A Retirement Expense that Continues to Rise ~ Plan Ahead!

Have you checked on these retirement expenses lately? What we’re talking about is the annual cost of a private room in a nursing home or even home health aide services.

The amount for a private room in a nursing home has cracked the six-figure mark ~ $108,408! The amount for home health services averages $26 per hour These amounts are according to Genworth Financial in their 2021 Cost of Care Survey.

This rising cost of care has outpaced inflation. Where you live in the U.S. makes quite a difference. You can calculate the cost of care by state here: Cost of Care

If you are interested in Local Senior Research Guides, this is an excellent resource: Senior Care
Their local senior guides show community demographics, senior housing, long term care choices, healthcare quality ratings as well as other very helpful information.

A growing number of older adults need specialized care. However, there is a shortage of skilled workers — both of which raise care expenses.

Look at these numbers of growth between the years 2020 and 2021:

• The annual median cost of a room at an assisted living facility grew by 4.65%.
• If you shared a room in a nursing home, the median cost grew by 1.96%.
• Homemaker services jumped by 10.64%.
• Home health aide services jumped by 12.50%.
• Adult daycare services jumped by 5.41%.

Additional Resources…

Why Cost of Care is Increasing

The core driver of increases in the cost of care services remains supply and demand. Every day until 2030, 10,000 Baby Boomers will turn 65 and seven out of ten of them will require long-term care services at some point. The level of care needed by this rapidly aging population has itself increased over the years. The high turnover rate and insufficient supply of professionals to meet this growing demand pre-date the COVID-19 pandemic, but are now amplified as those providing care on the frontline must consider their own risk of exposure against increasing opportunities for competitive salaries in alternative lines of work. Source...

It’s Time to Plan Ahead by Identifying How You would Like to Receive Care:

Planning for your care as you get older is very important and can be daunting. You might want to work with an advisor to lay out a plan of where and how you would like to receive care.

Make sure you select trusted individuals to oversee your medical care decision making. This may include family members as well as other expects in the field of financial planning and medical care.