The Rock Enrollment - Web Book -Ready - Flipbook - Page 20
THE TIGHT WIRE ACT OF LIVING
ONLY ON SOCIAL SECURITY
She is, in effect, making a classic retirement bet — that she
will die before the money from her house runs out.
Retired married couples have to make that calculation for
two people, but they have a financial advantage on those
who are single or widowed, Mr. Certner said. It is not just
two Social Security checks, but the economies of scale that
come from sharing all the expenses.
Karl Steven Forister, who lives with his wife, Phyllis, in
Renton, Wash., just south of Seattle, said that between
their two Social Security checks, which total $3,000 a
month, and extra money they earn doing background
checks from their computer at home, they get by.
There was a time, though, when Mr. Forister seemed to be
someone who would have an easy retirement. He worked
at the company that became U.S. West Communications
as a human resource representative, eventually rising to a
position where he traveled the country to recruit people.
Then in 1990, the company offered early retirement and
he took it, at age 50, as a lump-sum payment. First he
had a heart attack and then, in 1994, his wife of 33 years
divorced him after meeting someone else, he said. She
got half of everything they owned together, including his
pension payout.
At that time, his luck with investing wasn’t much better.
“You remember the dot com bust?” he asked. “I survived it,
but it was costly.”
Today, the Foristers live in a house subsidized by the Senior
Housing Assistance Group, a nonprofit group in the Puget
Sound area. They can walk to a senior center run by the
city of Renton, and there he works on art projects and they
both exercise at no charge. They walk to a Safeway to buy
food, and once a month they drive to a Sam’s Club to stock
up on larger purchases.
Others see Social Security as a way to keep going, perhaps
in a simpler way. James Leonard Park, an eccentric former
Methodist minister who retired in 1968 at age 27 with
$5,000 in the bank, has taken this approach to another
level. Until he started collecting Social Security at 65, he
lived a bohemian life in Minneapolis on about $2,000 a
year. Most of that came from teaching adult education
classes on voluntary simplicity, though he said he has
written 15 books.
“That was enough to keep body and soul together,” said
Mr. Park, 71. “I’ve never had a very expensive social life.” (He
posts his expenses online.)
Social Security for him is only $138 a month because he
paid so little into the system. But through Supplemental
Security Income, which he said he qualified for because of
his low income, he receives an extra $496.67. He said the
$7,600 he gets a year is like a big raise.
“I’m very thankful to all the taxpayers of the United States
who provide this Social Security benefit to me,” he said. “I
think of it as an annual income for life.”
Still, in Mr. Park’s case he had the advantage of a father
who worked as a doctor leaving him a small inheritance.
He used it and money that came from a city program to
buy a 1,000-square-foot condominium that is paid off. He
said it is worth $140,000.
Those truly getting by on just Social Security, like Ms.
Flatley, are not so lucky. They are renters who live
month to month and hand-to-mouth.
“I’m doing well with my expenses, but it’s a struggle,” she
said. “When there’s a birthday you want to buy a gift or a
gift card, but you can’t do that.”
Their big expenses, he said, are rent, co-payments for
health care and food. He said that two years ago when
their car broke down, Mrs. Forister’s mother, who was then
91, moved into a retirement home and gave them her
1993 Maxima, which still runs well.
“I’m probably too goofy to know any better, but life is
pretty good,” he said. “I don’t have to mow the lawn. I don’t
have to repair anything. I think we’re very fortunate.”
Page 19