that’s Part D and often costs extra, too.
We just moved to a new town and one doctor who was highly recommended does not take any Assignments. You pay for his services and work with your own insurance company yourself. I was told others won’t take new Medicare patients.
I know of older teachers who are not eligible for Medicare because when they first started teaching in Illinois, they didn’t pay the Medicare premium over the years. Illinois public employees do not pay into Social Security, so they aren’t eligible based on their teaching income for A Social Security pension upon retirement. Some years ago they were able to start paying the Medicare premium so they could get that. If you are old enough, or retired long enough ago, you won’t get it. It’s especially hard on elderly couples where neither payed into Medicare.
Anyway, I think it would be extremely difficult to retire on Social Security alone without a big safety net of senior housing, Meals on Wheels, or family to help.
Actually, you can get Social Security (and hence Medicare) if you are the spouse of somebody with 40 quarters, even with zero quarters yourself. You are also eligible for Medicare if you are eligible for Social Security disability, meaning a disabled child who never worked and never will work a single day can have Medicare. There are also government employees who never paid into Social Security at all but had Medicare payroll taxes withheld. There are a number of exceptions to the 40 quarters rule.
Oh, it’s possible. You’re not going to enjoy a very high standard of living, but there are plenty of people in this country living on less.
I have an older relative, e.g., who lives on about $10K a year ($8K cash, $1500 in food stamps, and $500 in utility assistance, plus Medicaid). The house is paid for, and the car was paid off more than twenty years ago. She’s not traveling, remodeling, or going out to dinner and a show regularly. As a senior citizen with low income, she is eligible for a property tax rebate and pays basically nothing for health insurance (Medicaid pays the Medicare premiums). She lives in a low-cost part of the country and has never had expensive tastes, so that helps.
“Not for everyone” is a bit of an understatement. A nest egg of $1 million isn’t particularly large for a middle class retiree, but you can be pretty damn sure nobody who save a million dollars is looking to quit at 55 and live off $20,000 a year.
The fact that many people aspire to a higher income during retirement doesn’t make many other people’s ability to live off social security any less realistic.
