Many older Americans are living a desperate, nomadic life

MarketWatch ^ | 4Feb18 | Richard Eisenberg

[qaz123]

The “workamper” jobs range from helping harvest sugar beets to flipping burgers at baseball spring training games to Amazon’s AMZN, +2.87% “CamperForce,” seasonal employees who can walk the equivalent of 15 miles a day during Christmas season pulling items off warehouse shelves and then returning to frigid campgrounds at night. Living on less than $1,000 a month, in certain cases, some have no hot showers. As Bruder writes, these are “people who never imagined being nomads.” Many saw their savings wiped out during the Great Recession or were foreclosure victims and, writes Bruder, “felt they’d spent too long losing a rigged game.” Some were laid off from high-paying professional jobs. Few have chosen this life. Few think they can find a way out of it. They’re downwardly mobile older Americans in mobile homes

[Mr. K]

Thanks for setting rules for everyone else to live by.

you’re very helpful.

[trisham]

I hear you. I wouldn’t want to lose my home, but the idea of traveling around the country in something that is not too big but not too small is appealing.

Goldilocks :)

[glorgau]

Yep, numbers don’t lie.

Money wise, planning for retirement is all about the numbers.

[Kickass Conservative]

>>>“I am NOMAD.”<<<

I wish I had a 55, 56 or 57 Nomad.

The 56 is my favorite, it has that cool Gas Filler hidden in the left Taillight.

My brother had a 56 2 Door Hardtop with that feature that he bought from a little old Lady in Pasadena, really.

Oh, back to the Article. It’s all Bezo’s fault.

As far as living in an RV goes, you can buy a new Class A (30 plus Foot) on a Ford Chassis for less than $100,000. Mrs. KC won’t go for it though. :(

[tflabo]

What you shared should be a standard course required in HS. Personally I didn’t start saving/investing in earnest until the late 30’s but here at age 61 I’m doing ok. Wished I started in my early or even mid 20’s. Teach your children well.

[politicianslie]

Romantic?

I think it’s fine that most Ameeicans want to retire and live just like they did when they worked

Instead

I sold just about everything

I bought a fairly large sailboat. When America was freezing, I was in a place more like high 80, low 70

In the summer, the Oregon coast can be very cool in July. You’ll probably need a jacket. Get bored there, and I know a perfect place on the side of Mt Ranier that is picture perfect. Many mornings you’ll have to get up and turn on some heat. In July and -August

In the boat I would sometimes be off grid for over 7 months straight. I know more than most how to manage solar, wind, and generator supplied power. On the boat, I sometimes used solar electric panels to heat water for showers. Do not listen to solar experts on how to do that....

I recently went to a financial seminar with a retirement “expert” trying to tell how to invest so I won’t “run out of money.” What an idiot. I don’t need to take risks. Unless I’m an idiot, I won’t need more $$ unless I live to well over 100 years old

If I ever have serious medical issues where I’m drooling on myself in a nursing home, then he’s right, I won’t have enough money...

I’ve escaped. And so can you. On the other hand, I know many who don’t understand the difference between 12 vdc and 120 vac. Those people might learn but they probably won’t. And that’s good because if too many escape it makes it more crowded out here

Perfect lifestyle for me is boating winter, RV summer

[Kickass Conservative]

One other question, is this part of the newly discovered Homeless Epidemic that surfaced just after a Republican was Elected POTUS?

[ronniesgal]

we did that, started saving for retirement when we were kids. Believe me, at the time, I had better things to do with the $$, having 2 little girls and being enlisted Marine Corps. I never felt we had the $$ to SAVE, we needed it NOW. We did without alot of the crap our peers had ( fancy cars, eating take out, ect)
We always lived way below our means, too. Now that he’s semi retired, we did not feel a big pinch.

[Magic Fingers]

“I just really resent how smug some of you are. Many people are not responsible for what happens to them and the consequences of that “happening”.”

We’ve got our share of know-it-all blowhards on FR, regardless of the topic.

[redgolum]

Funny thing.

When I stared out, it wasn’t 25% of your income, it was closer to 10%. I have the old flyers from my first job.

The problem is that there is no way for most people to do that. Kids, student loans, healthcare, all eat into that.

We live in a small house, in a small town, and send our kids to a religious school. I save about 17% of my income, my wife about the same for hers. But remember this.

The big companies jumped out of pensions because they couldn’t make it work. My wife’s cousin ran some pension funds, and he said “it is mathematically impossible to pay for three workforces, of which the smallest one is actually making product.” Now, we have been pushed into the Wall Street government subsidy (401k), which is all find and dandy till the boomers cash out.

Retirement is a recent thing. Most people worked till they died, and that was much earlier than now. We are going to head back to that.

[NotAlwaysTruculent]

I totally agree with your post. American workers have been treated very badly in recent decades. We have had: 1) the illegal alien workers, 2) the visa workers that drive down wages and whose visas are tied to the company and so will put up with a lot, and 3) the newest thing seems to be that these “refugees” coming into the country are at an advantage because the government gives companies a subsidy towards their earnings when they’re hired. Then there’s the outsourcing and offshoring. Where does this leave the American worker?

I disagree with the concept of bringing in more-skilled immigrants. They would just be flooding a different labor market. It seems to me that we don’t need to import workers right now with the labor participation rate still low.

The problem is not that some make so much money but that wages have been driven down through manipulation of the labor force. Politicians and business interest have worked together too many times to disenfranchise the American worker.

The stuff coming out about working conditions at Amazon in recent weeks, if accurate, shows Bezos as a hypocrite who doesn’t treat his workers reasonably.

[redgolum]

And, there’s a whole nuther industry around how to GET RID of all your money/savings before you end up in the old folks home. They take a percentage of your egg for that too.

Very true. I am from a farming family. The corporate hoops we had to put in place to make sure that one illness didn't destroy 125 years of work is simply amazing.

[fireman15]

So did they not pay into SS?

They are frugal people. The benefits that they received from Social Security were barely enough to pay their property taxes.

[Vermont Lt]

Here are a couple of things to consider:

*If they were wiped out in the 2008 recession, they were too heavily invested in stocks for their age. No reasonable 401(k) system would have been “wiped out.” If the people were greedy, they would have gotten beaten up.

*Their homes were foreclosed. At near retirement age no one should be over extended on their home. Again, bad planning.

* Living on $1000 a month? That’s social security for someone that hardly paid into the system. I doubt that umber is accurate.

People make choices. To end up like this story describes, these folks made one bad decision after another.

[GOPJ]

Most liberal ‘elites’ are tight fisted heartless jerks...

[qaz123]

I’m not asking one to have a pity party for any of these people.

I’m not asking anyone to open up a, GoFundMe account for anyone.

And most people that know me, would say that I’m not exactly the most compassionate person in the world with regards to some things.

Hell, I’m not doing all that great but I’m slowly climbing my way out and I have no one to blame but myself for my decisions. And I don’t need a shoulder to cry on.

But, Good Lord, some of the comments are a little too much. Could be me and my bias, but all I was reading was ... sucks for those dumbasses for not being smarter, working harder, being a IT expert-doctor-lawyer and Indian chief and a rocket scientist, on the weekends like I am.

I don’t know why they’re having those issues. Is it because they’re addicted to meth? Or is it because they lost their health insurance because of obamacare and lost everything trying to survive?

But, as someone else on this thread stated, there are people to do the work, and maybe they’d get an opportunity if they didn’t have to compete with the 3rd world, refugees, H1B visa holders, H2B visa holders, etc. All the people that our Congress and Elite, want more of. I guess, that narrows my point.

[Hardastarboard]

Nowadays . . . If it leads , it’s just BS.

That would make a GREAT tag line, if I was willing up the one I have now.

[EBH]

I do believe we already have a plan like that...

It is called Social Security.

[dfwgator]

I’ll start right out and blame our education system for not teaching students more about personal economics (though they sure make sure they know how to use a condom).

[moovova]

Many campgrounds offer part-time jobs for folks that own a travel trailer. Generally, if you’re willing to put in 20-25 hours a week at the campground, you get a free RV camping pad with hookups...and sometimes a paycheck. You check campers in, clerk at the general store, clean the campground/bathrooms, direct/help people to park their RV. Your time off is your time to explore the area. Work can be seasonal or permanent part-time until you’re ready to move on. This method of “seeing America” is done by many RV’ers. There are a number of websites that provide classified ads.