Across the nation, many older adults struggle to make ends meet: the Elder Index from UMass Boston’s Gerontology Institute shows about 30 percent of older households lack the income needed to cover basic expenses and remain in their homes.
Whether Massachusetts fares better or worse is unclear—while the state is relatively wealthy, its high cost of living and entrenched inequality leave low-income and older residents of color especially vulnerable. To shed light on these dynamics, a mixed-methods report by Boston Indicators in collaboration with Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research pairs a quantitative assessment—detailing income and wealth sources, the share of older households below Elder Index thresholds, and racial gaps in retirement security—with a qualitative study of structured interviews that reveal how low-income, low-wealth seniors stretch limited resources to make ends meet. The result is “Wealth Gaps in the Golden Years: Economic Insecurity for Older Adults in a High-Cost State.”
The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative helped support this report by connecting authors and researchers to organizations and community members that could provide insight.
Key findings from the report:
- Social Security is a lifeline, with most relying on it as their primary or sole source of income. Most low-income older households rely primarily, and often entirely, on Social Security to cover their expenses. Yet benefits are hardly enough to make ends meet in a high-cost area like Massachusetts.
- Retirement savings and pensions are limited or depleted. Few low-income older adults had pensions or retirement savings to draw from, and many who once had 401(k)s had to spend them early due to emergencies, job loss, or family needs.
- Many older adults must adjust to a lower standard of living in retirement. Many seniors described living more modestly than they did during their working years, adjusting to lower incomes and reduced spending power. Even those meeting day-to-day needs often felt that one unexpected cost could jeopardize their sense of security.
- Subsidized housing is a lifeline for many seniors. One of the ways in which some lowincome older adults make ends meet in a high-cost city like Boston is securing subsidized housing so that they don’t have to pay the full cost of market-rate housing. In fact, a strong majority of our interviewees lived in some form of subsidized housing.
- Other public benefits are essential. Programs like Supplemental Security Income, SNAP, housing subsidies, and MassHealth help many older households meet basic needs, but strict income and asset limits discourage emergency saving, and benefit levels often don’t reflect the true cost of living.
- Older adults are resourceful but constrained. Participants described budgeting carefully, leaning on debt and relying on informal networks. The views shared highlight the gap between basic needs and achieving true stability, with many still facing financial precariousness despite covering day-to-day expenses.