What does economic security mean to you? What will it mean when you retire? What if you are already retired? Too many seniors are one crisis away from financial disaster, while others have already encountered such a crisis and are simply trying to stay afloat. This issue has been the motivating factor behind The National Council on Aging’s One Away campaign. CARIE, along with 14 other organizations across the country, is focusing its efforts on bringing the economic security issues of older adults to the political forefront as part of this national video advocacy campaign.
We interviewed an older adult last week as part of this video campaign asking her to tell us about her own economic security. What she said still resonates: “We were fine. We had money in the bank and we were in the process of renovating our house. We were healthy and happy and then my husband had a stroke and that changed everything. Now our savings are gone, we are drowning in debt and on the 21st of every month we are out of money and I charge everything to my credit card to make ends meet. How did this happen to us? I can hardly pay for groceries!! We worked our entire life!”
We hope that telling these stories will inspire change. Actually, we expect it. We insist on it. That is why we have combined our efforts through this One Away campaign. We all need to be part of the solution. We’ll be tracking our progress here and encourage your participation so that we may truly champion this cause!
