Senior News Line: What seniors worry about

It’s very helpful to have friends and acquaintances scattered across the country when I need to do another informal poll. This time, my questions to them concerned what seniors worry about.

I got them started with a list of suggestions on a page, to be ranked in order, with a blank place under each one for comments, and space below for their own contributions.

And I wasn’t surprised.

The No. 1 concern was about money. Is there enough to last the rest of our life? Will grocery prices ever come down again?

We’re concerned about having to go back to work to keep from burning through our savings, running up medical bills, losing the house because of not being able to pay the mortgage and having the rent raised to an amount we can’t pay.

Health was the second biggest concern, with loss of independence topping that list. We fear getting dementia, losing muscle strength, falling and breaking a limb, having to go into the hospital or rehab for an extended stay, catching COVID or a bad flu. This was a very long list with everyone adding comments.

Concerns about safety was surprisingly high in the rankings. We worry about crime on the streets, not being able to trust our financial advisers and that we might need to give up driving.

Other topics ranked lower, but they’re concerns just the same. We worry about identity theft and not being able to recover from it if we lose money.

Tied with that are concerns that we might not recognize scams. We worry about needing to ask others for help with things we used to be able to do.

But the one topic that garnered the most comments was loneliness. We fear losing all our friends when they die. We fear being the last one standing.