I work dollar retail and the amount of old people counting pennies to buy the cheapest hot dog (sometimes baloney) and breads is heartbreaking.
It's the main reason I started doing a retirement fund so I don't become the hotdog old guy. Won't be rolling in dough but at least I'll afford ramen noodle, vegetables, soups, rice, beans, and frozen chicken.
You’d be surprised how many of these people aren’t broke. My grandma pays in change for all sort of stuff, she’s got a paid off home, collects SSI and has squirreled away as much as she could and invested it. She’s doing fine, but she comes from parents that lived the Great Depression, they learned what being broke really feels like and they stashed a lot of money away. Obviously that’s not all elderly people, but it’s probably a lot more than you’d think.
That's also something that happens to MOST old people. Old people often smell bad.... bc they're old and dying. They also only take one or 2 showers a week. I've noticed people in their 50s and 60s start letting the hygiene slip and often don't shower daily.
Knew a man who bought Nvidia stock for $3k many years ago. He died in his 90s while it was worth at least $400k. Never sold it. Always complained about money. Very stingy the entire time I knew him. He also retired in his mid 50s with a pension I believe.
We knew he had some Cars that are worth decent money but assumed he has no cash because he used to just order "half portions" in restaurants, allways take the cheapest options and so on.
He left us about 300'000.00 in cash (+ the cars)...
She does not get SSI if she has money squirreled away. She gets SSDI or retirement and that's very different. SSI has a cap of 2K for assets and will stop if they find out you have that or more. People getting SSI get $994 and these people generally have nothing else. She's not who the comment above was referencing.
Yeah... that's still tough. It's really hard for people who retired decades ago and didn't imagine that housing prices, along with other expenses would go up so high.
Luckily her home is paid off (manufactured home on property owned by another family member). She’s been retired almost 2 decades ago but was still working part time for the regular human interaction and movement along with a little extra cash but once Covid hit she didn’t work anymore and then inflation hit and now she’s broke without actually being broke. She does everything she can to just live off that $1100/month until something big comes up and then she’s got a nest egg to take care of it. Her, like many people in her generation, learned how to be frugal. “Saving money while claiming poverty”
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u/Resident-_-CockRoach 5d ago edited 5d ago
I work dollar retail and the amount of old people counting pennies to buy the cheapest hot dog (sometimes baloney) and breads is heartbreaking.
It's the main reason I started doing a retirement fund so I don't become the hotdog old guy. Won't be rolling in dough but at least I'll afford ramen noodle, vegetables, soups, rice, beans, and frozen chicken.