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

[bullfrog]

^^^The majority of my life was spent in those states! Lol!!!

 

[D'L]

It appears “results may vary” is applicable here. ....... don’t believe anything an insurance company gives or tells you they aren’t concerned about your care only how much profit they will make after lawyer’s fees.

So very true.

 

[D'L]

Medicaid in Illinois helps most folks. I've never heard of anyone not getting help in Illinois. And Illinois isn't even in the top 10 states providing excellent government healthcare for low income people (we are 23rd). Then there are the states that don't help their residents. The bottom ten states:

41		Kansas		31		48		35
42		Missouri		36		40		41
43		Georgia		46		41		37
44		Kentucky		16		46		46
45		Alabama		42		35		45
46		Louisiana		26		47		47
47		West Virginia		22		43		50
48		Oklahoma		48		45		44
49		Arkansas		40		50		48
50		Mississippi

And note : those are some of the states with the highest percentage of people living in poverty.
In this country all too often the people who need help the most get the least.

 

[RoamerRV428]

I read on SHIP etc that the plan Gs and all inclusive are based on 'increasing prem. prices' and not set so are they increasing now? anyone know. Yea if one can 'suck out a ton of money' from their lower SS costs?? hmm.............just asking cause I am out checking LOL

I am 61 in Dec and taking early SS at 62 but in the end can all 'the great things we can get' that cost us and on the rise work for all? I think nope for me but in the end also...........do I really care cause I will sooner than later be puttin' all my 'life financials' into my DDs hands and I am not gonna be responsible thru what I own to pay up for me so? Got a family I can trust and move forward easily in a lawyer chat to be sure she get it all none of us 'gotta pay it off' lol.....lawyers are good for just that!! worth every penny in my eye.

just asking cause I tell ya...........it is not a cake walk ever for any of us.
it is a life destroyin' financial inhertiance legancy we walk in a way for some of us.

Just thoughts....just feelings on how to roll forward...ugh

 

[user 22017]

It's not just medical care where states are withholding funds. It's happening with welfare assistance and food stamps (link), as well. Especially in the southwest (think Utah and Texas are included). So maybe it would help to find out which states care and figure out if becoming a resident there would be feasible. See ProPublica's investigations:

https://www.propublica.org/series/welfare-states

 

[WanderingRose]

In most communities of any size, around the country, I have seen a food pantry open at least once or twice a week, as is the one in my town.

Large communities seem to always have shelters of some sort, with kitchens that serve three meals a day, but smaller communities not so much.

Larger communities also often have free or reduced cost medical and dental clinics, tho they may have wait lists and give priority to community residents. Dental schools also often provide free or reduced cost services.

An emergency room is required by law to treat anyone who comes in their door, and any hospital receiving federal funding has to provide free or reduced cost care to those who don’t have insurance or medical cards, and meet low income thresholds.

https://www.hrsa.gov/get-health-care/affordable/hill-burton/facilities
https://www.hrsa.gov/get-health-care/affordable/hill-burton
They are required to post signs, but you have to ask for it, and apply.

As with so many things, staying put in a community of some size means access to services more difficult to find if you are roaming the country, so it often comes down to what one needs and where that is available.

Food kitchens, pantries and food banks are also meant to supplement one’s food stamps or cash grocery budget, not replace it, so there will always be the tough choices of how to allocate one’s dollars to meet basic needs.

Back in the day, when I was circling the financial drain as a single mother, working full time I made too much money to qualify for food stamps and the only free food available was at the local “Mission”, where anyone who was hungry could show up for a meal.

We never got to that point, thank goodness, but I learned how to stretch a dollar, a chicken, a pound of ground beef, cheese, etc., and if there had been a food bank offering boxes of groceries I would have been in that line.

At any rate, there is help out there, but if one is moving around a lot it may be harder to find when one needs it.

 

[Dingfelder]

Every community seems to have at least one Food Pantry, and where I live they function on donated foods and also what they purchase at deeply discounted prices from the area Food Bank.

If you have more than you need, yourself, many Food Pantries maintain a list online of needed items that one can purchase and drop off.

These are a good resource for those struggling to eat.

Even the Simpsons managed to make fun of this 40 years ago. Old expired Pumpkin Pie mix and the like. People really need to not just clear out the outdated pantry but sometimes try to do something nice and ... be ... nice.

 

[WanderingRose]

Even the Simpsons managed to make fun of this 40 years ago. Old expired Pumpkin Pie mix and the like. People really need to not just clear out the outdated pantry but sometimes try to do something nice and ... be ... nice.

Hmmm, I’m guessing maybe you haven’t been in a food pantry lately?

Many, if not most, are funded/stocked thru a combination of the large food banks and private donations.

One large food pantry near me is entirely community supported, receives private donations of fresh food and $ (which they use to buy from the food bank), maintains an online list of current food needs to shop from, also receives end-of-day donations from restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries of various kinds, etc., and operates like a small grocery store where customers can just go in and shop.

Customers provide a few hours of volunteer work stocking shelves, or make a small donation, each time they visit.

There are other, smaller pantries that give out bags and boxes of food, and of course the food banks we see on TV that give out big boxes of food to anyone who shows up.

Many people rely on these to keep themselves fed and supplement limited income and food stamps, and they don’t consist of expired foodstuffs nobody else wants.

Food pantries are an invaluable community resource, and if you have more than you need they are a good place to make a cash donation or to shop from their needs list and drop off groceries.

 

[user 22017]

Very good point. It's like the difference between NASA and SpaceX: NASA spends years and billions of dollars testing and retesting every possible outcome before sending a rocket into space. Elon Musk, on the other hand, just sends up rocket after rocket as his way of testing, and so had failure after failure.

Gold, There is more to it than that...

"Without the investment of NASA, private spaceflight today would look very different. In 2006, NASA began investing in private space companies with the hope that they could one day provide cargo and crew transportation to the International Space Station. SpaceX was one of the first companies to receive money from NASA; the company was just 4 years old at the time. NASA paid for roughly half the cost to develop SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.

"In 2008, SpaceX received a multi-billion dollar contract to fly cargo to the ISS. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy and would likely have run out of money without NASA. Today, SpaceX generates revenue from a variety of customers, but a significant portion of its funding comes from flying crew and cargo to the ISS as well as launching NASA science spacecraft. SpaceX also flies payloads for the U.S. Department of Defense, another taxpayer-funded entity."

https://www.planetary.org/articles/nasa-versus-spacex

 

[Sagittarius63]

I currently get $840/mo from Social Security, and that's my total income. I don't find it hard to live on that because:
(1) I travel little, so don't consume much gasoline.
(2) For the last two years, I've been eating three small meals a day, which consist of non-fat dried milk, Oats, Cocoa powder, chopped pecans, mayo, peanut butter, a date, and Spirulina/Chlorella tablets (plus an array of vitamin-like tablets such as Hawthorn Berry and Co-Q10). So food cost is very low too.

My 1998 Chevy Express van already has every convenience in it I need, paid for, so I find living on my$840.00 to be easy. Just gotta save part of it for insurance and breakdowns. For parking, I boondock free, or sometimes pay a homeowner by the month for a space to park on their property, most often a corner of their backyard.

Also, I buy just about everything I need through Amazon. Their deliveries are free because I pay the annual fee for an Amazon Prime account.

What do you do with the mayo?

 

[user 22017]

What do you do with the mayo?

Amazon sells restaurant type packets of condiments.

 

[CosmickGold]

What do you do with the mayo?

That's a great question, but since it's barely related to "how to live on $700/month", I've put my reply here in the thread
Cheap No Cooking Monthly Food List.

 

[RoamerRV428]

if ya ain't that 1%'er truly we all know no matter how much we make we can be in dire financial straits easily. Even if one makes alot of money one can be financially on that edge at every minute. It is who you are and what you do with smarts with your bucks ya do have I kinda see it that way for all of us out there. Who you are and the money in your wallet is key without debt and more so? big gray areas floating on everyone's financials kinda. Money in and spending out. It boils down so much to that simplicity in a way.

 

[RearViewMirror]

if ya ain't that 1%'er truly we all know no matter how much we make we can be in dire financial straits easily. Even if one makes alot of money one can be financially on that edge at every minute. It is who you are and what you do with smarts with your bucks ya do have I kinda see it that way for all of us out there. Who you are and the money in your wallet is key without debt and more so? big gray areas floating on everyone's financials kinda. Money in and spending out. It boils down so much to that simplicity in a way.

We are far from the 1%. This is the way I've always treated money and life in general. I completely understand that we all come from different backgrounds, different socioeconomic status, etc... There is always a little bit of luck involved when talking about finances but there are also things that must be done proactively to become financially independent. No one person is the same and life can throw some real curveballs at you.

I understand that I am in a fortunate place right now. That isn't lost on me. But, we have worked very hard to get to where we are now. I can give no honest answer of why finances were so important to me when I was a young. My parents sure didn't teach it to me. I ended up with a full ride to college and started college life at 17 years old. I graduated with a Business Administration degree at 21. I chose Business Administration because, at the time, I didn't really know what to do with my life. I just knew that a degree like that would open doors for me. I got my first credit card when I was 18. But I didn't get a credit card for the reason that most people get credit cards. I got one so I could start building credit. I knew from a young age that my credit was going to be one of the most important financial tools at my disposal. My #1 rule in life is, if I can't afford it I don't buy it.

Now it goes without saying that we obviously have a mortgage and now a loan on a conversion van. Those are the only two items we have with a loan amount. One of those items has (and will) appreciate and the other will depreciate (how much remains to be seen). Everything else that we have is paid for and the rest are recurring costs of utilities. My credit is still the most important thing in my financial life. When I first got on the FD one of my best friends had already accumulated over $30,000 in credit card debt with absolutely nothing to show for it. That still baffles me to this day.

My degree in Business Administration really didn't do anything for me financially. I used that degree for about 8 months and then got offered a job on the FD (after a friend talked me into taking the test). From that point on, that degree was useless. I ended up getting my Chemistry Degree while on the FD because we have the states only fully staffed Hazardous Materials Unit. To be able to run on that unit, you must have a Chemistry Degree for obvious reasons. But that degree will do nothing for me now that I have retired. Other than it's nice to have that knowledge.

As mentioned before, the FD paid well. I will never complain about the pay that was paid to us. But while others were spending money of things that they did not need and going into debt because of it, I was putting as much money as I could into our retirement system and investments. That's not to say that we didn't buy things we wanted. The way I look at it is, as long as you have the money to pay for it and it is not affecting your life or your life goals, go ahead and buy them.

And that is what lead us to buy the conversion van. Most normal people would think that I am crazy for doing what we are doing right now. But there is a reason that I mentioned in the previous post. In the long run, we will actually save money by going this route. Depending on how long we decide to live this lifestyle, the more money we will save. And it will allow my wife to retire and we can actually enjoy our retirement together. What is life without having a goal set in mind? One you reach that goal, it's time to make that leap if you so choose. Now is our time to make that leap because it may never happen again.

Again, I understand that we are all different. And what works for us may not work for others. But the title of this thread caught my eye and there is no way we could make it off $700 a month living this lifestyle. Not if we truly chose it to travel. And if you didn't choose it to travel... What was the point? I could just as easily not sell our house and take trips when we want. But I want to do this with no timeframe and have my wife by my side enjoying the things we want to do before it's too late.

 

[Lizmccal]

We are far from the 1%. This is the way I've always treated money and life in general. I completely understand that we all come from different backgrounds, different socioeconomic status, etc... There is always a little bit of luck involved when talking about finances but there are also things that must be done proactively to become financially independent. No one person is the same and life can throw some real curveballs at you.

I understand that I am in a fortunate place right now. That isn't lost on me. But, we have worked very hard to get to where we are now. I can give no honest answer of why finances were so important to me when I was a young. My parents sure didn't teach it to me. I ended up with a full ride to college and started college life at 17 years old. I graduated with a Business Administration degree at 21. I chose Business Administration because, at the time, I didn't really know what to do with my life. I just knew that a degree like that would open doors for me. I got my first credit card when I was 18. But I didn't get a credit card for the reason that most people get credit cards. I got one so I could start building credit. I knew from a young age that my credit was going to be one of the most important financial tools at my disposal. My #1 rule in life is, if I can't afford it I don't buy it.

Now it goes without saying that we obviously have a mortgage and now a loan on a conversion van. Those are the only two items we have with a loan amount. One of those items has (and will) appreciate and the other will depreciate (how much remains to be seen). Everything else that we have is paid for and the rest are recurring costs of utilities. My credit is still the most important thing in my financial life. When I first got on the FD one of my best friends had already accumulated over $30,000 in credit card debt with absolutely nothing to show for it. That still baffles me to this day.

My degree in Business Administration really didn't do anything for me financially. I used that degree for about 8 months and then got offered a job on the FD (after a friend talked me into taking the test). From that point on, that degree was useless. I ended up getting my Chemistry Degree while on the FD because we have the states only fully staffed Hazardous Materials Unit. To be able to run on that unit, you must have a Chemistry Degree for obvious reasons. But that degree will do nothing for me now that I have retired. Other than it's nice to have that knowledge.

As mentioned before, the FD paid well. I will never complain about the pay that was paid to us. But while others were spending money of things that they did not need and going into debt because of it, I was putting as much money as I could into our retirement system and investments. That's not to say that we didn't buy things we wanted. The way I look at it is, as long as you have the money to pay for it and it is not affecting your life or your life goals, go ahead and buy them.

And that is what lead us to buy the conversion van. Most normal people would think that I am crazy for doing what we are doing right now. But there is a reason that I mentioned in the previous post. In the long run, we will actually save money by going this route. Depending on how long we decide to live this lifestyle, the more money we will save. And it will allow my wife to retire and we can actually enjoy our retirement together. What is life without having a goal set in mind? One you reach that goal, it's time to make that leap if you so choose. Now is our time to make that leap because it may never happen again.

Again, I understand that we are all different. And what works for us may not work for others. But the title of this thread caught my eye and there is no way we could make it off $700 a month living this lifestyle. Not if we truly chose it to travel. And if you didn't choose it to travel... What was the point? I could just as easily not sell our house and take trips when we want. But I want to do this with no timeframe and have my wife by my side enjoying the things we want to do before it's too late.

If you read the post before you when this thread started they were looking at being homeless. Yes some people try to find a way to live on less than rent who are disabled or retired. But, for you They have a great site and group of people called the “Escapees“ more suited to money RVing in retirement.

I have no problem with your great circumstances and life, but this is A cheep RV forum. There are several people on here on disability and a few who would be homeless without a van. This is all they have. I understand what you are saying and am happy for you. It’s just not what this thread is about. It’s not about how someone can’t make it. If you have no ideas or helpful input then why comment?

 

[WanderingRose]

Thank you, Liz, for expressing thoughts I’ve been thinking but was sitting on posting.

 

[RearViewMirror]

If you read the post before you when this thread started they were looking at being homeless. Yes some people try to find a way to live on less than rent who are disabled or retired. But, for you They have a great site and group of people called the “Escapees“ more suited to money RVing in retirement.

I have no problem with your great circumstances and life, but this is A cheep RV forum. There are several people on here on disability and a few who would be homeless without a van. This is all they have. I understand what you are saying and am happy for you. It’s just not what this thread is about. It’s not about how someone can’t make it. If you have no ideas or helpful input then why comment?

Noted. My apologies.

 

[SLB_SA]

If you have no ideas or helpful input then why comment?

Doesn't this "rule" apply to everyone?

On the other hand, people who are not hurting financially may still have important insights which can help others; being "helpful" is somewhat subjective. People who have struggled financially and discovered workarounds might offer highly useful advice as well. A person who has done well (financially) and has discovered useful ideas for saving & investing might offer extremely "helpful" advice, even to people less well off. For example, buying I-bonds (Series I US Savings Bonds) is a completely safe way to earn fairly high interest if you want to invest part of your emergency fund (by creating an "I-bond ladder").

Being a nomad does not require one to be in difficult financial circumstances ... BUT for those who are, I am surprised that discussion of living in cheaper countries other than Mexico does not get more attention here.

 

[Morgana]

I am surprised that discussion of living in cheaper countries other than Mexico does not get more attention here.

Well, Mexico is the only cheaper country that you can actually drive to from the US in your van/RV ...
I think about retiring abroad a lot. Keeping my vehicle and keeping Medicare coverage are the two hurdles that slow me down (though they may not be absolute deal breakers).
It's one thing to think about your monthly income vs expenses in a low-cost-of-living country -- that might look really promising -- but the expense of getting set up, and the expense of getting back and forth to the States for anything you might need from here, could be more challenging. And then there's the language barrier.

There are probably a zillion forums and YouTube videos out there for that if someone's really interested. Just google the country you're interested in and "expat" or "retire in".

 

[user 22017]

Doesn't this "rule" apply to everyone?

On the other hand, people who are not hurting financially may still have important insights which can help others; being "helpful" is somewhat subjective. People who have struggled financially and discovered workarounds might offer highly useful advice as well. A person who has done well (financially) and has discovered useful ideas for saving & investing might offer extremely "helpful" advice, even to people less well off. For example, buying I-bonds (Series I US Savings Bonds) is a completely safe way to earn fairly high interest if you want to invest part of your emergency fund (by creating an "I-bond ladder").

Being a nomad does not require one to be in difficult financial circumstances ... BUT for those who are, I am surprised that discussion of living in cheaper countries other than Mexico does not get more attention here.

Makes sense except this thread is about living on $700 a month. So, move it to Off Topic. Kidding

This Forum was originally about how to live cheaply in an RV, but that was before the Forum was sold. Does it even say anywhere that it is about RVing cheaply? Bob is gone, but even his YT channel has moved beyond living cheaply as some RV's showcased are quite pricey.

Anyway, can't blame ppl with bucks for posting here, since it appears to just be a van living forum.