Having done the caregiving thing (taking care of someone else) does this impact how you are thinking about your future?

Having done it for years with mother father and now husband I think we can get to a point where we can over think our possible future. I live in Australia and I think it’s easier than in America. Having read many posts now I can always tell the ones from USA. The system seems to want its pound of flesh and then some. It doesn’t seem to fairly allow for care for people on low incomes or lower classes. It seems to be be a pay pay pay system

personally i I don’t think I will have much money left once my husband passes. My retirement plans went down the drain when he got early onset Dementia However I can plan best I can but I will do things I want as I am only 61

who knows. You could get hit by a 🚌

Oops

Dixiedoodle, my parents were the children of the Great Depression, thus they had been very frugal and lived way below their means.... and they had instilled in me to do the same, and I did.

Growing old is expensive. I know I had major sticker shock then it came to my Dad hiring around the clock caregivers. Sticker shock when Dad decided the house was just too daunting for him to manage, and he moved to Independent Living. Sticker shock later for Memory Care. And the sticker shock of the cost of Depends :P Thank goodness Dad saved for those rainy days, as it was now storming out there.

I was hoping when I retired I could do some sightseeing, but now I am holding all my retirement funds hostage.

I have an "Elder Law Attorney" who guided me toward a Revocable Trust, Medical Directive, updated Power of Attorney, and Living Will. I still need to get sig other's name on my checking account in case something happens to me and I can't write checks for bills, he can. And vise versa.

A caregiving Agency will be on speed-dial later down the road. Since I have no children/siblings, this is my only recourse. Sig other will probably need to do the same thing as no way would he ask his grown children to take care of him. He also has savings ready for his rainy days.

Been downsizing within the four walls of the house. Now we can actually see our unfinished basement floor thanks to a trash hauler. I don't need my 3-speed bicycle my parents got me for high school graduation.

I know eventually the stairs in this house will do us in, so I have been scouting out retirement communities. Can't wait too long, as we both are in our 70's.

Oh does it EVER. Just what I have learned about the legalities of it all, about Powers of Attorney, about Trustees of Trusts, etc. I have had to handle these things for a very ORGANIZED brother with a very SIMPLE life and a very simple TRUST with one beneficiary, me. It has let me know that I will not be the successor trustee for my domestic partner, who has a home and two children. I in fact will be resigning that this week sometime, and it needs to be done by a lawyer. The legal complexities of everything are amazing. For instance, do you know if you are appointed as executor of a trust, successor trustee of said trust, to settle that trust on death of the creator of the trust, that you cannot simply resign? You cannot. You must go to court to do so and you must say why. In my case it is age concerns that make me know it would be far too complicated and complex and out of my knowledge base, but in fact that may not be enough. A judge can refuse you resigning after death. Everything is amazingly complex, and going in you do not even know the questions to ask. This is just about trusts and POAs, but the whole world of medicare, medicaid, extended care, the types of extended care, the costs, etc is a woven nightmare web. Some folks are suggesting writing a book. Where would one even begin. This said, this is about all the complexities of our system and says NOTHING about the REAL ISSUE at hand, and that is providing care. What can you DO about all this???? In our country? Be rich. Be very very very rich. Scary stuff you bring up for me this week, hee hee.