Seniors and Real Poverty

According to the Senior Journal(1), the number of seniors living in poverty jumped in 2007 to 3.6 million from 3.4 million the prior year. Seniors in this context are defined as persons aged 65 and older. The Census Bureau claims that this jump is insignificant and it probably is since the number of seniors retiring is growing each year.

However, this statistic hides a darker truth. People who are defined by the government as "living in poverty" are at the very low end of the income scale. The thresholds for poverty are $13,540 for a two person household and $10,590 for an individual. These figures are annual gross income. Just like the government trying to measure the rate of inflation (while leaving out certain things like fuel and food), this measurement of poverty is also misleading.

Given the real cost of living, these figures are exceedingly low. 'Real cost of living' refers to the reality of the spectrum of costs that seniors face. Let's take the figure of $13,540 for two people. Even if we double that to $27,080 we still have a difficult time. 27K per year is not even enough for a senior couple to live on in most areas today. This is especially true in the more expensive cities where cost of housing is higher.

Seniors have needs that younger people do not have. Most notably these are in the area of medical needs. This is one reason that 27,000 will not go very far for a typical senior couple who wants to enjoy life. Notice that last term: Enjoy Life. Of course a couple can get by on 27k or even 13k if they have to. But how enjoyable will it be for them? How enjoyable can it be for a senior couple to live in a rundown place with health threatening molds and heat that doesn't work properly? How enjoyable can it be for a senior couple to survive the Midwest summers living in a place without air conditioning because they can't afford it?

So this is one the many reasons that I recommend that seniors and baby boomers consider starting a home based business; particularly in network marketing. Network marketing still offers anyone an opportunity to start a profitable distribution business with very little capital. A network marketing business can bring you much needed extra income to overcome those limiting poverty examples and free yourself up from the worry of poverty and 'near poverty'.

(1) Source