Posted on 01/06/2016 11:30:32 AM PST by Citizen Zed
“..over-55 town home “
I’m 73 and live in a gated, secure over-55 community because I want to. You can certainly choose living otherwise. No one’s making me locate where the neighborhood is free of noise (except for damned lawn mowers), kids (I love the adorable little disease vectors, too, but haven’t been sick for years, now), and neighbors with similar interests.
Sorry for your situation.
“live below your means”
That’s the foundation for a better life, money-wise.
Heh. I noticed that, too.
I’m not talking about my situation, which is a very nice environment. I’m observing the way it’s working out for a lot of retirees.
This nonsense comes out every five or ten years. No, it is not true.
Right now, a vast number of Americans are long term unemployed. Yet where are the legions of homeless people living on the street (compared to the usual number)? Where are the “Obamavilles”?
Basically, our economy has long since moved away from the one we had in the Great Depression, where if you lost your job and couldn’t find another quickly, you and your family were destitute.
Today, in that situation, you are uncomfortable, but not destitute. The evidence is all around us.
Stupid question. That would suggest people are making enough money to save in the first place. Not happening.
You are still destitute today, but rather than living under a bridge you live in gubmint housing - with all the risks that entails - and live on gubmint handouts (your home will be gone). The “Obamavilles” are concealed with the Section 8 housing that has spread far & wide across the country; rather than concentrating our indigent populations on urban reservations (which are quickly bankrupted providing every amenity to them), the government for years (preceding Obama) has simply spread them out through middle-class neighborhoods.
Homelessness has been a myth for at least half a century; those lunatics shown on the streets of NYC are usually drug addicts who prefer the street to the no tolerance drug policies of the shelters.
Cell phones are the new opium of the masses; they have portable bread & circuses. Yet we’re supposed to believe that unassimilated minorities with electronic gadgets worth more than my car are victims of a “digital divide”.
In fact, the less educated you are the harder this world will be for you; nobody needs millions of aspiring rappers and wannabe NBA stars...
We are older and doing well. Every week we go to a senior baby sitting establishment - a Choctaw casino. It is okay if we lose, but usually we make money. If you are not aware, most of the people in a casino are older people. I see them hobbling on their own legs, using canes, using walkers, and in powered wheelchairs or pushed by someone. They are having fun being with people and trying their luck on slot machines. We play poker machines as that takes some brain calculation instead of just punching a button.
It is a good feeling to see these older people doing their thing. They are smiling and moving and involved. Casinos are good baby sitting venues. If we see a senior who needs help, we help.
One elderly woman thought someone had picked up her wallet and she had many hundreds of dollars in it. I had just walked where she was as I was going to play that machine when she left. It was obvious to me she was very drunk. It was her birthday and her friends and she were drinking to celebrate her birthday. She was going where security was but I knew she would likely fall down if she started walking, she was that much out of it.
I got security to come help her and stayed with her while security was talking to her. She told me she did not want her husband to know she had lost that money because it was so much. Well, she had not lost her money. She had put the wallet back in her purse, had not laid it down as she thought she did. I called her friends who were in another part of the casino, and they came to her. They were all nice people and the husband did not have to find out she lost their money, since she did not. :o)
Hey, my old insurance company was State Farm. Maybe no coincidence and it sounds like your story is similar to ours.
You have me beat. We were a customer for 20 years and pretty happy. Both auto and home. In the past three years or so, the rates climbed a lot. The last increase was huge and was the reason for us to shop around.
Our agent was a great guy and we even asked him to give us a competitive rate and he told us that his hands were tied.
Must be something going on at the corporate level at State Farm. Maybe some kind of turnover. However, at this rate they won’t have any more customers.
Agreed!
I just assumed they don’t want older customers. Allstate was happy enough, though.
Yes. There is. But it won't be learned, unfortunately.
I would not classify that as as stupid question.
The problem is that people look at a wide range of things to spend money on as necessities, when they aren’t.
Anything you want to eat, when you want to eat it.
A new car every few years.
Cell phones and plans for both parents and children.
Computers for both parents and children.
Laptops for both parents and children.
Tablets for both parents and children.
A house far above the needs of the occupants.
Vacations even when there is nothing saved up in the bank.
And so on.
This is not to say someone can’t have these things and save money. But there are a huge number of people that have nothing significant saved up, but still get on a plane and fly places. They still buy new cell phones for everyone with large data plans. And so on.
The concept of saying any of the following is foreign:
“No. We cannot have steak and organic groceries this week. Chicken and generic pasta only. We need to make sure we can set some money aside to reach our goal this year.”
“No. We cannot go on vacation to Florida. We can’t afford it.”
“No. We cannot go to the movies at $12 a person. We can wait until it comes out on Redbox.
“No. I am not going to buy a new iPhone 6 for each of you kids. If you have a good reason to need a phone, I will buy you a Trackphone with voice only. No data. No texting.”
“No. We cannot buy you a new laptop. You will have to make do with that three year old laptop. It isn’t in our budget.”
“No. We cannot buy a new 70” television with the media center. We are going to have to use the 45” one we have.”
“No. We cannot get a new SUV. The one we have is 4 years old and only has ninety thousand miles on it. When we have enough money saved for a 50% downpayment, and have 150 thousand miles on it, we can trade it in.”
“No. We cannot send you on the school trip to China. We cannot afford it.”
“No. You can’t go to Harvard unless you want to pay your own way. We will help you go to State College, but you will have to have a job and work.”
The fundamental issue is, while there are people who are jobless and have been for a while (no saving is not an issue with them...they simply cannot do it and that isn’t their fault) there are a lot of people who could save, but don’t. And you don’t hear any of the above statements, or similar ones, come out of their mouths.
For some people, a cell phone IS a necessity. I consider myself in that camp.
I work in IT, am on call, and when I reached the point around 2004 when I realized every single pay phone I went to was out of order, I bought a cell phone.
I rarely chat on it, though I do occasionally text since people are more comfortable with that.
But I do take issue with having every member of a family with their own phone, especially if you are not putting away any money.
And if I was hard up to save money, I would get a trackphone with minimum minutes on it.
Could be.
But it would have been smart for them to try to accommodate us. We didn’t know it but we were paying WAY TOO MUCH and the final straw was the last rate hike. If they’d given a little we’d still be customers and paying way too much.
Allstate? Wow. Allstate was our insurance company back when we switched over to State Farm. They were in a similar mode of rate hikes at the beginning of each term. We finally said “uncle” and they refused to give and that is when we switched to State Farm. That was 20 years ago.
. . . and only one winning Powerball jackpot away from a safe and secure retirement.
*****************************************************
Easy for you to say, you live in Pennsylvania, where they actually pay lottery winners but I live in Illinois.
While those in D.C. lined their own pockets and became wealthy, Middle Middle America got economically gang banged from every direction.
Better get yourself updated.
About cell phones ... I have a second-hand one for convenience, so I can talk to Hubs during the day since we work opposite shifts. Got the cheapest plan out there.
BUT my young co-workers, on the other hand, don’t bat an eye about spending hundreds of dollars for the latest phone. My young, broke co-workers who have already declared bankruptcy and-or had wages garnished, cars repossessed, etc.
For that kind of money, I should either be able to wear it or ride it ...(jewelry, or a new saddle or something.)
Where do I say that? How do you get that statement out of my post?
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