Medicare Is Not A Guarantee Of Fiinancial Security In Old Age

Elena is such a multi-talented lady. After working hard for 8 hours on her job work from the study, she cooked a gourmet chicken dinner for me and spoiled me. After I finished dinner I started to read my AARP magazine. I often do not take this magazine seriously. But something really caught my attention. According to a study by Fidelity, a married couple that retires and depends on medicare will have out of pocket medical expenses that will average $204,000 before they pass away. This does not include any costs for long term care like having a person at home to care for a disabled person or a nursing home. The AARP article went on to say that the average person on medicare will have out of pocket costs of over $4,000 per year. My dear friends my Social Security check is $1,279 per month. This comes out to be $15,348 per year. If I had to pay $4,000 out of that I would be left with $11,348 to carry me for 12 months or $945.66 per month. I would have to pay for rent, food, transportation, phone etc out of that small amount of money. In my case I have an IRA that I was wise enough to contribute to and that would give me an income of another $6,000 per year or $500 per month. I also an a veteran of military service and I have the right to use the VA for medical care. That helps my situation. A lot of people do not even have these things. As we move forward, Medicare will get cut and medical expenses will continue to rise. It's a bleak picture for many retirees. To those of you already retired I hope that you have a pension from your employer and paid for medical care that holds up. To those of you still working, save your money as you are going to need a lot more than you think to retire,