The Plight Of Florida’s Super Agers

Perhaps you have heard teens bicker with each other flirtatiously, and you have made the remark that they sound like an old married couple. When you were young, before there was reality TV or an endless stream of rage bait accessible from your smartphone, you might have read letters to Dear Abby from women who were at their wits’ end now that their husbands had retired and did nothing but stay home all day and get on the letter writers’ nerves. There is even a chance that, when you met your spouse, you got along so well that you were sure that you would never be as exasperated with each other as the elderly ladies who wrote to Dear Abby were with their husbands, but now that both of you are retired, you are driving each other crazy. Your situation could be worse, though. Even if the only way to keep the peace is for each of you to engage in separate, inexpensive hobbies in separate locations, preferably with at least one of you outside the house, at least you have each other. If that is no consolation, especially when your spouse is blasting your least favorite show on the TV or having endless phone conversations with your least favorite relative by marriage, at least your household gets two Social Security checks. Single people might not have to live with the constant annoyance that is your spouse, but they tend to be more vulnerable financially after retirement. For help making retirement plans that fit your family situation, contact an Orlando estate planning lawyer.

Retirement Is Even Less Affordable When Only One Fixed Income Must Cover All the Bills

Everyone is suffering from financial stress these days, but America’s “solo agers” are having an especially rough go of it. According to Will Kenton of Moneywise, 22 million Americans above the age of 65 live alone. Without a spouse or domestic partner, they are supporting themselves on one fixed income, and in most cases, it is not a glamorous existence. Millions of people in the United States have little or no retirement savings; their only plan is to continue working as long as their health permits, and then subsist on their Social Security income.

The problem is not just that single seniors have only one Social Security check instead of two. It is that one check must cover the expenses that retired couples can share. One Social Security check pays for all the utilities and all the home health aide services. People who have never been married are more likely to end up with insolvent estates if they enter Medicaid as nursing home beneficiaries; when a married person applies for Medicaid nursing home benefits, Medicaid considers the couple’s house to belong to the spouse who is not entering the nursing home.

Contact Gierach and Gierach About Practical Estate Planning for Loners

An estate planning lawyer can help you build an estate plan that will protect you from poverty if you are single and have limited retirement savings.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

moneywise.com/retirement/more-than-22-million-older-americans-live-alone-are-unmarried-and-dont-have-kids-but-theyre-struggling-with-rising-costs