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5 Steps to Ensure You're Not a Burden on Your Family as You Age
Retirement Daily on The Street ^ | June 2024 | Patti Black

Posted on 11/12/2024 1:14:04 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?

As we get older and contemplate the possibility of declining health, many of us worry about becoming a burden on our family members. Among the questions I hear are: Will I have enough money to last? Can I afford the healthcare I’ll need? How can I make it easy for my family to settle my affairs when I’m gone?

But what does it mean to not be a burden? What actions should you take now? After discussing the issue with accountants, estate attorneys and clients, I’ve identified five steps to help reduce the likelihood that you will be a burden on your family as you age:

Step 1: Have a long-term care plan. Understand whether you have the resources to remain financially independent and pay for long-term care if you need it.....

Step 2: Simplify and organize your financial information. Make it easy for your adult children to find your financial information if you have a medical crisis or upon your death. Medical emergencies and death are stressful;......

Step 3: Provide contact information for the professionals you use. This list should include your accountant, financial planner, estate attorney, banker, and insurance agent.

Step 4: Make sure your estate planning documents reflect the law and your family situation. Your will, power of attorney, and health care directive should be current, and your children should know where to find them.......

Step 5: Take the next step. You do not have to complete steps one through four immediately, but do take action.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: deathplanning; dontbaburden; estateplanning; familyburden; retirement
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To: Lazamataz

:-)


41 posted on 11/12/2024 5:46:07 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
Do NOT maintain a healthy lifestyle.



42 posted on 11/12/2024 5:47:20 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: SaveFerris

Underwear should never be worn not covered by outerwear except when it is designed to be outerwear. It’s not lewd. It’s fugly.


43 posted on 11/12/2024 6:28:09 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

That’s good advice. It took me and my sister months to go through and get rid of all the accumulated stuff in my mom’s house. What a nightmare!


44 posted on 11/12/2024 6:28:53 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: T.B. Yoits

**My job is to exercise the car once a week. I do cook all the time and try to keep things picked up.**
Sunday mornings for me. Little traffic. Stop at Trader Joes at 8am. The Dollar tree.

*Downsize, get rid of your junk.* Condo living-no need for framed pictures on the wall. Posters will do. Plastic milk/wood crates for night stands.
K cup coffee-less messy.

I got my inspiration from Kareem Abdul Jabbar. He gave away his 5 championship rings to charity. He won’t need them.


45 posted on 11/12/2024 6:30:21 AM PST by DIRTYSECRET
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To: Georgia Girl 2

I’m dealing with that right now, only my mom (95) just got put into a nursing home recently, her second, the first threw her out because of her wandering/other after 2 1/2 weeks. I dealt with it for 3+ years...a real brain drain(I didn’t have much to lose to begin with). Now paying someone else $7200 a month to deal with it. My dad would be doing 15000rpms in his final resting place, let’s just say they were depression era folk, very thrifty when it came to spending money...with my mom’s including collecting/keeping things...all things.


46 posted on 11/12/2024 6:54:55 AM PST by RckyRaCoCo (Time to throw them out of the Temple...again)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
I've done all of these things.

If anyone ever says, "Money can't buy happiness," shout BALONEY! as loud as you can.

Money can buy plenty of happiness, and not being a burden on your children is one happy thing--for you and them.

Money and its consequent happiness are worth working hard for. I know. I did. I'm happy that I did.

47 posted on 11/12/2024 6:59:15 AM PST by Savage Beast (Fight! Fight! Fight! God Bless America! Trump won because good TRiUMPhed over evil.)
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To: RckyRaCoCo

I totally understand your situation. My husband and I were lucky to keep my mom in her house which was across the street from us until one month before her death at age 98.5

My Mom was not an easy person to deal with and by the time she passed I almost had a nervous breakdown.


48 posted on 11/12/2024 7:11:52 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

“You know when you’re really old? When your family talks about you in front of you. ‘What are we gonna do with Pop? We have company tonight.’”

-Rodney Dangerfield


49 posted on 11/12/2024 7:14:35 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Georgia Girl 2
I understand completely, I've just began to start a process of self-healing, even though challenges are still there.

Hope you all find peace...

50 posted on 11/12/2024 7:19:17 AM PST by RckyRaCoCo (Time to throw them out of the Temple...again)
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To: dfwgator

LOLOL!!


51 posted on 11/12/2024 7:34:17 AM PST by Old Grumpy
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

My wife and I had to drop our own plans to come and care for her father who is now 97.

He could not live in his own home without our being here.

He has practically lost all of his short-term memory. He is paranoid. He hides his checkbook from us even though my wife has to take care of paying his monthly bills. His sleep habits are completely ridiculous. He will stay up until 3 or 4 AM, constantly flipping through TV channels.

My wife cooks fine meals for the three of us. He often gets up just before she serves dinner and makes his way back to his bedroom, saying he is just going to the bathroom. He goes to bed and does not return until hours after we have eaten.

My wife is a retired Licensed Practical Nurse with years of caring for the elderly but her father treats her like she is still just his know-nothing, YOUNG daughter.

He is incontinent and won’t wear pads. My wife has to fight him to even get him to shower.

He has great trouble walking and must used a wheeled walker around the house.

Getting him into our pickup truck to take him to the doctor is a nightmare.

He is very bitter and grumpy, always bitching about getting older. He mocks any television religious broadcasts and believes and states the Bible is a myth.

He has major hearing problems and will not wear his hearing aids. Any conversation is us shouting and constantly repeating. He can’t remember what we just told him. He cannot see in one eye because of a cataract problem.

My wife constantly demonstrates an abiding love for her father in the nightmare we have now lived for THREE AND A HALF YEARS.

This is not the way we should live our last days. It is tragic and pathetic.


52 posted on 11/12/2024 7:36:32 AM PST by Gnome1949
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To: Gnome1949

That’s sad. I tell my wife and daughter that what is important is my quality of life. If I get bedridden or in the state of your parent I gave them DNR. In addition while not calling Kevorkian they can stop my medications and maybe let me take a hike in the back woods. I hope I remain lucid enough to help them.


53 posted on 11/12/2024 8:11:26 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage? (Drain the Swamp. Build the Wall.)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Get the book...”I’m Dead, Now What?” ...and fill it out.


54 posted on 11/12/2024 8:47:02 AM PST by goodnesswins (Don’t be REALITY PHOBIC!)
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To: SaveFerris

Is the rich single woman sterile?


55 posted on 11/12/2024 10:06:27 AM PST by Scrambler Bob (Running Rampant, and not endorsing nonsense; My pronoun is EXIT. And I am generally full of /S)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Good thread.

My Dad had both many file cabinets and also crates-worth of less organized papers and such. No way he’d have had time to thin it down unless he started at age 60...

Financially... My wife and I do not see how we can possibly stay in the US after she retires, and she does not want to work after age 65. I burned too many resources trying to care for my Dad and then my Mom. So, we’ll likely move to Philippines after wifey retires, and she has a ton of young relatives there to provide low cost care. When the care fails, if I don’t go quickly, wifey is to put me on a small boat and send me off into open ocean. Maybe a few pills so I don’t feel anything @ the end. :-)


56 posted on 11/12/2024 10:31:45 AM PST by Paul R. (Bin Laden wanted Obama killed so the incompetent VP, Biden, would become President!)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Make sure your spouse has access to all the online bills from utilities, insurance companies, etc. My sister in law lived with us. All of here finances were online. When she died, we didn’t have ability to access them. It was a mess.


57 posted on 11/12/2024 11:23:08 AM PST by aimhigh (1 John 3:23 "And THIS is His commandment . . . . ")
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To: SaveFerris

Is there a sammiches and bourbon program? That’s the one I want.


58 posted on 11/12/2024 6:22:25 PM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: usconservative

Tacos 🌮 🌮 🌮 and Burritos 🌯🌯🌯


59 posted on 11/12/2024 6:23:40 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: SaveFerris

Is that an add-on charge, or is that included in the Sammiches and Bourbon package?


60 posted on 11/12/2024 6:25:48 PM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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