Tonight, while Shane was eating dinner after practice and Mols tackled some ironic finance homework, we had a conversation that hit me hard. It started with the news of yet another rent increase at my elderly relative's assisted living facility. Not a slight bump of $50, but several hundred dollars, again. It’s the third time in less than two years. It takes us weeks to come up with a budget plan for one rent amount then when we get an increase we didn't plan for the whole nasty process starts again. At nearly $7,000 a month, we're looking at an estimated $84,000 a year just to make sure they live in a clean and decent place. So, we pulled out a lending app and did some quick math. If you bought a million-dollar home in Massachusetts, your monthly mortgage would be between $5,000 and $6,500 a month. Let that sink in. Sure, assisted living facilities include meals and utilities, but that kind of price tag feels out of control.
Then I stumbled across something even more bizarre that happened. If the Social Security office has any issues with your direct deposit, they partner with a third-party company and load your monthly payment onto a debit card. Sounds harmless until you find out managers at Social Security can’t even explain this process. If you accidentally toss that card or it goes to a loved one helping you with your finances, you’re in trouble. Want to resolve the issue? Be prepared to be on hold for 3-4 hours, only to hear that call volumes are too high, and you should call back the next day, where you’ll likely hear the same story. It’s frustrating. Not so much at the facilities themselves, but at the system that allows this. Our elderly worked their entire lives, and this is how they are treated their last years of life.
Continuing our conversation we looked up the average salary in Massachusetts which is around $52,000, or about $25 an hour. I am not sure about all of you but you probably can't even pay your electric bill for $52k a year. How can we charge our elderly $84,000 a year just to live comfortably? How are families like mine, who are working and raising kids, supposed to balance caring for our aging relatives? I know a blog post isn’t going to change the world, but this was our conversation at the dinner table tonight. I can only hope and pray for change and of course welcome any advice anyone has to give me.
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