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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As others have said, the cost of care is exorbitant. My mother in law is paying $15k a month for my father in law’s nursing home (technically a rehab, but he cannot do physical therapy anymore and is just in bed for the past year.) they are Umc but not very rich. [/quote]

OP here. Thanks for mentioning the cost of nursing home care. $15k a month for 2 people would mean $360k a year. It seems like it would take $10m in investments to pay for that. DH also wants both of us, and our parents, to avoid nursing homes but instead have in-home care. Who knows how much that would run.[/quote]

Find a top notch CCRC and enter while still healthy enough (ideally by 75).  [b]Sure you pay $300-500K+ in entry fees, but that covers your nursing/memory/assisted living care when you need it.  [/b]Good ones mean if you "run out of money/investments" you don't owe anything else---they cannot touch your SS, only your other investments.  
My parents are in one, and there are currently 4 people (all widowed women) who are late 90s/over 100 who "have run out of $".  They no longer pay anything.  Two are still in independent living, the others are in higher level care.  
My parents pay their $7K/month for their apartment and that covers 1-2 meals per day and all utilities/cable/etc.  All they pay is renters insurance.   
Should they need advanced care, all we pay more is for the full 3 meals a day (so extra $300/month/person).  
[/quote]

Everyone I know who suggests one of these facilities is a HUGE spender and terrible with money management.

$7k a month for rent on top of 300-500k to buy in?  That’s laughable.

The average American is in LTC 2 years max.  Most people do not spend anywhere close to what you’re suggesting. [/quote]

I particularly don't understand people who insist on working longer to hit numbers like 10m in retirement assets so that they can afford expensive LTC facilities because the question of LTC is a quality of life issue -- it's driven by the fear of winding up in a substandard care facility. Which I agree is a concern. However working well into my 60s or 70s in order to afford a luxury LTC facility makes no sense because that's a huge decline in my quality of life in my 60s and 70s.

We'll have an 80k per year pension and about 2.5m in retirement assets at 58. College and house will be paid for by then. Good enough for us. I want to enjoy my life for the next couple decades after that. If or when we have to enter LTC we will have the option of selling our  home to do it. Good enough. I'm not going spend my 60s working so I can be in the cadillac version of LTC in my 80s with dementia. Willing to roll the dice in order to enjoy my life while I'm young enough for it to really count.[/quote]

OP here. The irony is that delaying retirement can prevent or delay dementia.[/quote]

Depends on the job. A high stress job or one where you are very isolated (even if you are using your brain) is unlikely to do much to prevent dementia.

I can see myself doing a career change to something lower paid but social and active in my 50s and continuing to work for longer. But I have a stressful job where I mostly do very solitary work. And since it became WFT full time during Covid (my company doesn't even have an office anymore) it is very hard for me to imagine staying in it once my pension vests at 55. If I can find something else (even something part time) that keeps me active for another decade then I'll do it. But staying in this job I don't enjoy anymore with the idea that sitting at a computer doing technical writing and working on spreadsheets by myself in a home office is going to prevent dementia seems really dumb. If I can't find a job like this I could see myself volunteering to get the same benefits.

I can see how people with active and enjoyable jobs might stay in them longer. But then you're staying in the job because you like it and aren't ready to retire. Not because you have to hit a higher retirement target in order to afford LTC.[/quote]

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