Can Solo Seniors Get by on Social Security?

Should we expect to be poor because we're alone?

How can a person live on Social Security alone?

The correct answer for most people by themselves is “not well.”

Social Security, the money American retirees receive from the federal government each month, seems to be on people’s minds lately. This week’s AARP Bulletin has a huge article noting the 90^th anniversary of the system set up by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. Some of my Facebook friends have been talking about Social Security. Most Americans are wondering what the new administration in Washington, D.C., might do with it.

Last week, a friend told me she had just made her third frustrating visit to the Social Security office 70 miles away to figure out how to get her widow’s benefit and arrange her own retirement. She still has more questions than answers.

Social Security can be a godsend. I remember crying happy tears when the woman on the phone told me about the widow’s benefit I’d be getting after my husband died. It wasn’t a lot, but I needed it so badly at that point.

Social Security is only meant to cover 40 percent or less of our expenses. Did you know that? The rest is expected come from pensions and savings. But what if we don’t have pensions or savings? A lot of jobs offer no retirement fund and don’t pay enough to set anything aside for savings.

Parents who stay home or work part-time while raising their children or while caring for older family members will have a hard time putting anything away for the future. If a medical crisis, job loss, or other unplanned event leaves you unable to work, then what?

The AARP Bulletin report says 69 million Americans are drawing Social Security payments. More than 22 million rely on the system for at least half of their income. For some 10 million, the monthly benefit is 90 percent or more of their income.

The amount of Social Security you receive is based on how much you earned during your working years. I’m not going to try to explain the math. You can read about it at the Social Security website or in the latest edition of AARP’s Social Security for Dummies, pictured above. But most retirees who have worked full-time for enough years to qualify receive $1,500-$2,000 per month. The average is $1,975, the maximum $3,822. That’s not terrible if you’re a couple combining two Social Security checks. But if you’re alone, you’d better have another way to support yourself.

I’m lucky I don’t have to depend on Social Security. After a lifetime of low-paying newspaper and magazine jobs, and many years freelancing, I receive $993 a month from Social Security after Medicare fees are deducted. When I was old enough for full retirement, being a widow didn’t help much because my husband, Fred, worked in city government most of his life and paid into a different retirement program.

Can I live on $993 a month? No way. My mortgage payment is $1,100.

If I were back in San Jose, where one-bedroom apartments run about $3,000 and worn-out houses like the one where I grew up sell for over a million dollars, I don’t know what I would do other than cut my expenses to bare bones and work until I dropped dead.

Even then, I might be juggling credit cards to pay my bills, the way I was before I met Fred and in the years between him moving into a nursing home and my father’s death. I was making some money with my writing and my music director job at church but not nearly enough to provide any kind of cushion. I was falling deeper and deeper into debt.

I could have looked for another newspaper job, but newspapers were going out of business, age discrimination is real, and I was taking care of my husband and my father.

If Fred hadn’t left me half of his pension and I hadn’t inherited half of the income from Dad’s house, I’d still be in trouble. It bothers me that I need to depend on money from the men in my life rather than make it on my own, but I am grateful for what I have.

Too many widows are left with nothing. Too many people who are divorced or never married are living on next to nothing. To be honest, the Social Security for Dummies book, which is an otherwise excellent resource, does not pay enough attention to people who live alone. Hello, we don’t all have husbands or wives.

On Facebook, someone asked how many members live on Social Security alone. Many who commented said it was their only income, but they were getting by because they had no debts and few expenses. Others told stories of substandard housing, pinching pennies, depending on food banks, etc. One said she was homeless.

My best friend lost her dream home when she and her husband got caught in the recession and had to declare bankruptcy. They had barely begun to recover in a new, more modest house when he died. Left with no pension and minimal savings, she sold her house and moved into a subsidized senior apartment which she hates. Social Security barely covers the rent, and she’s terrified she will run out of the little money she has left from the sale of the house.

Another friend is doing well. Able to collect her late husband’s benefit, she receives nearly $3,000 a month. Her house is paid off, she has money in the bank, and she lives cheaply. Most people spend too much on stuff they don’t need, she says.

Yes, but how much should we have to scrimp in our so-called Golden Years? The other night, I lay awake adding my expenses in my head. I saw places where I could cut back, but I would still need more than $1,900 a month. Utilities, car, cell phone, food, insurance, taxes, prescriptions, home repairs . . . Life costs money.

The bald truth is if you’re not a billionaire, it takes years of hard work and tremendous luck to end up retiring with enough money to live comfortably and deal with whatever unexpected expenses come up. If you’re alone, with one income instead of two, it’s twice as hard. If you have moved from job to job and home to home or done any kind of non-traditional work, your finances will show it. If your house burned down, you needed major medical care, you got divorced, or your business went belly-up, you may have to lean hard on Social Security.

Most of the retirees I know would not accept money from their kids if they had them, nor would they want to live with them. Moving in with family used to be the plan for widows and widowers. Now we’d rather slog it out alone and hope we win the lottery.

I keep suggesting my brother let me put a tiny house on his property in California. He has plenty of space. I could help wrangle the grandkids and learn to shoot the rattlesnakes. He thinks I’m kidding.

Money is a sticky subject. When I bring it up with friends, they get prickly, clam up, or start ranting about the government. But we need to consider it, especially if we’re on our own.

This is way too big a subject for one Substack post. I plan to spread it out over several sessions. For now, you see the problem. We can do it alone. But how? Stay tuned.

Let’s talk. How big a role does Social Security play for you now or in the future? Is it enough to pay most of your bills? Could you survive without it? Have you been able to save money to live on in your later years? Have you had to downsize your life because you don’t have enough money?

If you’re too young for Social Security, are you preparing for your financial future?

Do you think Social Security will be available ten years from now?

Readers in other countries, I don’t want you to feel left out. Do you have a government retirement program like Social Security? How does it work? How do solo seniors survive?

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How did I end up alone? My first marriage ended in divorce. My second husband died of Alzheimer’s after we had moved to the Oregon coast, far from family. I never had any kids, only dogs. Now I live by myself in a big house in the woods. You can read our story in my memoir, No Way Out of This: Loving a Partner with Alzheimer’s, available now at your favorite bookseller. The Kindle price has just been reduced! Visit https://www.suelick.com for information on all of my books.