If you haven’t been paying attention as of late amid the end of the world and the stock market decimation, there is still a retirement crisis in the United States today.
Despite President Donald Trump touting a great economy, many of the nation’s seniors are not doing as well others.
According to The Elder Index, a calculation performed by the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, 41 percent of older adults cannot cover their basic needs, such as food, housing and utilities and minimal levels of transportation, and health care costs,
Because the average senior requires at least $21,000 to pay for his or her basic needs, economic insecurity is the new norm. While regional price variations do fluctuate throughout the country, it is a problem that is prevalent nationwide.
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The university recently released new data for 2019, and it shows that 50% of Americans over age 65 living alone have incomes that are below the index – in other words, they lack the resources to pay for their basic living needs. For couples – who usually benefit from two Social Security checks and are more likely to have other income – the comparable figure is 23%.
Those figures are shocking, and they are much more dire than the federal measure of poverty used to establish eligibility for many state and federal assistance programs. For example, a measure used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defined poverty for single people last year at annual incomes of $12,490 and $16,910 for couples (bit.ly/31JuDPI). That translates into poverty rates of 18% for singles and 5% for couples – much lower than what the Elderly Index suggests.
And, of course, the young generation today likely will not retire when they reach their winter years.
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