long term plans... but a little off topic

[rockriver]

i think i'm younger than most readers here... but hmm. of the few i've met i might be a little closer to medicare than some!

lots of plans, thoughts, physical planning for tsunami, econ meltdown, war, burglars, emp etc...

but what if, you just get old and get to face the things that happen when you get old and the "system" is still functioning. no meltdown!
what plans in case some of the following occurs.

disease/illness/accident disables and serious level of care is needed. can your spouse deliver the care? will they have to stop working to do so. are they physically able?
can you change the diaper on your senrior relative multiple times a day? day after day?
what plans? big pile of money saved up. strong health ins. policy. assisted living insurance policy? generous relatives who will fork over thousands a month for care?


your spouse gets disease (cancer is common where i live) and dies.. maybe no disease, just doesn't wake up one day! and his/her income was significant. and/or his/her assistance to family was significant/
did you save money for that event. or buy life insurance. or gold/silver so that remaining one can still maintain lifestyle?

you are set with big generous retirement plans and annuities. then your old employer gets in financial trouble and reduces the retirement check to half...
did you save enough? generous relatives? pile of gold big enough? will you be in good enough shape to go be a greeter at walmart or work in the warehouse?

so what if? what are ways that folks can (while they are young and healthy) prepare for these events?

why should we bother ourselves with this "what if?" why? cause some of the above are gonna happen to each of us! not maybe. gonna.

most folks out there are convinced it ain't gonna happen to them! just like most folks think that there will be no tsunami, econ earthquake, or war!

[Lowdown3]

The old two things to be certain of- death and taxes. Got to plan for those also.

Death= usually first getting old.

[jimmycthemd]

We've done the best we're financially able. We have long term care insurance, which includes hospice/in home care if needed. Have a semi decent amount set aside for retirement (not rich but should cover our needs). We both have decent (again not to get us rich) life insurance policies. House paid for.

The caveat to any plan(s) is Murphy...of course, the one thing you don't think of will probably happen. Bottom line is, you do the best you can and pray....a LOT

[rockriver]

jimmyc , as usual! sees the path, and has done more than talk about it... he's put boots on the ground.

in other words... he's preparing.

he mentioned life ins. it is very difficult to know how much..
got kids? their ages? spouse? does the spouse work? got big debt? or no debt? total financial resource situation.
here's an example of an older couple i know.
they had some children. but didn't live near relatives... so what would be their future if one spouse died? couple decided they'd need household help to get kids out of high school... a nanny. with a nanny, surviving spouse could keep their job, possibly remarry, but not have to do so for financial reasons. they wanted kids to have advanced education, so they factored that cost in and bought enough life insurance on both of them to get kids out of college. as the kids got out of college and "on their own" the couple reevaluated and realized the need for life ins was greatly diminished.
they had bought a mixture of whole life with a level premium... and term insurance... some of the term premium increased each year.
they cancelled it all... got the dividends/cash value/ and sat down telling each other that there would be no "big life insurance check" when the other died. their "big check" came when they were alive, and no more premium payments which affected their immediate income level.

so, jimmy, or someone else... tell us about another way to prepare?

[jimmycthemd]

We keep 6-9 months of bills ahead in two checking accounts in a credit union (built up over the years). One for the house and one for periodic payments (utilities, car insurance, etc.) A third account gets the 'leftovers' which is our payday-to-payday money...groceries, gas, you get the drill. The two bill-paying accounts are over-funded by about 10% so they build up over time...we have a limit on each so, when they reach the upper limit, money gets xfered to another account for new car or some other expense. Multi-tiered savings. We both still work and contribute, at a minimum, the max amount our employers will match...usually a lot more, to our 401(k) accounts.

We each have life insurance outside of what's provided by work and they're each worth enough to pay off at least 1 vehicle in case we have a payment at the time and for burial costs. Since everything else is paid off, that should do without being 'insurance poor'.

Our son is 25 and, although not making much, we figure that our life insurances will pay off any remaining debt we have and our 401(k)s along with the house will be more than enough form him. Both of our parents have long since passed on so no financial issues there. All our siblings are either retired on their own and financially stable or soon to be...no financial issues there, either.

Our goal is to build up our bill-paying accounts to be a minimum of a year's worth before we both retire in case of unforeseen issues. We'll see how that goes :-)

No, we don't have a 'homestead' or an arsenal for SHTF scenarios...but we do have skills and a plan and (hopefully) enough to get us through. Doing all this with a semi-delinquent son (over 15k worth of legal bills for his dui the last few years,which he's paying back) and job issues (lay-offs, etc.) has been a challenge. But, one foot in front of the other and keep slogging on and, again, LOTS of praying and working.

And, yes, a lot of people prepare for the worst and pray for the best, but not many think about the 'in between'. There are a lot of possibilities between disaster and nirvana.