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Senior
Housing: a Difficult Puzzle OK, you've finally noticed that you're getting older. You are 45 years old, and you've been distracted by little things like raising your children and trying to keep your job, but now you've decided take a moment to do some retirement planning. What you see is chilling. Unless you are buying your home and are more than ten years into paying it off, you have a problem. Unless you can count on getting a generous pension, you have a serious problem. If you're one of a large number of Nevada County workers, you have both problems. You are going to retire with no house and too little money. This means that housing and health care, the two major expenses of senior life, are going to dog you until you draw your last breath. These two expenses will take most of the money you scrape together, and you will probably rely increasingly on the government, a risky and frustrating proposition. But then there's Social Security. Well, you've also figured out that you and your spouse won't live too well on the lousy Social Security benefit you are going to get. If you're 45 today and making $40,000 a year, you'd better not retire at age 65. If you do, Social Security will pay you only an estimated $1373/month. Wait until you're 70, so you can get $1771/month. You're probably amazed at how little you will get from Social Security, considering that you contribute 15.3% of your wages (with half coming from your employer and half from you). With your salary of $40,000, that's $510/month going into Social Security and Medicare. And your working spouse is making the same contribution. So there you have it. Your job is to pay for your housing and health with $1771/month. Good luck! If you don't have severe health problems, you will seek some sort of senior housing, typically called "independent congregate living." That's the form of housing where seniors live in one building (usually), share common areas, social activities and amenities and eat most of their meals in a common dining room. These senior warehouses fall into two categories: 1) expensive ones ($2000-$3000/month) with names like "Happy Acres Senior Storage," and 2) cheap Section 8 dumpsters, with income qualification and waiting lists. This housing is adequate if you have inordinately fond memories of the college dorms or a prison cell block. The inmate gets a monk's cell to sleep in and three institutional meals a day. These are the places your children put you when they delude themselves that they're "taking care" of you. To be fair, there's a very nice low-income facility in Marysville, and there are several attractive, expensive residences in Grass Valley. But even if you can afford them, these places may not be right for you, because of their large scale and isolation from the community. If you'd like to live in a regular neighborhood, be with people of all ages, and maybe generate some income on the side, you will not be happy at these institutions. You need a different kind of housing. I suggest this: Take that $1771 of yours and $1771 of your spouse's. Team up with three other couples. That gives you $14,168 a month. Now, with that kind of money you can do a lot! You'll want to lease or own a regular house in a neighborhood. The house will have four "master" suites, each with its own bathroom, office area, and kitchenette. But there will also be a common kitchen, living, dining, and entertainment room. The math works out, with a housing cost of about $500/month for each person. You retain enough money to pay for your mounting medical costs, and the group can hire au pairs, gardeners, cooks and attorneys to get things done. The profit factor needed by retirement complexes is removed. And if you want to make money with a business or hobby, you won't get any BS from the "management." You are the management. Do such houses exist? Do counties understand how to permit them? Not yet, aside from some non-senior experiments. But seniors, when united, have clout and can make it happen. (Find out about senior living at www.calregistry.com. Go to www.ssa.gov to calculate your Social Security benefit.) Barry Schoenborn is a technical writer, and a 13-year resident of Nevada County. His column appears the second Saturday of the month. barry@wvswrite.com is his e-mail address. The opinions of columnists are not necessarily those of The Union. |