Cantissimo Senior Living Blog

Among the many ways of paying for long-term care, life insurance and annuities have been growing in popularity.

Life Insurance

In its original form, life insurance was intended only to pay beneficiaries upon the death of the insured. Since its inception, however, life insurance has evolved to include many additional options. Some of these options can help pay for long-term care.

Selling your home is a big step to transitioning to a new lifestyle. If you're like many of the people considering downsizing or moving to a senior living community, it could have been 30 years since you have last dealt with a real estate agent. For some, this may be the first time you are personally selling your home.

If you have limited experience selling a home, or it has been years since you sold a home, you may have dozens of questions swimming around in your head. "How much is your home worth?" "Where do you find a real estate agent?" "Do I have to make any repairs to my home?" "How will I complete repairs?"

To help answer these questions, we've created this four-step process for selling your home.

Nothing wears down your monthly budget like the utility bills. And now that winter is here, it's about to get even worse. With people spending more time indoors in the winter, energy usage increases even more. What's more, the extremely cold climate in this season demands the frequent use of heating systems. Since you can't survive without heating the house, this causes higher monthly utility bills. Fortunately, there are ways to save on winter utilities that seniors can rely on. These tips are simple to implement and will ensure there's no strain on their finances. With that said, let's have a look at them:

Planning for long-term care expenses seems to involve a lot of wishful thinking for many. In a survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only about a third said they were confident they would be able to pay long-term care expenses. Despite this, 54% of respondents said they had done little or no planning for these needs.

One example of wishful thinking is that government programs like Medicare or Medicaid will pay long-term care expenses.

The majority (76%) of those over 50 say they would prefer to continue living in their own home as long as they can. However, this is not always possible, and other senior living options like assisted living may need to be considered. Yet, such long-term care options can be costly. For instance, one year of assisted living can cost over $50,000 per year. If memory care or skilled nursing is required, the annual cost can be up to twice as much.

Unless one has long-term care insurance or can qualify for Medicaid, most people will need to tap all their assets, including equity in one's home, to pay for long-term care.

There are four ways to leverage home equity to finance long term care:

Most of us have heard of a Health Savings Account (HSA), but many don't understand the important details about these accounts.

HSAs were intended to provide a way for Americans to save money for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses before meeting the deductible of a high deductible health plan (HDHP). In fact, an individual or family must have an HDHP to open an HSA.

While HSAs were primarily intended to soften the financial burden of paying for healthcare expenses for HDHP account holders of all age groups, HSAs can be particularly advantageous in paying for long-term care expenses at age 65 or over.

As noted in a previous Cantissimo Senor Living blog post, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated that 70% of those now turning 65 will eventually need some level of long-term care.

Yet, few people include a long-term care component in their retirement planning. It seems like more plan for their children's college education than for the very costly and highly probable reality of long-term care. Assumptions that typically drive this lack of planning are:

Many grandparents want to help their grandchildren financially but are not sure where to begin or are unaware of the various options available to them. Whether your grandchildren are toddlers or college students, there are several ways to help start them on the right path toward financial success.

Finally, you've reached retirement. It's time to enjoy your savings and live comfortably somewhere for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, for many, the dream isn't quite as they may have imagined it. Perhaps your social circle is shrinking, you find yourself bored during the week, or your bank account appears to be shrinking faster than expected. At this point, you are left with a puzzle. Is going back to work in retirement right for you? To help you out with this, we've compiled several pros and cons of going back to work in retirement for you to consider.

Retirement checklists abound across the internet. Most provide wisdom on planning for a secure financial future. Saving enough, choosing appropriate investments, and eliminating debt are common recommendations. However, there is more to retirement than pure pocketbook considerations. Listed below are some retirement planning ideas that most checklists don't mention.