Ruth Olinger, 70, is a grandparent raising a grandchild in Lakeland, Florida, and she has accepted one financial reality: retirement is not coming. Olinger, who adopted her seven-year-old grandson Atlas after her daughter was unable to care for him, works as an office manager at a car dealership and carries out remote mission work in Kenya after Atlas goes to sleep. ‘I will have to work until I step into my casket,’ she said, ‘because I want my son to have what he needs.’
Olinger’s story, told to Business Insider, puts a human face on a financial predicament that is quietly spreading across the United States: older adults absorbing the full cost of raising young children at precisely the stage of life when most people are drawing down savings, not adding dependants.
The Cost of Raising a Grandchild at 70
The numbers in Olinger’s budget are unforgiving. She pays $10,400 a year for day care, plus $4,500 a year in county property tax and $3,800 a year in homeowner’s insurance. Her Social Security benefit comes to $1,500 a month, well below the national average retired-worker benefit of $2,005.05 as of June 2025, according to Northwestern Mutual.
The gap between her benefit and the 2026 maximum tells its own story. Workers who retire at full retirement age in 2026 can receive up to $4,152 a month, and those who wait until 70 can receive up to $5,181, according to the Social Security Administration. Social Security benefits rose 2.8 per cent in January 2026 under the annual cost-of-living adjustment, the SSA confirmed, though that increase does little to close the gap for those already on low fixed incomes.
Olinger’s day care bill, while heavy, actually falls below the national average. Child Care Aware of America put the national average annual cost of child care in 2025 at $13,184, up from $13,128 in 2024 and reflecting a 23 per cent rise since 2021. Florida’s average sits at approximately $10,712 per child per year, according to Self.inc’s 2025 childcare cost statistics, putting Olinger’s $10,400 close to the state norm.
Olinger adopted Atlas rather than becoming his guardian, a distinction that carries practical financial consequences. Florida’s Guardianship Assistance Programme provides a minimum monthly payment of $333 per eligible relative or fictive kin carer, along with Medicaid until the child turns 18, under the state’s scheme administered by the Florida Department of Children and Families. Olinger notes that adoption brings state help with health insurance, though she has absorbed the day care cost without that offset.
A $150 grocery run now causes what she calls ‘sticker shock.’ She keeps a written budget and pays bills upfront. ‘We do have what we need,’ she said. ‘We can have egg sandwiches and grilled cheese instead of steak and lobster.’
Faith, Work, and No Retirement in Sight
Olinger’s path to this point is long. She spent her own childhood in foster care, placed in 10 different homes after her grandparents became unable to care for her and her brother. She later fostered 51 children during her single years, raised millions of dollars to build a centre for homeless women and children, and carried out mission work across Belgium, Italy, Scotland, Ireland, West Africa, and Kenya. Now, at 70, she has five children spanning four decades: her oldest is 48 and Atlas is 7.
Atlas was diagnosed with a health condition that cost Olinger lost working days while she pursued his diagnosis. He is also dyslexic. She climbs into playgrounds with him, takes him swimming in the summer, and handles more homework support than she did with her older children.
She is frank about the asymmetry of energy and ageing. ‘In some ways, I’m more patient with him because of my experience raising children,’ she said. ‘In other ways, I’m less patient because, as you get older, there is a point where you can be less patient, but the quality is still the same.’
The social isolation is its own pressure. She does not fit comfortably into groups of younger parents or into senior social networks, where organised outings do not account for the need to arrange childcare.
Olinger has been invited to serve as a director of local foundations and continues her Kenya work remotely. She is preparing Atlas to be self-sufficient rather than dependent. ‘I don’t want him to be handicapped by thinking that I’m going to give him everything,’ she said. ‘I want him to be able to stand on his own two feet and be whatever he wants to be.’
The immediate test is financial: whether her income from the dealership, her Social Security benefit, and whatever assistance adoption brings can cover a budget that would stretch most households half her age. Atlas turns eight before long, and the school years ahead will determine whether that arithmetic holds.