That's legitimately a lot less than I would've expected. Factor in home care; uncovered healthcare expenditures like drugs, in-home adaptations, and other equipment like canes and walkers and so forth; dental and optical; and of course basic room and board, and at the later stages of life I would've expected more like 5-6k a month, largely thanks to a healthcare system that fails to support the elderly, which is ironic given the now-elderly boomers will get to reap what they sowed when they cut/failed to invest in those systems they now need.

With inflation, $3500/mo is just the starting point. I expect it to top $5k/mo before I die.

I think at one point when I get past a certain age ... in my case, I'm guessing about 70 ... it will be cheaper for me and my family if I just died ahead of time instead of linger any longer. I'm in my 40s and I am not in great health and I can feel parts of body complaining all the time, especially with the first signs of arthritis. My mother and grandmother both had terrible arthritis and I have a feeling I will be the same. Mom couldn't walk by the time she was 50 but my grandmother lasted longer. Many of my aunts and uncles were the same. They suffered through the last decade of their lives. If I'm going to end up in the same situation, I'd rather leave early than suffer for years.

I say that with conviction right now but I won't know until I get there. But if I am living in pain without an prospect of recovering ... I'll seriously consider stepping aside ahead of time to save myself years of torture.

Wait, you guys are gonna be able to retire? /s

It's been pretty obvious to me most of my adult life that people like myself will always only ever struggle to make ends meet and will never have the luxury of not working (I'm mid 30s now). Honestly, that's the only rather perverse upside to our current state of greedflation, that sense of "hey, it's not just me anymore, it's everyone". Plenty of people out there feel like people in poverty deserve it somehow, and aren't shy in expressing that, so watching them struggle to be poor has been... an experience of awful validation, I guess is how I would describe it. But to the point, the work I do now I'll be able to do when I'm elderly and/or ill too, it's not physically taxing at all, so that's my old age plan lol.

The key to my independence is moving to a cheap south American country.

paywall :(

That'll cost about a million dollars in savings to sustain long term, assuming you're invested in the stock market and you withdraw 4% a year ("safe withdrawal rate")

Good luck everybody 😕