OT SS again.

Anyone on here live on SS as an only income?

My sister just got started on it this year. Dave in Mich.

I dont but know several older folks who do, they are pretty frugal and of course at their age everything is paid for. They seem to get by fine and are happy and comfy. I'm glad I have MORE then SS however. As one gets older though, its no longer so much about money as long as your comfy ITS YOUR HEALTH THAT MATTERS MOST NOW. A pauper if healthy can be better off then a multi millionaire all ate up with diseases I reckon.

Theyre cuttin off my DSL tomorrow, I will be on n off on the road at the mercy of Sprint/Virgin Mobile Broadband and Wi Fi etc.

God Bless, Happy New Year (thats the OTHER Holiday I guess theyre talkin about in addition to the federal Holiday of Christmas when the PC crowd says Happy Holidays lol)

John T

I get my Carpenters Pension Check direct deposited after midnite on the 1st day of each month and my SS Check direct deposited on the 2nd Wed. of each month,so no I am not trying to live on SS only. The wife gets her USDA Pension on the first of the month and her SS on the 2nd Wed. of each month same as I do. We live comfortablely,No car payments nor house payments either.Might be tough if we had either of those.Health Insurance is our largest outlay of cash each month.We budget all expendentures so cash flow is tracked and all bills are paid as presented.We have deposits from checking go to savings accounts so major bills will have a back up when due. We use electronic bill pay and save on postage and paper that way.For the present we are ok. We both are 74 years and in reasonable good health and what the future holds is speculation so we don"t think about that much.

It is my only income [downunder] I live on it quite well. even buy a few cattle now and again. BUT if you had to pay rent, then it would be a struggle.So own your own and no bills, it's adequate.

One of my neighbor's is. He didn't start out that way, but he had annuities that started paying out at 65. They ran out after 20 years, so since he turned 85, he has been on SS alone. He never made a whole lot of money, so his SS is pretty meager. He is having difficulty paying for things like car repairs, insurances, and going out for dinner or lunch is pretty rare now. He is outliving his money. I know a couple other folks in the same boat.

One of my neighbor's is. He didn't start out that way, but he had annuities that started paying out at 65. They ran out after 20 years, so since he turned 85, he has been on SS alone. He never made a whole lot of money, so his SS is pretty meager. He is having difficulty paying for things like car repairs, insurances, and going out for dinner or lunch is pretty rare now. He is outliving his money. I know a couple other folks in the same boat.

Snopes indicates this is a distortion of the truth.

My mom does - for the most part. Her house and car are paid for and any large expense (home repair - property taxes) we take care of.

If SS were truly a case of the younger generation paying for the older she should be drawing well over $100K a year. But the productive citizens she raised are paying for other people's retirement.

Probably not Pat. It's a tough existence. Just owning a computer and having an ISP would be impossible with SS as your ONLY income. Lots of folks say they live on SS, but then kinda fail to mention the savings, and the interest from those savings, plus the outside help from friends and family that they fall back on to get them thru the tough spots. My wife's grandmother lived on social security combined with interest earnings from her meager savings account. She actually did very well because she had lived a lifetime of pinching pennies and making do with very little. She went to bed when the sun went down, kept her heat turned low, no AC in the summer, no car, water heater turned off, and she had family to look out for her. Even unplugged her TV (a gift) when not in use because it had instant on circuitry. She died about 1995, when it was not unusual to draw 6% interest on your savings. It would have been a lot different if she were alive today and drawing 1% interest or less. It always gripes me when someone discounts the poorer folks in our society. I know there's a lot of slackers in this country, but a lot of poor poeple have worked hard all their lives, only to have some misfortune knock the props out from under them. I've seen it in my own family.