When the 2008 financial crisis hit, what little Palome had saved -- $90,000 -- took a beating

He then sold his New Jersey home for $180,000, kept what he needed to quickly pay off his credit card debt and divided the rest among his children so they’d have down payments for their own homes.

Ok, so he retired with $270,000 of assets plus $1,800 per month from private and public pensions. Buy a life annuity (as a 65 year old male) with the $270,000 and you're getting around $1,600 per month. That yields a total income of $3,400 a month or $40,800 a year, which is considerably above the national median income (around $28,000/year according to wikipedia).

As I see it, the problems here are entirely of his own making:

1. He gave away 2/3 of the wealth he should have been relying on during his retirement,

2. He gambled his remaining assets in the stock market rather than making investments suitable for his demographic (mostly bonds) or buying an annuity, and

3. He picked up expensive habits when he was younger -- he takes regular flights to visit relatives and occasional vacations.

(And I suppose I could add 4. He should have saved far more money before retiring -- but my point is that even at the point he retired he was in decent financial shape.)