This 81-year-old still works at Home Depot to support herself and her 90-year-old husband

Comments

• partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨39⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

  I feel sorry for the 81 year old and her husband. However, they have made nearly every wrong financial decision over most of their lives.

  • In 1994 husband was making $90k a year and quit that job to start up a band and teach music lessons
  • They bought a fixer-upper house in 2002 to flip it, except they still had it in hand in 2008 when the real estate market crashed
  • They had $75k in the market prior to the crash, and sold it all at the bottom of the market before the rebound.
  • They never saved more than $10k in a 401k
  • They defaulted on their mortgage in 2015 and lost he house, but did gain $115k from the forced sale.
  • They declared bankruptcy (it doesn’t say when). Usually this protects the house, as in you’re not kicked out. So I can’t quite square why the house was forced for sale if they were under bankruptcy protection. This is a clue they had a lot more debt than just the house.
  • “The income from a side business Lydia had started to help people downsize their homes, and the piano lessons that Bill gave, weren’t enough.” This was 2015 and at best their only income was a couple small side hustles. Admittedly they were in their early 70s at this point.
  • Even today it looks like they’re spending over 20% of their income on car related expenses (payment, insurance, gas).
  • They’re also still living in Connecticut which looks to be more expensive place to live. A quick Google search of West Virginia 55+ one bedroom apartments go for $450-$900. So they could probably cut their rent in half if they moved to a cheaper city/state.

  They’ve truly had some horrible timing and luck, however I truly hope their situation improves and

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  • YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub ⁨32⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    Who gives a shit? No one should have to spend their 80s working

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    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      Who gives a shit? No one should have to spend their 80s working

      They are today still making choices which are forcing them to work. They might be able to not work if they move to a cheaper area and give up their expensive car.

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• FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  My eighty year-old parents are driving for DoorDash. In my car.

  If they don’t, this supposedly ‘free’ country of ours will allow banks to force them onto the streets where they will be left for dead.

  Fuck capitalism.

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  • Eyekaytee@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    Fuck capitalism.

    Isn’t that an America problem?

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    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨24⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      Also randomly wasn’t this how we lived before pensions?

      I suspect you’re making a point here, but I’m not sure what it is.

      Remember that the silents were born in an age where unions were far more prevalent. I’m not sure whether that addresses the point you were trying to make, but maybe.

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• some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Welcome to what younger generations realized a decade ago or more. Most of us will never own a home or retire. I plan to end it when my life becomes unbearable in old age rather than be a slave to the system. That’s why, even though we (spouse and I) financially save for the future, I live for now. We (collectively) have no future. Accepting it is easier than being depressed about it.

  Note: this doesn’t mean I don’t do what I can to try to save our (collective) future. It’d be selfish not to try.

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  • return2ozma@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    Somebody launch my carcass through a billionaires front window please when I’m old.

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    • MeatPilot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Only if I can strap dynamite to you first.

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  • Eyekaytee@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    You are in a dual income no kids situation and think you’ll never own a home? Where do you live where a dual income can’t support buying a house…

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    • hypnotoad__@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Ever been to Cali? I love it here but good god it’s crazy

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  • AJ1@lemmy.ca ⁨56⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    My retirement plan is assisted suicide (in Canada, of course). Feels weird to be saving for death, but this is the reality we live in. What else can I do? Wait until I can’t work anymore and can’t pay my mortgage and hydro bill? And then what, hang myself in the barn? Fuck that, I want to go out high af and feeling no pain.

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• return2ozma@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  “I feel trapped working, but I can’t stop working,” Lydia says, sitting up to cuddle her basset hound, Brigette. Her husband, Bill, gives her a kiss but lets her be. The 90-year-old would like to get a job to help Lydia pay the bills, but because of health problems, there’s little he can do.

  “I feel so guilty that I can’t work,” Bill says.

  “You can’t work because of your age and your health issues,” Lydia snaps back. “There’s no sense feeling guilty about it.”

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  • roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    'Murica

    On Reddit this would be an uplifting story about how Home Depot employs the elderly to help them pay medical bills.

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    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Most of the MSM outlets report it that way, and it always feels ghoulish as fuck to me.

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• HowAbt2day@futurology.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  This generation needs to pick itself up by their bootstraps and remember that work dignifies. 81 years young! /s

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• AngryRobot@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I’m about to turn 52 and I’ve known my whole life that I’d never get to retire.

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• Corelli_III@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

  wow if i was biz insider i would be really nervous about printing stuff like this

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• WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  She’s obviously selling her scripts if she’s surviving at that job.

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  • baggins@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Their monthly income is $4600 including SSI and a pension.

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    • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Used car prices have shot up over the last few years. Add on the increasing price for new ones nd it is not hard to see why. People not paying of their cars and rolling over the remaining balance is the new norm.

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