Off topic posts split from "How do u live on $700/month, truly?"

I'm going have to go into debt to get a home unfortunately. Personal loan sites are telling me I can go up to 10k and possibly more? I'm going to try find private seller selling a mobile home with land hopefully I can find one but idk.

I hope they don't flake on me either because once I get the loan SSI says you need to spend it within 30 days to get back down to under 2k.

CaliforniaGal said:

I am speaking for California only, however, it likely applies to where you live too since it is Federal. Most of the year you would qualify to have your Part B covered by Medicaid. That would save you $170 per month. This is what you do. Take out a withdraw ONLY YEARLY. (Better yet, do it every other year)
)Example- Jan 31st, call the Medicaid office and tell them you no longer qualify for Medicaid to cover your Part B premium. Feb 1st or sometime in Feb, withdraw enough to get you buy for 1 year such as 6k or whatever. In Feb you made too much $ for that month due to the withdrawal. March 1st you apply again for Medicaid and within a few days, it should kick in. Keep it that way until Jan 31st of the next year. Rinse and Repeat

Never pay for Part B. It's too confusing. Just ensure that month you do not do anything crazy like cy cling or anything risky as you have no supplemental insurance. When you turn 72, you will be forced to take RMD"s 1x a year and that month you will not qualify for Medicaid.

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Yes you qualify for Medicaid for Part B during the Months you DO NOT withdraw $ from your retirement account. Luckily for you, starting this month you qualify for medicaid despite having $ in your retirement account due to a new California law.

Example- Aug 31st (the last day of the month) Contact medicaid and tell them you no longer qualify for Medicaid. Do not explain except you plan to receive some $ which puts you over the medicaid limit by 2k.

Starting Sept 1st, you no longer have medicaid part b.They will tell you something like it will be taken out of your check. However just listen to them but tell them no you do not want that. In a few months, you will qualify again.

Oct 1st, sign up for Medicaid again. You've withdrew enough to last you at least 11 more months so now you are back to just showing your social security check. Stay on medicaid again for many months until you need to withdraw again. Wait until the last day of the month, cancel medicaid for the first of the next month. Then withdraw your $.

You are not forced to actually withdraw from your retirement account until you are age 72. Then RMD's will count, and those can be take yearly. You may just want to continue your usual routine. Luckily for you, starting this month you qualify for medicaid despite having $ in your retirement account due to a new Calif law.

disabled1234 said:

...Personal loan sites...

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.
'personal loan'.
Huh.
What would commercial loan sites say?

yea, new life economics. new life policies coming at us. new life PRICES are showing......everything is in MAJOR flux and where we land? won't be good for those with less to rely on and not a doubt in my mind on that.

AND A BIGGER DIVIDE is beginning which is not a great thing by the way when we are talking humans, survival, wants/desires, health and more.....yikes

REBOOT FULL ON now and we shall see when it all lands where it lands!

My lifetime has brought many years where there was inflation and difficult to deal with inflation. It caused me a great deal of stress as well as loss on many levels including jobs. It has also brought wars where friends and family members were in real danger. I was born during the polio epidemic and had to get vaccines for that. People in my region were very scared by that epidemic. I lived through the middle crisis in a town that was in range as well as being a target.

Sure times are tough but tough times are not new, it is prosperous times of peace and health safety that are the rarity.

"In the United States, the 1952 polio epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation's history."

Carla618 said:

Depends on the location and what kind of apartment/house/neighborhood is acceptable to you.

I've always lived in the rustbelt and know that rents are all over the place. That national average is for an apartment in very good condition. If you can live comfortably in one that needs "help" and/or is in a questionable hood, then you can find one below $700. Even a two bedroom. I've even seen 2 bedrooms in decent condition and in decent hoods for $650.

There are towns all over the Midwest in which manufacturing jobs left the U.S. long ago. Stores have been boarded up for decades. Rent is cheap, if you don't need something newish and in perfect condition. These towns also have new chain stores and nice$$ apartments, as well.

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Your level of knowledge of the midwest is greater than mine, as mine equals zero. Just wanted to relate that cheap apartments where I spent my life, in Southern California, are crime hellholes. I guess culture matters? But if so, then we can't apply broad measuring sticks to what it's like for anyone to live in this place or that, because crime is not always a matter of economic level alone.

Everyone's situation has me wondering what all these people in their 20s are going to do after living this life. Most people struggling are living on social security and the amount you get from social security is based on the amount you put in. Bob and all these vanlifers are encouraging all these easily influenced younger people to ditch the system, work just enough to travel or get by, and to enjoy their life while they're young. That's great if that's what they want to do but I think someone also needs to tell them that doing that is guaranteeing they'll need to work until they die basically. And if something happens and they end up not able to work, they're going to be poor as crap.

It's basically the ant and grasshopper story. You can play all you want but you're going to be hurting if a kind-hearted ant who actually prepared for old age doesn't take you in.

scaredycat72 said:

Bob and all these vanlifers are encouraging all these easily influenced younger people to ditch the system, work just enough to travel or get by, and to enjoy their life while they're young. That's great if that's what they want to do but I think someone also needs to tell them that doing that is guaranteeing they'll need to work until they die basically.

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Good points there (and not just in the quoted part). But I'm not sure you can blame Bob et al. for this. You probably follow Bob's work more closely than I do, and I could be wrong, but it just seems so ironic to me all the directions that people have taken his ideas in when all he was saying was "you don't have to be scared / you still have options to build a good life."

We acted like idiots when we were young too -- it just maybe involved more shank's mare and trains and fewer shoes. I seem to remember some pretty arrogant dismissals of the over-30s with their cr@ppy jobs ... We had access to enough information to plan our lives, and so does this crop (iow they're not helpless or being deceived). There's a reason the grasshopper and ant story has been around so long.

OTOH, I really don't understand this whole Great Resignation thing. And I especially don't understand how older, more established, presumably wiser folks went along with it -- like this was some kind of brilliant new insight, that work svcks more often than not and you "shouldn't" "have to" do it? And the pundits nod solemnly. But what are they thinking is gonna happen next? It's just bizarre.

Which, I guess, means I agree with you more than disagree. I would just give the ones making the choices more responsibility for those choices.

Although, at least, they're not wearing baby-blue bell bottoms ....

Many are learning that options that were previously available are not now, like working for a company that provided a pension. Experiencing or having seen people with health problems then bankruptcy due to poor company health insurance programs often made worse by working conditions. The American dream of home ownership and owning the latest and greatest “must haves” is out of reach of many, so they choose to live simply on the road, join communities like this or organizations like Escapees, work for themselves and make enough online or simply save to retire early and enjoy life.

Good point, it really is different now.

Morgana said:

OTOH, I really don't understand this whole Great Resignation thing. And I especially don't understand how older, more established, presumably wiser folks went along with it -- like this was some kind of brilliant new insight, that work svcks more often than not and you "shouldn't" "have to" do it?

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Because they know that wages have stagnated for over 40 years and pensions were replaced with 401K's. And that is not info from a meme.... it is from the Feds themselves. [See the CIA's World Factbook under USA > Economy} Wages have stagnated for 80% of the workers since 1978. Add to that the fact that elected officials from both parties statistically do not vote for the legislation that MOST people want. Study by Princeton University IIRC.

Was just talking with my son last night about the need for schools to teach kids how to check sources online. The internet is great for fact checking. But it isn't taught.

Anyway, I see hope for the future from young people refusing to work for low wages and organizing for union membership.

Morgana said:

Good points there (and not just in the quoted part). But I'm not sure you can blame Bob et al. for this. You probably follow Bob's work more closely than I do, and I could be wrong, but it just seems so ironic to me all the directions that people have taken his ideas in when all he was saying was "you don't have to be scared / you still have options to build a good life."

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Morgana said:

Good points there (and not just in the quoted part). But I'm not sure you can blame Bob et al. for this. You probably follow Bob's work more closely than I do, and I could be wrong, but it just seems so ironic to me all the directions that people have taken his ideas in when all he was saying was "you don't have to be scared / you still have options to build a good life."

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I agree that adults are always responsible for their choices but people are also really influenced, especially this generation raised on social media and fake news.

I've been a part of the vanlife movement when it was still called vandwelling, no one had fancy van builds, and Two Knives Kate was still posting on her blog. I joined Cheaprvliving when Bob was actively running and commenting on it every day, before he wrote his book, and there was no YouTube or RTR. That is not all Bob is saying. He has blog posts and videos recommending that people work as little as possible, get rid of their encumbrances, like their houses, and start doing vanlife full-time as soon as they can. He rarely talks about that cons of this life, namely one day people are going to get old or sick and need somewhere to go. Vanlife influencers are just as bad. They're working full-time trying to grow their social media business while giving people the impression that they just travel, hike, hang with friends, and cook good food all while barely wearing clothes.

Personally I don't have a problem with any of it - people have a right to promote what they believe in - I just wish they would add a caveat to their message. "This is a wonderful way to live AND if you're going to live this life, make sure you plan for your later years.

Carla said,
"I see hope for the future from young people refusing to work for low wages and organizing for union membership."

So you're thinking that the so-called Great Resignation has been mostly about union organizing? That's not the impression I've had.
I imagine these are two separate trends, followed by very different people.

scaredycat72 said:

That is not all Bob is saying. He has blog posts and videos recommending that people work as little as possible, get rid of their encumbrances, like their houses, and start doing vanlife full-time as soon as they can.

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Fair enough; I didn't realize that.

gone2day said:

If your SS is that low you would qualify for a Medicare Savings Plan that pays your premium:

https://www.medicare.gov/basics/costs/help/medicare-savings-programs
This is a federal benefit that should be available in all states. Even the ones that don't have expanded Medicaid like S.Dakota.

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I sure hope you’re right! I’m not yet 65 so all I know at this point is what my SS amount is. Worked since I was 15 years old and this is what I end up with.

Thank you for the information. I’m very grateful to you for taking the time to post it.

scaredycat72 said:

I agree that adults are always responsible for their choices but people are also really influenced, especially this generation raised on social media and fake news.

I've been a part of the vanlife movement when it was still called vandwelling, no one had fancy van builds, and Two Knives Kate was still posting on her blog. I joined Cheaprvliving when Bob was actively running and commenting on it every day, before he wrote his book, and there was no YouTube or RTR. That is not all Bob is saying. He has blog posts and videos recommending that people work as little as possible, get rid of their encumbrances, like their houses, and start doing vanlife full-time as soon as they can. He rarely talks about that cons of this life, namely one day people are going to get old or sick and need somewhere to go. Vanlife influencers are just as bad. They're working full-time trying to grow their social media business while giving people the impression that they just travel, hike, hang with friends, and cook good food all while barely wearing clothes.

Personally I don't have a problem with any of it - people have a right to promote what they believe in - I just wish they would add a caveat to their message. "This is a wonderful way to live AND if you're going to live this life, make sure you plan for your later years.

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You are making one solid point after another here, and taking a bit of a risk to do so. Thank you very much for raising important issues that are otherwise easily forgotten or glossed over.

I believe Bob is right-on-the-money when he talks about simplifying one's life and getting rid of encumbrances, which has become less and less an option and more and more a desperate Hail Mary play for the generations succeeding his. To the extent he emphasizes earning only just enough to get by, I'm more in line with what I perceive to be your more careful, conservative approach to life. There will ALWAYS be emergencies, be it medical, dental, taking care of your pet, fixing your car/van/RV/whatever, buying motel nights while the latter is being done WHICH CAN TAKE A LONG TIME AS MANY RV REPAIR SHOPS ARE BOOKED SOLID FOR MONTHS!!! ... well, just etc. I've lived poor and I'm well aware that almost anything can provoke a crisis when you don't have much money saved, and that saved money can be wiped out in the blink of an eye and be extremely hard to replace when you're living on slim or even ordinary margins.

Keep insisting that people be careful, please. We need to support and encourage each other, always, but also a way of doing that is by reminding each other of not just rewards but risks, and to think well ahead, and try to keep everything in balance ... and that sometimes we may have to just suck it up re a hard life, for a good long time, in order to make a better life for ourselves in the future. People who embark on adventures without preparation are no doubt brave, but you don't want that bravery to bump into its hard natural limitations due to a bout of what is all too common life -- a bit of hard luck, a medical problem, a breakdown, a job that falls through, etc.

All those things are normal, and the least we have to plan for is the normal. Tough luck that the normal can be pretty bad!

scaredycat72 said:

Personally I don't have a problem with any of it - people have a right to promote what they believe in - I just wish they would add a caveat to their message. "This is a wonderful way to live AND if you're going to live this life, make sure you plan for your later years.

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Planning for the later years is something EVERY one needs to do no matter what life they are living.
Those who do not are likely to wish they had, no matter whether they were working at a regular job or not. I don't think it is something specific to nomads.

And there's also the fact that you can plan all you want and it may not turn out to be what you planned for. I had a friend who worked for Enron for 25 years, good pay, great pension plan, great stock investments in the company, all great plans for retirement. Well, you know what happened to Enron and the people who worked there. All that was gone.

Plans are good and necessary but perhaps even more important is to be flexible and able to adapt to changing circumstances and land on your feet when something unexpected happens.

Morgana said:

Carla said,
"I see hope for the future from young people refusing to work for low wages and organizing for union membership."

So you're thinking that the so-called Great Resignation has been mostly about union organizing? That's not the impression I've had.
I imagine these are two separate trends, followed by very different people.

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No, I don't think the "great resignation" was/is about union organizing. I've never read/heard of any connection. Both things were/are occurring simultaneously.

Many union folks understand why people are refusing to work. I see it in their tweets about low wages.

One reason to adapt/ modify and learn the skills while you have good health and change is easier, you will never know what you need, for example I need to get rid of my 24” door on my trailer and make it large enough for my wife’s walker after her knee gets replaced and maybe I should have traded that manual transmission for an automatic!