{"id":131178,"date":"2025-11-12T12:15:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T12:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/131178\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T12:15:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T12:15:14","slug":"new-survey-floridians-45-face-financial-insecurity-issues-investigations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/131178\/","title":{"rendered":"New survey: Floridians 45+ face financial insecurity issues | Investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent survey by AARP painted a concerning picture for Floridians aged 45 and older, highlighting financial insecurity, rising insurance rates, and a cost of living that’s pushing some residents to leave the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n

The survey revealed<\/a> that nearly half of individuals over 65 rely on Social Security for at least half of their income. However, inflation and more expensive insurance mean Social Security checks do not stretch as far as they used to.<\/p>\n

73% of surveyed individuals have an emergency financial plan, but only 24% feel very confident they could recover financially after a disaster. Additionally, 80% of insured homeowners have a hurricane deductible, but 43% express extreme or significant concern about affording it.<\/p>\n

\"AARP<\/p>\n

Joseph Kaye, a 56-year-old who commented on WINK News’ Facebook post<\/a> about the study, expressed his frustration with rising healthcare insurance premiums. He says health care coverage for his family of three costs $12,000 in 2025 but will rise to $40,000 in 2026.<\/p>\n

“That’s untenable,” said Kaye. “I think it’s going to be a significant issue in the short term for people like me who are having their premiums go astronomically high, but very quickly after that, other insurance issues will follow.”<\/p>\n

Kaye, who moved to Texas in 2018 but grew up in Fort Myers, explained his decision to leave Florida.<\/p>\n

“It was the housing market in Florida. We had a home we were happy with, but the housing prices in Florida were as they always have been, cyclical and a little out of control, and we just couldn’t get ahead,” said Kaye. “It was more to pursue a better financial situation.”<\/p>\n

Tracie Cardwell, Director of Marketing and Communications for Senior Friendship Centers<\/a>, emphasized the challenges faced by older adults with limited or fixed incomes.<\/p>\n

“They were already juggling and making choices between, you know, do I buy food? Do I get my medicine? But with health care changing, with the price of food increasing, obviously, with SNAP benefits being terminated temporarily and now back, this has kind of just sounded a louder alarm that we have already been ringing a bell on,” said Cardwell.<\/p>\n

When asked if Florida is facing a crisis, Cardwell said, “Absolutely, we’ve seen an increase in older adults who’re having to choose to either stay here or move back to other states to live.”<\/p>\n

Cardwell went on to say, “It’s having to choose not just quality of life, but can I even afford to be here at all? Rents have not just doubled. They’ve tripled.”<\/p>\n

The Senior Friendship Center<\/a> provides services like activity centers, congregate dining, and home-delivered meals to help seniors stay independent. You can reach the organization at 239-275-1881.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent survey by AARP painted a concerning picture for Floridians aged 45 and older, highlighting financial insecurity,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245,90385],"class_list":{"0":"post-131178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance","15":"tag-senior-friendship-center"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}