What does fixed income actually mean?

[StarSong]

You said that perfectly. I hear people mentioning the average SS check is over $1,000. Some say they are around $1,500 or so. I, like others, wonder who they are talking about. I'm most familiar with recipients checks being in the $700s. Occasionally, $800 something, but not often. I wonder how and through whom these statistics are computed. Who, exactly, is being represented here? Doesn't seem like it's within the average American demographic. I think the average American now is in or nearing poverty. The struggling and poverty-stricken citizens seem to me to outnumber those with higher SS checks. Many worked all of their lives, since they were youth. They did the best that they could under the circumstances that you mentioned.

DH & I started talking seriously about retirement when we hit our early sixties. Being the spouse who enjoys research and math, I took the lead on figuring out various pathways.

Over the course of a couple of years, I invested scores of hours of researching credible sources, learning the ins-and-outs of customizing our SS claiming strategy, what retirement expenses were likely to be, how much we'd need to draw from retirement funds to cover those needs, and so forth.

It quickly became clear that the combination of early SS & retirement fund draws wouldn't get us where we wanted to be, we talked about semi-retiring instead of fully retiring, taking advantage of a then-available SS loophole, and plumping our retirement funds by continuing to work, but in a much-reduced manner.

So far, so good.

The piece we never expected is how many retirees in our age group envy us still being a bit in the working world, and express regret that they fully retired rather than gradually stepping into it. As a close friend said to me recently, "One can only watch so much Netflix before it starts to feel like you're simply marking time before the grave..."

 

[Trade]

"One can only watch so much Netflix before it starts to feel like you're simply marking time before the grave..."

I think I'm there.

But that in no way means I would like to go back to work.

 

[DailyArtsyCrafter]

She got $600 a month, but lived a good life. She lived in a nice senior apartment (public housing that took 33% for rent), had plenty of classic dresses and suits from her working years and was on PAAD, a program under which she only had to pay $5 for each of her meds. She even had more in savings than the median amount Americans are estimated to have in their savings accounts these days.

It makes me feel happy that your mom lived a good life on her lower SS income. Yes, living in senior, income-based housing certainly allows seniors to save. How could they otherwise? My dad said he gets $1,700 but I know it's not from his own working history, which was interrupted and problematic. He's drawing his deceased 2nd wife's income and she was a nurse.