Do Two Average Social Security Checks Cover the Basics for Older Tennesseans? A Sycamore Institute Brief Compared Them
Medicare’s Part B premium is $202.90 a month in 2026, up $17.90 from 2025.
It’s a cost that landed after a Tennessee research group built its survival budget for older adults.
Here’s what that budget covers, and how it lines up with two Social Security checks for a couple in Tennessee.
Note: This is general information, not financial advice. Dollar amounts and benefit rules are subject to change.
Who Built the Budgets
The Sycamore Institute is a Tennessee research center.
It takes no political side.
Its September 2026 brief lists the 2024 survival budget for one adult at about $30,200.
The budgets come from ALICE, a United Way measure. It stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.
ALICE estimates what the basics cost where you live. Then it counts the households with income below those amounts.
Every figure here is a 2024 price from United Way’s ALICE budgets, as Sycamore published them in September 2026.
Those prices are two years old. What you pay today may be higher.
Here’s what those budgets say about two older adults who share a home.
From One Adult to Two Older Adults
The survival budget for two older adults sharing a home comes to about $50,100 a year.
That’s roughly $4,175 a month.
Two adults come in at about $42,900. So two older adults need around $7,200 more every year.
One older adult living alone needs about $33,700.
One adult needs $30,200.
The chart says only “older adults.” It gives no age cutoff. The ALICE methodology lists a separate 65+ budget.
The brief covers eight kinds of households.
This one ranks third highest.
If you share a home with one other older adult, compare your costs with $50,100.
United For ALICE calls the older-adult budget a bare-minimum plan. It leaves no room for emergencies, debt payments or saving.
It has no vacations or splurges.
So if a new roof or a hospital bill hits, you’d pay for it with money outside the budget.
What the Basics Include
The budget builds the basics from eight expense lines.
Housing, childcare and food are on the list. So are transportation, health care, technology and taxes.
A catch-all covers the rest.
The federal poverty line works differently. It rests on 1963 food costs and spending.
In 2024, the state’s survival budgets ran 85% to 164% above the federal poverty lines.
It depends on who lives in the home.
That gap is why you can clear the poverty line and still fall short of a budget.
Sycamore thinks 1.2 million households in the state may have had a hard time paying for basics in 2024.
Psst! How long would your savings last if you spent $4,175 a month? Try our calculator and see where you stand.
Two Social Security Checks
Two average Social Security checks add up to about $50,100. That’s the same as the budget.
In August 2026, the average retired worker got $2,087.52 a month. That’s a national number from the Social Security Administration.
Two of those checks come to about $50,100 a year. That matches the budget almost to the dollar.
But it’s a national average for retired workers, not a Tennessee figure.
Living alone is tougher.
One average check comes to about $25,050 a year. That’s roughly $8,650 under the $33,700 budget for one older adult.
Not every older adult gets an average check. Your household could land above or below that line.
Prices Since 2019
The budget’s housing line rests on 2024 prices. The brief shows how far housing costs moved after 2019.
Statewide, the median home sale price rose 56% from 2019 to 2024.
The median fair market rent grew 44% across the state’s 95 counties from 2019 to 2025.
That’s a federal housing estimate for each county.
Those are big jumps.
Median household income rose over 28% from 2019 to 2024. Once you adjust for inflation, that is about 5%.
Not every number moved the wrong way.
Sycamore found that financial hardship in the state generally fell from 2019 to 2024.
The data stops in 2024.
It doesn’t capture the cost and income effects of more recent conditions.
So the 2025 rent increase likely isn’t in the budget.
If you rent, the housing line in the 2024 budget may sit below what you pay today.
Your Medicare Premium
One more cost moved after the budget’s 2024 data year. It’s the cost of Medicare’s Part B medical coverage.
If you’re enrolled in Part B, the standard premium is $202.90 a month in 2026.
It was $185 in 2025.
That’s $17.90 more a month.
If you and another older adult are both on Part B, the increase comes to about $430 a year.
Over 12 months, the premium comes to about $2,435 for one person and $4,870 for two.
Part B also has a yearly deductible. You pay that amount before coverage starts sharing costs.
It’s $283 in 2026, up from $257 in 2025.
A hospital stay under Part A has a deductible too. It’s $1,736 in 2026, up from $1,676 in 2025.
Those are the kinds of bills the budget has no room for.
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