Long-term Care
Retirement Planning is about living the way you want to live. Including a long term care discussion in your retirement planning process is often over looked. There are two key questions that you need to ask yourself for long term care planning:
What is your written plan for care? You plan to live a long and productive life and at some point you may need care in your home or in a facility. What is your plan for this? To have family members provide care? Do you believe a long term care illness or disability will never happen to you? Or that the government will take care of things?
How would you pay for this extended care? Your retirement portfolio might not provide you what you need. Your retirement portfolio was established for your retirement lifestyle, not a long term care situation. Consider what impact needing long term care would have on your family and your retirement portfolio.
How likely are you going to need Long Term Care? It is estimated that 70% of people over age 65 will require some period of ongoing assistance at some point in their lives.*
*U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care information, www.longtermcare.gov , April 2014
If you need to pay for long term care out of pocket, the costs can quickly add up. Based on survey data (Genworth 2017 Cost of Care Survey, Conducted by CareScout)found the national median for a year of nursing home care to be over $97,455 for a private room. And the national median cost for in-home care from a health care aide is now $21.50 per hour ($49,192 Annual). With those kinds of expenses, it’s easy to imagine a sizable portion of savings could be needed for long term care needs.
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