A person’s retirement options are limited primarily by how well he or she has planned for retirement, and a major part of that planning is being able to fund it. The more money you have saved and invested for your retirement, the more options you will have.
Aging in place
This option is when you live in your current home and adapt it to your needs as you grow older (does not include using a CCaH, which is explained later). Although not as expensive as other options, it will still require having the money to fund it.
In addition to the normal maintenance of the home as it ages there will be structural changes that may need to be made to accommodate you as you age. As you grow older and frailer, you will need assistance with maintaining the house and surrounding property.
You will also need assistance with maintaining yourself, such as transportation, shopping, food, help with daily living, medical assistance, etc. At some point, you will possibly need to move into rehabilitation, assisted living, memory care, or skilled nursing facilities. All this assistance will either come from loved ones (a burden on their lives and families), public assistance (a burden on taxpayers), or from paying someone to do it.
You could move to another house or apartment or maybe into a retirement community, but the result will remain the same. At some point, you will become mentally, emotionally, or physically unable to care for yourself and your household and will become a burden to someone.
Statistics show that approximately 43% of the population aged 65 and over will spend some time in a nursing home. Most people fail to plan for this eventuality and suffer the devastating financial consequences of spending down and eventually qualifying for Medicaid. The requirements to get Medicaid and the benefits it offers are constantly changing, so it is foolish to rely on it as an option.
Few people can afford to pay privately for long-term care on an indefinite basis. According to a 1990 study made by Weiner and Harris, less than 3% of the elderly are covered by long-term care insurance and only about 1% of nursing home expenditures are met by private insurance.
The aging in place option is a gamble; you are gambling that you will stay relatively healthy and able to take care of yourself and then just drop dead and not become a burden to anyone.
Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC)
A CCRC provides resort-like independent living with all kinds of amenities with the added benefit of providing a full continuum of healthcare for the rest of your life. It takes care of you when you need it, but otherwise lets you live your life as you wish. However, it is expensive to live in a CCRC.
Continuing Care at Home (CCaH)
Although not new, this option is gaining in popularity among baby boomers. This option, usually offered in conjunction with a CCRC, allows you to live at home while having your healthcare taken care of by a central organization. CCaHs that are associated with a CCRC offer access to all the amenities and healthcare offered by the CCRC. With this option, you have an assigned health care coordinator who takes care of your health care needs and coordinates other services that you may require to live at home.
Living off others
Spend all your money enjoying life while you are young and do not plan for retirement. Then, when you are unable to work any longer, hope the government or charities will feed, house, and clothe you and give you free medical care. If this is your plan, then there is nothing in this guide that will help you. You made your choices, so now you have to live them.
Living with children or other relatives
If the other person has the means to support you while properly providing for their own family and they are not just able to but are also willing to support you, then this is a viable option. If they are not able to support you without their own family suffering or they are not willing to support you, then this is not an option and if you still expect it to happen, you will cause great harm to your family both now and after you are gone.
This is an option to consider if needed, but it should not be a retirement plan. Once a child becomes an adult, you are longer legally responsible for them and they have no legal responsibility for you, except when there has been some legal acceptance of responsibility. If you are going through life with this as a retirement plan, then there is nothing in this guide that will help you.
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