It sounds to me like he didn't plan very well for his future... like the senior greeters at Walmart.
A farm that was in a bunch of debt, ect...
My grandparents have lived in the same house since 1955. He drove a forklift at a paper mill she was a bus driver but eventually became a teacher. They lived in what some would consider a shack, an old farm house on a dirt road in Olive Branch MS. Since retirement they have added on to it, and destroyed the old parts of it. Anyway, like that whole side of my family they are very good with money never buying anything that wasn't a necessity and planning very well for retirement. Let me just say this, if a tornado blew everything they owned away they could by it 100 times over. They have also since spent most of their time in retirement traveling the world.
They budgeted for the necessities when they were working and saved for the future. Is it so hard people?