I think complaining will still work on some occasions but most of the time, not, it is because people always complain and instead of solving the issue, it only makes it worse. Preparation in life is possible but there is also scenarios that just can't be avoided, making us still experience a difficulty. Worse economic conditions are not new, especially to those who aged well already but there are just people who seem impossible to correct their attitudes. As you said, a decent living expense must be the standard or the minimum, so it must be okay to have one or two sources of income only but it's a different story anymore if we want to get rich.
Every person's condition is definitely different, to be clear, we need to try to produce something that we are looking for, and sometimes something where the effort is difficult, there we will complain but we must quickly change with the spirit to try to live it, and age factors are not an obstacle to changing economic conditions for the better as long as we are still given health.