I just looked at that article, and saw the following excerpt. Note that the bold-faced word was mine.
It’s sometimes hard to imagine life in retirement, but picture living on Social Security alone. Assume all you earn is $2,500 a month, the maximum check a worker currently receives at full retirement age from Social Security. Where can you comfortably pay taxes, afford housing and still have some left over to actually enjoy retirement?
That income of $2,5000/month is $30K/year. My mother, a widow, lives very well on that, or even less. Her SS is not that amount, but she also has a small pension, plus a supplement from her IRA. The key is that she owns a relatively new, small but comfortable home (too big for her actually, after my father passed away), which is worth perhaps $200K.
What does my mother spend $2,500/month on? She pays utility bills, buys some food, pays for Medicare supplement, goes to her hair dresser twice a month, puts a bit of gas in her paid-for car, and faces an occasional big dental bill. That's it! Oh, she buys quite a bit of clothes actually, and all the bedroom closets are overflowing!
Once a retiree owns her place, that $30K/yr lets her live in many places in the country. It should not be a big deal with that income.