The Natural Choice for Senior Living

  You’ve noticed a few changes when you’ve visited your parents. Dishes are left in the sink, you find old or outdated food in the fridge and bills are past due. It seems mom and dad haven’t been getting out as much as they once did and they seem a little depressed. You know you need to find someone to take care of your parents, but you are thinking, “I don’t want to care for my elderly parents.”

The Genworth Cost of Care Survey has been the national standard for projecting elderly long-term care costs since its first release in 2004. It’s a vital tool for projecting future care expenses, and this is the biggest surprise it holds this year: eight out of 10 people underestimate the costs of senior care, and almost one-third will be stunned to find that home health care costs 10 times what they expected!

When people talk about the difference between in-home care and assisted living, cost is often one of the first things mentioned. Of course cost is important, but just looking at cost implies that their services provide the same value for the same price, but that is not the case. The costs associated with in-home care involve hiring someone to come into your home for a set number of hours and provide certain services; whereas, joining an assisted living community is a shift in lifestyle.

How much do you need for retirement? As Boomers age, more people than ever before are asking themselves that question and the frustrating answer is, it depends.