When I saw a recent headline saying a typical retired couple in Maryland needs more than $1.2 million to retire comfortably, my first reaction was anxiety.

I started doing the math in my head. My mortgage. My electric bill. Groceries. Insurance. The money I have tried to put away for retirement. The things I know I will need to pay for as I get older.

Then I thought about how many years I have left to work and how much I would have to save between now and retirement to get anywhere near $1.2 million.

I honestly don't know how I am supposed to get there.

According to a new Investopedia analysis, Maryland is among the most expensive states in the country for retirees. A typical retired couple here needs at least $1.2 million in savings to maintain a comfortable standard of living. Nationally, the figure is about $1.16 million. And that calculation doesn't include everything a retiree might face, including long-term care and state taxes.

Maybe there are Marylanders who have that kind of money saved. I am happy for them. But for the rest of us, what exactly are we supposed to do with that number?

Work longer? Save more? Stop spending on the things that make life worth living?

I suspect I am not the only Marylander who looked at that figure and wondered whether the retirement we have been working toward is actually attainable.

Because the problem isn't just retirement. It is everything that comes before it.

Every month, another expense seems to demand a larger piece of the paycheck. The electric bill goes up. Groceries cost more. Insurance costs more. Housing remains expensive. Even when income increases, it can feel as though the cost of living gets there first.

Affordability has become elusive.  Across Montgomery County, one of the wealthiest counties in the state, evictions are on the rise. It is not just troubled properties feeling the sting; the broader economy, higher gas prices, soaring utility bills, and job losses among thousands of government workers are all contributing to the issue. Regular, hardworking residents who fall just one month behind on rent quickly find themselves spiraling two, three and more months behind, making it increasingly difficult to catch up.

Evictions, once regarded as a consequence reserved for lazy or jobless individuals, are now affecting working-class families with full-time jobs. Marylanders are increasingly being forced to choose between feeding their families or paying rent.

A recent poll of Maryland voters put numbers to what many of us already know. Fifty-one percent said they are either “really struggling financially” or “just getting by.” More than half said they worry their utility bills could become so high that they or someone in their family could not pay them. Forty-two percent said they had difficulty paying a utility bill in the past year.

That should concern all of us, but especially those of us thinking about retirement.

A person can spend 30 or 40 years working, paying taxes and contributing to their community and still reach retirement age without feeling financially secure. What happens when the paycheck finally stops but the bills don't?

That question is becoming harder to ignore as BGE asks the Maryland Public Service Commission to approve a $156.1 million increase in electric base-rate revenue. If approved in full, the PSC estimates the average residential customer would pay about $8 more each month.

Eight dollars might not sound like much. But when you are already counting every dollar, it is not just eight dollars. It is eight dollars added to everything else.

That is how affordability works. Families don't necessarily fall into financial trouble because of one enormous expense. Sometimes it happens because everything costs a little more, year after year, until there is nowhere left in the budget to absorb another increase.

That is why Maryland cannot afford to wait until the next legislative session to start taking affordability seriously.

Our elected officials cannot control everything happening in Washington. They cannot determine the price of every item at the grocery store or undo every economic disruption caused by the Trump administration. But they can make choices here in Maryland.

The Public Service Commission can scrutinize proposed utility increases and ask whether Maryland families can realistically afford them. State leaders can prioritize policies that lower housing and energy costs. And as Maryland confronts a projected multibillion-dollar budget gap, lawmakers can decide whether balancing the books means asking more from the people already struggling to keep up or asking more from those who can actually afford it.

I don't want to spend the next decade wondering whether I will have to move somewhere cheaper when I retire. I don't want to choose between keeping the home I worked for and paying my utility bills. And I don't want to discover at 65 that the financial security I spent my entire adult life trying to build was always out of reach.

Retirement shouldn't be a luxury reserved for people who managed to accumulate $1.2 million.

For Marylanders who have worked, paid taxes, raised families and contributed to their communities, the ability to grow old here should be part of what we are building toward.

So when I ask whether Marylanders can still afford to grow old here, I am not asking for a handout.

I am asking for a state where working hard still gets you somewhere.

Right now, too many of us are wondering whether it does.

-- Pascale Lemaire, Vice President of Progressive Maryland’s Enclave Tenant Association, Silver Spring, MD