Hi friends ...thank you so much for your input. Before I moved from the other city in VA to here, my kids and I researched every place around that was both nice and that I could afford. This was the best option financially for me ... little did I realize what I would run into. There are other senior apartments, but their prices vary widely, some going as high as what I paid for the other place I was living. And here, we don't pay for trash and water, which really helps. I never told you how I got into this mess, so I think now is a good time ..... when my father died 20 years ago he left me a lot of money - close to $1 million. For several years I didn't touch it because I always felt if you didn't work for it, it was not really yours. After 3 years I finally broke out of that and bought myself a bright red Toyota 4-Runner, which I absolutely love ... no payments, straight out paid for. Then, at the advice of a "friend" I put the rest with a Financial Adviser, bought my condo, putting a goodly size chunk on it. I still was being careful with my $$ .... I've never been a spendthrift. Well, then 2008 hit with the downfall of the financial market, plus unknown to me my Investment Adviser was running a "ponzi scheme" ..... I saw my money going down and down. I called him on it and he said that it was because the market had fallen so bad .... sounded reasonable. But, mine fell more quickly than I thought it should, so I again zeroed in on him and wanted the answer. Of course I never was told, by him, what he was doing, but he was apparently double and triple billing many of his clients, including me. By the time I pulled out I had a whole lot less than I started with .... enough that I was really scared for my future. When I got a new F.A. he told me to bring in all my paperwork from the crooked F.A. so his lawyers could go through it ..... they did, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to recoup any of it back. Thus began my moving, moving, and then landing here. I sold my condo when I moved here and actually had to pay the buyers $6,000! (I'll never figure that one out.) The crooked F.A. was caught by the SEC, given a hefty fine (over $2,000,000) and he can now only sell insurance, and they are free to come in any time they want, unannounced to check all his records. Meanwhile, those of us who got taken, are in similar situations as mine. Sure not the future we'd hoped for. I always felt guilty about this because I felt that I'd taken my Dad's hard earned money and just flushed it down the toilet.
abby