Retirement Can Be Really Hard: The State of Retirees in America
What do you think of when you think about retirement? A beach? Golf? Some photograph with soft focus and lots of light of two happy old people sitting in rocking chairs? In reality, a majority of Americans struggle with retirement, and not for the reasons you think. While many retirees are wealthier than ever before, they’re suffering extremely high rates of overdose and depression. If you haven’t thought about retirement other than a relaxing day at the beach, then you’re going to want to check out this article by Chris Luger of Heavy Metal Money.
You work for 40 years. You are the provider. You are the parent. You have a schedule, a purpose, a team, a reason to put on pants! lol. Then it all stops. Right?! That is the part that gets people, it stops fast. And, it can happen right around the same time the kids are grown and raising their own families and building their own lives.
~Chris Luger, Heavy Metal Money
In this article Luger talks about his trip to FINCON and how he was shocked by one of the most popular talks that talked about the dangers of retirement by Wes Moss. Shockingly, the highest rate of suicide across any demographic is men over the age of 75. Moss shared that a high percentage of retirees report that they are depressed and this is driven by two factors: (1) the loss of purpose after retirement and (2) the lack of friend. Moss then went on to demonstrate that financial status contributed very little to the happiness of the retirees. Luger shares a lot of his personal reflections on what this means, and it’s definitely worth reading no matter where you are in your retirement journey. My takeaways are that I need to work on growing friendships and continue to cultivate activities I enjoy outside of work.
Your SNAP benefit is about to change, here’s the new amount for your household
Do you get SNAP benefits to help you buy groceries? SNAP, an acronym for “supplemental nutritional assistance program” gives 42 million Americans vouchers that can be used to purchase food each month. Approximately 12.3% of the US population receives SNAP benefits, although in certain states, many more citizens rely on SNAP. For instance, over 40% of New Mexican residents receive SNAP payments. Starting October 1st, the formulas used to change SNAP benefits will change. Even if you don’t receive benefits, it’s worthwhile to understand how SNAP works and what these changes mean.
These figures are ceilings, not what most households actually collect. The program assumes every household can put roughly 30 percent of its own net income toward food, so that share gets subtracted from the maximum for your household size to land on your real monthly amount
~Katy Willis, Wealthy Single Mommy
This article, by Katy Willis, talks about the changes in SNAP benefits starting with the new government fiscal year on October 1st. Willis notes that these changes aren’t a result of congressional action, but instead a result of inflation. SNAP benefits are based upon a USDA survey of the cost of food. Each month, USDA produces four food plans at successively higher cost levels: the Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans, illustrating how a healthy diet can be achieved at various costs. These plans are then used as a basis for determining the level of SNAP benefits. While Willis’s article talks through the nuts and bolts of SNAP benefit changes, looking at the cost per week of the USDA food plans can help you stack up your grocery spending against your fellow Americans.
The Minimum Payment Trap: Why 41% Of Cardholders Can’t Get Ahead In 2026
Do you have a credit card? Are you someone that pays off your balance in full every month? Or do you just click on the “minimum payment button”? And if you’re not doing either of those two, I really want to know how you decide to choose how much you pay off each month! While many people mindless click on the “minimum payment”, this can actually set you up for failure. While the minimum payment feels like a win because you don’t have late fees or a credit downgrade, the minimum payment mostly just covers accrued interest on your credit card and fails to make a dent in your principle. In many cases, paying just the minimum each month can make a small debt turn into years of payments.
Income barely changes the picture: cardholders earning under $30,000 a year (46%) and those earning $100,000 or more (40%) are within a few points of each other, suggesting [that paying the minimum monthly payment] is less about income level and more about how stretched a household’s monthly cash flow already is.
~Barbora Lee, Debt Discipline
In this article, Barbora Lee of DebtDiscipline.com discusses just how damaging minimum credit card payments can be. In one of her examples, Lee shows that if you had a balance of between $7,500-$8,000 at current credit card interest rates and only paid the minimum, you’d be paying that credit card for 27 years before you paid it off. Furthermore, you would have paid $13,000 in interest, making things you charged cost in essence almost triple what the purchase price was. If you haven’t done the math on just how dangerous credit card minimum payments can be, then it’s worth reading Lee’s article to understand the math behind credit card balances.