Balancing a fixed income with inflation, a Georgia retiree feels stuck

This is part of NBC News’ Checkbook Chronicles, a series of profiles highlighting the financial realities of everyday Americans.

On a hot Georgia afternoon this spring, Nancy Breland was in her yard clearing branches and debris, trying to ward off any potential damage to her home from a large storm heading toward her coastal town.

At 72, Breland has been doing much of the upkeep around her home after her husband fell ill several years ago. She’d like to hire some help but worries about the impact on her budget. 

Breland feels she should be able to retire comfortably after her husband spent his career working as a union pipe fitter and she worked for decades as a hospital medical technologist. Instead, she said, she feels under increasing financial pressure and has been looking to cut her monthly expenses in the face of rising prices for groceries, utilities, insurance and home maintenance. 

“All the money I will ever have come in is what I have now,” she said. “I am worried that as we get older, I will have to employ outside landscapers and house cleaning services when we can no longer do it ourselves. This will be an added cost on top of decreasing funds due to inflation. I know many of my friends are already struggling with this. Fixed income is very hard when inflation is so high.”

Primary source of income: Combined, Breland and her husband have around $7,600 in monthly income from their retirement accounts and pension and Social Security payments.

That is enough money to cover their monthly bills, though Breland has been cutting costs over the past year as other expenses have gone up, including a nearly 50% increase in her electric bill, to more than $300 a month. She recently canceled her cable service, which was costing her $257 a month, and now pays for just one streaming service. She stopped paying $600 a month for her and her husband’s long-term care insurance — deciding instead that if one of them has to go into a long-term care facility, they will sell their home to pay for it.

Living situation: Breland says she and her husband, who have been married for more than three decades, lived a comfortable life during their prime working years and saved regularly for retirement.

They have lived for 24 years in their current home in Brunswick, Georgia, a historic port town in the southeast corner of the state popular with vacationers. To keep busy after she retired, Breland took a part-time job at a hospital blood bank and was volunteering at a local sea turtle center and with her church. 

Breland said she has considered moving into an apartment that would have less maintenance, but a typical one-bedroom in her community goes for a minimum of $1,200 a month, and that would leave her with little space for her three dogs. She has little extra money to cover major one-time expenses, like a home repair, a vet bill or dental work, because her savings are largely tied up in retirement investment accounts.

Selling off any of those investments would leave her with less in monthly returns to live off. She would like to go back to working part time for some extra income but is worried about leaving her husband alone because of his health needs.

Economic outlook: Inflation has taken a particularly painful bite out of the budgets of retirees who aren’t able to reap the benefits of rising wages. While Social Security checks have increased relative to inflation, other sources of income for retirees, like pension payments and retirement savings accounts, haven’t necessarily kept up for many. 

Breland said her life took a turn financially and emotionally about three years ago when her husband and her brother became ill around the same time. As a full-time caretaker to both of them, Breland had to quit her part-time job as, she said, her days became consumed with doctor’s appointments and hospital stays.

“I spend all my time at three people’s doctor’s appointments, mine and theirs. It just wears you down. I’m just really tired of taking care of everybody,” she said. “My life, I thought before this, was perfect. That is what is really distressing to me emotionally. I was loving my job. I was loving volunteering.”

Budget pain points: Her monthly housing costs are around $1,600 a month for her mortgage, taxes and insurance, and they have been on the rise. Her homeowners insurance has gone from just under $2,000 in 2022 to $2,820 this year, and her flood insurance has gone from $525 in 2020 to $840, even though her home isn’t at high risk for flooding. Insurance for some of her neighbors has increased to as much as $5,000 a year.

Because her savings are largely tied up in retirement investment accounts, Breland had to take out a home equity loan recently to cover the cost of removing some dead trees and repairing the steps to her house. She still owes $10,000 on the loan.

What’s going well? After cutting some of her costs recently, paying off her car and receiving an increase in the minimum amount she is required to withdraw from her retirement investment account, she said, Breland has a bit more breathing room in her monthly budget.

Despite all of her husband’s medical issues over the past several years, she said, her health care costs have been mostly covered by a supplemental Medicare plan the couple pays around $350 a month for.

“We really are doing much better than we were. If we hadn’t had that medical insurance, it would not be a good thing here,” she said. “At least I’ve got a nice view from my back porch. I can sit here with my dog and my cold beer at night. But it’s not the only thing I wanted to be doing.”

What’s on her mind: Beyond her finances, Breland said that being the sole caretaker for her husband has taken its toll emotionally and left her feeling she is missing out on what were supposed to be some of her best years.

“I’m really frustrated, because there are a lot of things I thought I’d do at this stage of my life. I thought I would be traveling a lot. I wanted to see the Grand Canyon, I wanted to see Montana, I wanted to go out West,” she said. “I feel like I’m stuck here. I had this vision that I was going to do all these things, and it’s not going to happen. It’s terrible to say this, but I’m really envious when I look on Facebook and I see people I went to high school with and they’re off doing all these great things with their husbands everywhere.”

How she sees things: More widely, Breland said, she doesn’t think the economy is going in the right direction.

As a volunteer with her church, she said, she has seen an “overwhelming” number of people struggling with the rising cost of housing, transportation and groceries. 

“I’m looking at people trying to find a place to live in this town. I do not know how they afford rent when a one-bedroom apartment is over $1,200 a month, then suppose they have kids. I don’t know how they afford anything.”