When you are planning for your retirement years you are probably envisioning travel and leisure times, and this is as it should be. But if you want to be comprehensively prepared you would do well to consider all of the eventualities of aging. There may come a time that people call the “twilight years” when your life slows down and you may in fact find it difficult or impossible to take care of your personal needs without assistance. Though this is not the most pleasant thought in the world, it is the reality, and you have to plan ahead accordingly if want to minimize the challenges that you may face should you need living assistance eventually.
How likely is it that you will someday spend time in an assisted living community or nursing home? People are living to an advanced age quite routinely these days and the portion of the population aged 85 and up are the fastest growing age group in the United States. Statistics indicate that one-fourth of the oldest old are indeed residing in nursing homes at any given time. In addition, seven out of ten senior citizens will need long-term care at some point in time. So the fact is that it is quite possible that you will be among them.
The suggestion here is to take this possibility seriously and identify a suitable long-term care facility on your own before you ever need such care. There are going to be a lot of options out there and some will be a better fit for you than others. If you do your research and then physically visit the facilities that are on your short list you can inspect the property, ask questions, and compare the prices in an effort to find optimal value for your dollar.
If you wait until you are actually in need of long-term care to start looking you may not be as capable as you will be earlier on. You may never need long-term care, but if you do it is comforting to know that you will be living in a community that you have visited and carefully selected beforehand.
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