Reply to Is there anything you can practically do about foolish spending?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, not much you can do and it sucks. My ILs probably had 10-20X in retirement savings compared to my parents, whose biggest indulgence in their latter years was an ice cream cone a couple times a week. And my ILs have pretty much spent it all and may be here for another 10 years. One of them would only be able to reside in a memory care unit if they had to leave their home. DH was so great with my parents, so I don't feel like I can complain - yet it didn't have to be this way.[/quote]

This example isn't particularly compelling, TBH. Spend your latter years living by "indulging" in a couple of ice cream cones a week? So you can keep a healthy bank balance which will only be siphoned off in no time by a long term care facility?

The fact is that if a person has no income or assets, Medicaid will take over their long term care. My mother scrimped and saved and didn't fully LIVE or enjoy her retirement because she wanted to save it for her care. Well, guess what. All her savings was blown through in a matter of months at a  facility and she wound up on Medicaid anyway.  She stayed in the same facility, got the same care, the bill was just paid by Medicaid.

I wish, wish, wish she had taken that cruise, gone on that trip, gone ahead and bought the full-price dress and had the time of her life with her hard-earned money and made memories with all of us.   [/quote]

So...my parents were not indulgent people save the ice cream and a few other things. That was the nature for a lot of folks who grew up in the Depression. Their assets were quite minimal and they lived modestly as they didn't want to be a "burden" for their children. They would have never done the cruise, bought the full-price dress, etc as they were just not wired that way. ILs, OTOH, are not modest and do not live minimally. They've largely blown through their money. We are fine, but DH's sibling is not and would have benefited from a bit of inheritance. Now we will end up paying for them.[/quote]

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