grow older better

Tag: economy

  • Moving In With Your Parents. Not Just For Young Adults Anymore

    homeIt is not just new college graduates and young adults moving back home.

    Now the 50-64 year olds  are moving back home too.

    For seven years through 2012, the number of Californians aged 50 to 64 who live in their parents’ homes swelled 67.6% to about 194,000, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development.

    The jump is almost exclusively the result of financial hardship caused by the recession rather than for other reasons, such as the need to care for aging parents, said Steven P. Wallace, a UCLA professor of public health who crunched the data.

    Another sad commentary on the economy and the futures of middle aged parents…not to mention what happens to the next generations…

    And why I redesigning my main website to include information on earning more income.

    [You can sign up at gray wolf productions to receive information.]

  • Our Golden Years Are Being Tarnished – Badly

    I posted about aging and economic insecurity

    and here is yet another glimpse into what it is like to be old in America in the 21st Century.


    We like to think the housing and foreclosure "crisis" has slowed down and that help has come to those who most need it.

    But it's not true for the elders among us.

    According to the AARP,  more than 3 millions older Americans face losing their homes.

    As of December 2011, approximately 3.5 million loans of people age 50+ were underwater—meaning homeowners owe more than their home is worth, so they have no equity; 600,000 loans of people age 50+ were in foreclosure, and another 625,000 loans were 90 or more days delinquent. From 2007 to 2011, more than 1.5 million older Americans lost their homes as a result of the mortgage crisis.

    We had years of no increase in Social Security Income, a very bad economy which destroyed retirement savings accounts, a lack of jobs, and ever increasing costs for food, fuel, heat, and medications. On top of this, towns and cities have also lost income and have raised property taxes to cover services. It became a vicious cycle and that has led to many of these foreclosures.

    Older Americans lost their savings and now they are losing their homes.

    What financial institutions are going to work out a negotiated deal on a mortgage or home equity loan for someone who has a fixed income and increasing costs of living?

    What happened to the "respect your elders" that we used to hear?

     

    Thoughts about what can be done?

  • Food Insecurity in the United States? Yes!

    food_insecurityFood insecurity is a nicer way of saying you are going hungry!

    Like Mother Hubbard our cupboards are bare!

    And as we grow older, more of us are falling into this category of insecurity.

    Age groups rarely looked at by any measure regarding food needs are now included – and it seems that almost 5 million of those between 50 and 59 [the younger "boomers"] are at risk of hunger. And that figure was from a few years ago.

    How many more will be hungry each year?

    It turns out that more than 9% of older Americans were at risk of hunger in 2009 –  a whopping 79 % increase since 2001.

    The economy is bad and it is impacting not only the potential of losing one's home, but of being hungry as well.

    Do we not care about our elders anymore?  Are we living longer only to lose our homes and go hungry?

    There are boomers and older who must make choices each month – rent or food? Food or medications?

    Yes there are programs that can help but they too are low on funds and supplies. If everyone is poor and in need of food – just who will supply the food banks?

    If congress thinks cutting food and service programs for the elderly and poor is a good way to save money – how will older people and poor people survive?

    I'm saddened by where we as a country have gone.

     

    Comments? Thoughts? Thank you.