The younger you start thinking about, saving for, and planning for retirement the better. Retirement years will then be your golden years, not your beholden years.
There’s more than getting feeble and frail to be worried about as you get older. Of course, there is always the need for food, shelter, and clothing and quality of life to worry about but there is also maintaining your independence, being able to care for yourself and not depend upon the kindness of others for your care, which usually means giving up some or all of your independence.
Also, what happens when you fall and break a body part, need knee or hip surgery, develop some type of dementia, become disabled, or have some aliment than prevents you from taking care of yourself and your home. Who will help you get through the short-time tough times or take you in when you are unable to care for yourself ever again.
For many of the silent and baby boom generations, one of the reasons to have children was to have someone to take care of you when you got old and feeble. Many people of these generations thought that since they would be taken care of by their children there was no need to be too concerned about planning for retirement. However, over the years of their lives, family circumstances changed, societal values changed, and the economy changed in ways no one expected.
Partially due to some many baby boomers reaching their senior years, the youngest are in their 70s, more seniors than ever now live alone, and the numbers are increasing all the time. Reasons for them living alone include:
- Having never married.
- Being a widow or widower.
- Having divorced and never remarried.
- Not wanting to be a burden on anyone.
- Having chosen to live alone.
When you are old and alone and need help, sometimes the ones you thought would be there to take care of you are not there because they:
- Are no longer living.
- Have others they are already taking care of.
- Need help taking care of themselves.
- Aren’t physically, mentally, or emotionally able to take care of you.
- Live too far away.
- Don’t have the money to take care of you and still be able to take care of themselves and their families.
- Aren’t willing to upset their lives and lifestyles to take care of you.
- They simply don’t want to take care of you.
Since you can’t count on there being someone to take care of you when you are old, you need to prepare for having to pay for someone to take care of you. To be able to pay for your care, you need to save as much money as you can throughout your life specifically for this outcome.
If you have not prepared for retirement and growing old alone and you need someone to care of you, you have some choices, you can:
- Pay for your care until you do not have any more money and then rely on the government to care for you.
- Negotiate for your long-term care with your nieces, nephews, or other relatives.
- Live in a joint household of trusted “extended” family members and friends and share the care.
- Adopt a family you trust that lives nearby and use your will to assign part of your estate to them in return for them taking care of you until you die. Make sure you get advice from an elder law attorney before entering into this type of arrangement.
If you have prepared for retirement and growing old alone by saving a large nest egg, you have more choices, you can:
- Live at home and pay for your care as it is needed, although you may reach the point where you are unable to make decisions and coordinate your care and will need someone to do it for you. If assisted living or skilled nursing becomes necessary, someone will have to find one of these places for you, move you, sell your home and belongings.
- Pay for a local Continuing Care at Home (CCaH) plan, such as Navigation by Salemtowne in Winston-Salem, NC,\ that will coordinate and pay for your health care needs as you need them.
- Move into a life of luxury amongst likeminded friends in a CCRC/Life Plan Community and be cared for through all level of care until you die.
The choices you have available to you in your later years depends on how well you have prepared for your later years during your earlier years, and, the younger you start preparing, the better off you will be.
