On Wednesday nights, Connie Sloan drives two hours from her Tucson suburb to Phoenix for work, cruising up the highway to her country playlist as the sinking Arizona sun casts shadows on her steering wheel. She crashes at a friend’s house before waking up early for her nursing shift at a nearby hospital.
It has been Sloan’s routine for years: She drives 100 miles on Wednesdays, works 12-hour shifts for three days, then returns home on Saturdays. The schedule can be grueling, especially at 69 years old, but she needs her roughly $3,000 monthly paycheck to supplement her Social Security. It was the only job she could find, and even then, money is tight.
Baby boomers like Sloan are in a bind. The cost of living is rising across the US, Social Security often isn’t enough to afford essentials, and a growing number of older adults don’t have adequate retirement savings. For those with unexpected expenses — like steep medical bills — even careful retirement planning can fall apart. Business Insider has heard from thousands of older Americans who say their golden years aren’t as financially comfortable as they hoped, and many are back in the workforce to make ends meet.
Sloan’s financial challenges began in 2013, when she learned she had stage 3 breast cancer. The diagnosis required several surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation as part of her treatment plan. Each procedure chipped away at her and her husband’s nest egg, and the couple now lives with their 41-year-old son and his partner because they can no longer afford a mortgage or the typical rent in their area. Sloan expects she will be working as a nurse for as long as she’s physically able.
“You feel alone. But I know that there’s many people my age and my husband’s age that are in similar situations,” she said. “It’s humbling, it’s depressing — I didn’t expect that this is the way the later years of our lives would be.”
Courtesy of Connie Sloan
The high cost of cancer treatment left Sloan without a nest egg
Living with her adult son isn’t ideal, but Sloan said it’s the only option she has. Stage 3 breast cancer treatment in the US typically costs over $100,000, and even with some insurance coverage, Sloan said she’s still paying off the credit cards she used to cover her treatment. The charges added up over a decade, so Sloan was unable to share an exact out-of-pocket tally with BI.
While she was undergoing treatment — and the bills began stacking up — she and her husband had to downsize their home. They tried living in a low-cost RV for a couple of years, but ultimately decided living rent-free with family was the best solution. It’s a dilemma lots of older adults are facing: The portion of homeless single adults 50 or older is estimated to have grown to about 50% from 10% over the past three decades and, with rising housing costs across the US, many have mortgages and property taxes they can’t afford.
“We worked hard our whole lives,” she said. “What we have — what belongs to us — fits into two rooms. That’s what we’re reduced to.”
Together, the couple brings in under $5,000 a month in Social Security. Her husband, who was also a nurse, retired a few years ago. Even with their benefit checks, her nursing paycheck, and free housing, she said expenses like car payments and medicine can add up quickly.
Despite not paying rent, Sloan said she does her best to help around her son’s house: doing laundry, cleaning, buying groceries, and picking up her 11-year-old granddaughter from school — a task she adores: “she calls me Mema,” Sloan added, smiling.
Sloan hopes to retire someday from her busy nursing schedule and 200-mile weekly commute, but she doesn’t “see it in the immediate picture.” She advised other older Americans to “plan for the unexpected” as much as possible and to cultivate a strong support system of family and friends.
“That’s the most important thing,” she said, adding. “I thank God every day for my blessing of waking up and for the ability to work in my job. And I ask to continue to please bless me with my health.”
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