The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

Or, at least that’s what older workers believe.

According to a new survey from AARP, older workers say economy worse than last year. Nearly two thirds of workers in the 50+ age group first surveyed by AARP’s Public Policy Institute in 2010 said things had gotten worse by the time the senior lobbying powerhouse followed up in August. Fewer than one in 10 said their view of the economy had improved. The remainder felt like things were close to the same.

According to The Huffington Post’s Arthur Delaney, “Of the more than 5,000 people surveyed last year, 16.7 percent said they were jobless.…

Facing everything from medical markups, to investment issues, to mortgage meltdowns to cash-strapped kids, it’s clearer than ever that our country’s oldest citizens represent one of the hardest hit demographics in the country’s lingering economic malaise. As a result, more and more mature Americans have been relying on high interest credit cards to scrape by, leading some to subsequently seek the financial safe havens a bankruptcy can provide. In fact, the Consumer Bankruptcy Project found that some 66 percent of senior citizens filing for bankruptcy said credit card debt was the cause for their recent financial issues.

Add to the aforementioned reasons that older Americans are getting “scrooged” this holiday season, the fact that medical expenses, cost of living and taxes continue to rise, while the amount of Social Security payments remain stagnant as early retirement plans mean huge losses.…

Facing everything from retirement woes to cash-strapped kids, it has been well-reported that older Americans are some of the hardest hit by a lingering recession and rising health care costs.
And now, according The Huffington Post’s Laura Bassett, things just got a little worse for mature Americans looking for work. The reporter blogged in her article “Older Jobseekers Face An Uphill Climb” about the staggering 2 million unemployed people in the U.S. who are over the age of 55.

The “Uphill Climb” of Unemployment

“Although the unemployment rate for people 55 and older dropped from 7.1 to 6.9 percent in March, the AARP Public Policy Institute reported that the average duration of unemployment for older jobseekers was almost three weeks longer in March than it had been in February, and was substantially higher than the 31.1 weeks for the unemployed under age 55,” reported Bassett.…

The sad fact is, these days nobody is immune to financial troubles. This includes people who have worked hard their entire lives, all the while looking forward to reaping the rewards of their hard work in a restful, stress-free retirement. So what happens to seniors when they run into serious financial trouble? The reality is that wherever there are people in trouble, unsavory parties are out there looking to cash in.  With nowhere else to turn to,  many cash-strapped seniors have become the focus for companies looking to hook clients into signing what are called “reverse mortgages.” It’s true that these arrangements can help some people, and some legitimate lenders do help seniors come to mutually beneficial arrangements.  But because this is regrettably not true across the board, it’s important to understand what a reverse mortgage is and the possible risks, before signing up.…

Your “Golden Years” are supposed to be the best time of your life. You shouldn’t be worrying about bills, going to work, or holding an “upside-down” mortgage. These years are supposed to be the fruit of your life’s labor, and you should be able to enjoy them – or least not have to juggle the kinds of responsibilities and concerns you did in your 20’s and 30’s. Until recently, with a modest amount of planning and investment toward retirement, this was a reachable goal for most Americans.

Sadly, the economic conditions of the last 10 to 15 years have increasingly strained the budgets of seniors.…