Toileting and Retirement, Should I Purchase Long-Term Care Insurance? Part 1
The following is an excerpt from 20 Retirement Decisions You Need to Make Right Now. This is part one in a series about long-term care insurance.
“Toileting” is not a term you’d expect to find in a retirement-planning book like this. However, it is a term that describes what many retirees, their families, and caregivers must face every day. The definition of toileting is “getting to and from, and on and off, the toilet and performing associated personal hygiene.” As you age and your health deteriorates, you may need help with many of the things you take for granted today. If you do need assistance performing the basic activities of everyday living, who is going to provide it for you? Not being prepared for this possibility carries some devastating consequences, such as prematurely depleting your assets, receiving substandard long-term care, or becoming a burden to your family.
How interested do you think your children would be in applying for the following job listed in your local paper’s Help Wanted section?
Home Healthcare Aide: Home healthcare aide needed to provide twenty-four-hour, seven-day-a-week care for a poor, eighty-five-year-old bedridden patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The elderly patient requires room and board and must move in with you and your family. The patient requires constant supervision and will need a baby-sitter when you leave your home. Must be able to administer eight to ten medications daily and make frequent trips to the doctor’s office. Applicant should enjoy cooking and cleaning and be proficient at toileting. Diaper changing skills are also a plus. The job will likely last one to two years but may last ten or more. This is a volunteer (unpaid) position. No experience necessary.
Now ask your children how they would feel about accepting this healthcare aide position if you were the patient needing the care. Would you like to heap this burden upon your children and their families? If you don’t want to take the risk of becoming a burden to your family, you need to do some planning
Pages: 1 2
Tags: healthcare aide, Home, long term care insurance, Retirement, retirement decisions, stay
Related Articles:
