At 61, Alexander Remus has pared his life down to the essentials. He lives on a modest pension, avoids restaurants, and allows himself just one visit to a movie theater a month “to stay sane.” Even his prescriptions for a chronic health condition aren’t guaranteed — some months, he skips doses to stretch his budget.
The sacrifices are painful, but he said they’re the only way to keep up with the cost of living as a retired highway maintenance worker who resides in a San Jose senior living complex.
“At the end of the month, there’s just not enough left over to cover all my bills,” Remus said.
A new poll finds many of the Bay Area’s older residents are feeling the pinch. A third of the retired respondents, like Remus, say they are just making ends meet, one in six is struggling to pay the bills, and 6% report being in serious financial trouble. The 2025 poll by Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a regional economic think tank, surveyed 1,743 adults across the core five-county Bay Area in August.
Older adults are California’s fastest-growing demographic, according to the state Department of Aging. By 2030, about 25% of the state’s population will be 60 or older. The needs of this demographic are increasingly shaping the state’s economy, social fabric and its politics.
The Bay Area is a punishing place to grow old on a fixed income. The cost of living is higher than the national average, and the cost of a house is twice that of the national average, according to a 2025 report from the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office.
“This is a fabulous place to live for the high flyers,” said Russell Hancock, president and CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. “But for everyone else, this is a tough place to make it happen.”
Most poll respondents reported making financial sacrifices just to stay afloat. Most (83%) reported cutting back on entertainment and dining out, 72% had delayed major purchases, 64% had pared down on groceries or other essentials, and 60% tapped retirement or other savings to cover expenses. Half said they’ve taken on debt or leaned on credit cards.
For many older adults, those cutbacks translate to bare-bones living. Retiree Jeanette Lazam, 76, who was a district manager for former Rep. Barbara Lee when she was in Congress, said she lives on a shoestring in San Francisco’s International Hotel, a low-income senior housing complex. She struggles to buy groceries, and the day trips that once brought her joy like scenic drives along the coast to Monterey have been reduced to short excursions across the Bay Bridge. Helping support her brother, a senior with developmental disabilities in Hayward, stretches her already thin budget further. Despite living from one Social Security check to the next, Lazam faces it all with quiet resilience.
“I manage,” she said. “Even when things get very difficult for me, I still maintain a positive attitude.”
Between stretching her dollars and paying off a “never-ending cycle” of credit card debts, Lazam tries to savor the small joys in life. Some months, she takes her brother out for lunch Hawaiian barbecue in San Leandro is their shared favorite. She also relies on three close friends who help her financially to get through especially tough months. According to the poll, 41% of retirees have asked family or friends for financial help within the past five years.
The poll also asked retirees to identify their primary sources of income. More than four in five (82%) said they rely on Social Security. The next most common sources were retirement accounts such as 401(k)s (42%) and employer pensions (40%).
As the most populous U.S. state, California is home to the nation’s largest share of Social Security recipients, with about 6.3 million residents collecting roughly $115 billion a year in benefits, according to the Social Security Administration. While the state does not tax Social Security income a relief given its steep income tax rates it taxes other retirement income, including pensions and 401(k) withdrawals. Combined with some of the highest sales taxes in the country, that makes it one of the hardest on retirees financially.
Ninety-year-old M.Y.A. Kapoi, a retired word processor and research analyst, is among those seniors scraping by on a combination of Social Security and a small 401(k). She rarely leaves her studio in her senior living complex in Concord and considers a morning visit from her caregiver bringing her coffee as the highlight of her day. She doesn’t buy new clothes, and the ongoing costs of managing her chronic kidney disease add further strain. Kapoi had hoped to retire at home, but was forced to sell her townhouse and move into senior housing when her personal caregiver could no longer continue the job.
“I pay $4,855 a month for rent and care,” Kapoi said. “It’s a real struggle.”
The money Kapoi made from selling her Concord townhouse helps keep her afloat. She is lucky: The poll indicates just 12% of retirees have income from real estate. Gabriel Shahin, president of Oakland-based financial planning company Falcon Wealth, said that homeownership can be a make-or-break for retirees in the Bay Area today.
“Retiring on low Social Security and pension incomes in the Bay can be comfortable, the caveat is if they own a house,” Shahin said.
Many retirees in the poll reported facing compounding challenges alongside financial strain, including health problems, disabilities and having to downgrade on housing. These pressures rarely occur in isolation, and only multipronged, systemic solutions such as supportive housing and maintaining existing safety nets can prevent cascading hardship, UC Berkeley researcher Angie Perone said.
“Policies and interventions that are most successful at reducing financial hardship for older adults are those that address the multiple and intersecting sources of financial hardship,” said Perone, who is a part of the California Aging and Disability Research Partnership.
Perone warned that with federal funding for social services shrinking, older adults’ needs are only going to keep growing, and without new support from governments or nonprofits, local resources may not be enough.
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