Is Assisted Living as Stress-Free as It Sounds?
Some people constantly fret about the messy, cluttered state of their houses, while others wear it as a badge of pride. Of course you didn’t have time to organize your bedroom closet. You work 40 hours per week, and you spend your evenings helping your children with their homework or answering work emails while your children are at sports practice. On the weekends, you grocery shop, cook, and do laundry, and when you are not doing those things, you lie in bed and try to summon the energy to do more chores. Young and middle-aged adults who are not in the workforce may spend all their time on housework and decluttering, but even when they do not get sidetracked by errands or, Heaven forfend, leisure reading, their work is never done. You might think that, once you retire, you will keep your house spotless, but look at your trad peers and imagine if that is the life you really want, never mind that their bones do not creak the way that the bones of retirees do. It is no wonder that so many retirees cannot wait to ditch their empty nests. Of course, there is no financial security quite like living in a paid off house where your name is on the title. Retirement planners often recommend assisted living as a low stress alternative to geriatric householding, but is it really as affordable and relaxing as it sounds? For help strategizing about whether moving to assisted living makes sense for you financially and emotionally, contact a Washington, D.C. estate planning lawyer.
Gray Tenants’ Blues
A recent article on Business Insider highlights how assisted living is not as affordable as it advertises itself to be. It tells of an unmarried, retired woman who sold her house and moved into an assisted living facility where the rent was about $4,000 per month. She did not use most of the assisted living services available, but she used a few. Over the next several years, the rent on her assisted living unit increased to nearly $7,000 per month, and the facility discontinued some of the assisted living services that the tenant used, making her pay more in exchange for less.
The moral of the story is that assisted living residents are in the same boat as tenants everywhere. There is no guarantee that the cost of rent will not increase or that the value you get for your rent payments will not decrease.
How to Ensure That Assisted Living Is Affordable
The people for whom assisted living is a financial boon are the ones who pay for it with long-term care insurance. One month’s rent in an assisted living apartment is about the same as a year of long-term care insurance premiums, so the insurance pays for itself quickly. Meanwhile, if you own your house, it gets to remain in the family as generational wealth.
Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C. About Planning for Housing During Retirement
A Washington, D.C. estate planning attorney can help you find the most affordable and stress-free option for housing after you retire. Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C. in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.
Source:
msn.com/en-us/health/other/i-tried-assisted-living-for-7-000-a-month-but-felt-it-was-way-too-expensive-i-bought-a-small-home-and-now-live-on-my-own/ar-AA2571po?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=6a26f59e2243451b9183036e5b3e0507&ei=30
