My 95 year old mom lives in an assisted living facility. She’s in a 1 bed, 2 bath apt with a kitchen and living area. Her utilities and meals are paid for. Her rent is over $6k a month, and she’s still fairly independent. She’s in her right mind–no dementia at all. She can bathe and dress herself, get herself to the bathroom, get herself into and out of bed, can walk without assistance and handles her own meds.
Once she needs assistance with any of the above, her rent goes up by $1k a month.
She just got a complete health workup, and they gave her a life prediction of 10 years. (Her mom and aunts/uncles all lived to be at least 104.)
Luckily, my dad left her with a sizable amount of money and income from SS and some annuities, but if she does live 10 more years, those annuities will be depleted and so will her savings. She will not be able to afford to stay; SS will never cover her rent.
It keeps me up at night. We are already paying for half my MIL’s assisted living. How will we ever afford to help both?
It’s terrible to find yourself hoping your mom doesn’t outlive her money.
States are different. I have a loved one who lives in a similar situation. A one bedroom apartment with only retired people but the rent is capped at ⅓ monthly income (savings don’t count). We can treat our elderly with dignity. We just have to be willing to pay for it and vote for politicians who are willing to enact it. Children, elderly, people with special needs, etc. it frustrates me to no end how we’ll just throw them aside so our taxes can be just a little bit lower.
Good and recent episode of freakonomics covers private equity firms
https://open.spotify.com/episode/12j1heah9A4FCTzdkH5OS8?si=CItpqhUWTOWjL80mX4wk-g
On the off chance I ever retire I am never going to a retirement community. I will either bother my remaining family with my care or just be found a month later during a wellness checkup, dead on my own kitchen floor after falling.
I don’t trust these “communities”. I don’t trust any “community” that has a buy in.
My plan is to go to a South American country where I can get a living visa to live of the pennies I’ll get from my Social Security checks in one of their elderly care facilities.
Why y’all so bloodthirsty? These people might not be destitute but they’re not billionaires. They planned for a retirement and got it, and now they’re getting evicted. They’re victims of a cruel system that hurts everyone. Capitalism won’t even reward people who “play by the rules”, whatever those are supposed to be. Nothing wrong with having empathy. The same boot is stepping on poor people too.
Maybe if people’s grandparents with nice retirements are getting evicted somebody will give a shit.
Humans suck. They always have. You can’t expect them to do the right thing on their own. There must be laws, and there must be enforcement.
Why isn’t the government stepping up to end this kind of greedy practice? Because it’s made out of humans and, well…
… humans suck.
Sorry, but as a human I have seen the good things we also do. You look like you are surrounded by either humans with toxic personalities, people who are oppressed by capitalism (the rat race), or have some underlying mental issues yourself. Regardless of what the reason may be, please get mental help, and no this isn’t in any way a funny pun or an insult to you, I just want you to know that you are loved and with mental help you can see how beautiful people can be (I did).
Please take care random internet stranger.
See how I know that humans suck? You just assumed a whole lot of negative stuff about me, without knowing nothing about me. And I really, really want to think that you’re being genuine, but you sound like the “I’ll pray for your salvation, you poor lost soul” condescending crowd.
Regardless, that’s fine. I made sure that my mental health is well taken care of, I surround myself with beautiful, supportive, well-rounded peeps, and I don’t take unimportant things too seriously unless I’m bored.
You too take care, internet stranger.
Friend, “humans suck” is an easy opinion to hold if you’re already feeling defeated. Things can be better but enough people have to want it. I refuse to give up. I’ll do what I can, even if it’s only voting. Even if it’s just speaking up when people in my IRL life hold half-baked opinions and spread misinformation.
I will have hope, I think you should too.
When nobody stands up to these corporations, they can get away with anything.
