Retirement Living Facilities

Living in an assisted living community can be expensive. Here's an example in Hawaii, it costs $2690/month starting rate for a studio, and $3200/month for a one-bedroom. Sure it's affordable for people who have a pretty generous savings/retirement, but what if you dont? My grandmother makes $800/month, I have a feeling that won't cut it.

DH and I plan on maxing out our retirement contributions for life. We are saving way more than the reccomended 15% because we have looked at these retirement communities and plan on retiring into an assissted living facility. However it takes money.

Sad to say, most people believe that their living expenses go down in retirement. Actually it can go up easily. When you start looking at assisted living facilities, nursing home, or 24 hour in home care, it's not cheap.

One other reason to consider these options is if your child is unable to care for you. What if they have a handicapped child? Or what if your child is ill or dies early? Will you still expect to move in with them?

I know it's harsh, but the reality is that many expected circumstances can happen which prevent a parent from moving in with a child. I fully expect my mom to move in with us if we are healthy and able to care for her. But she's hoping to afford a retirement community.

The financial circumstances of parents sometimes are not what we could hope for. The only thing you can do is plan for yourself, so you don't put your own children in the situation of trying to afford care for you. But people rarely plan and accept responsibility for their own misactions.

If not we wouldn't be in a subprime mess. We wouldn't have so much consumer debt on credit cards or car loans or student loans.