Home, Sweet Home: Planning for Our Senior Experience By Susanna P. Barton

By Susanna P. Barton

Part of making a solid plan for the Golden Years is aligning our visions of our second half with reality. That involves getting educated on the costs, scope, and affordability of these aspirations. Does your vision include world travel and family trips, fancy cars, and good eats? What are your thoughts on healthcare, transportation, and community? How do caregiving and medical needs factor into your equation? And most importantly, where do you want to live and how will you pay for it? This piece is the most important one of all – where we live out our second half is connected to everything else. Our home is where the heart (and wallet and healthy aging routine!) is. Whatever your vision of living includes, implementing it successfully requires careful research, frank conversations, and an openness to Grand Plans that suit your unique situation.

Figuring out how – and most importantly, where – you will live is an exercise in contingency planning, math, and savvy shopping. And most folks aren’t well prepared to put pen to paper. According to a 2023 Axios-Ipsos poll, one in five people don’t think they’ll ever be able to retire and 60 percent of those surveyed aren’t talking about it either. A staggering 41 percent of those polled have never discussed saving for retirement with friends, and 57 percent have never spoken about it with a financial planner. A recent study from the National Council on Aging and the Leading Age LTSS Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston shows 60 percent of older adults – that’s 24 million households – do not have the funds to pay for in-home, long-term care, which is the most significant factor determining whether aging in place is even an option. This research shows most of us want to age in place and live in the home of our dreams – but haven’t made financial plans for it.

This is a devastating approach to claiming a drama-free senior experience! Here are the facts: living out our retirement years as we envision them is an expensive proposition. A 2023 study from Northwestern Mutual said the “magic number” most Americans have in mind for retirement comfort is $1.27 million. These figures vary greatly according to your geography and preferred housing arrangement. Let’s talk more about those options – whether it’s a senior living community, an existing home modified for aging-in-place needs, or a specialized care center – and why it is important to be knowledgeable about them as we consider our residential plans.

The National Council on Aging has assembled a wonderful online resource on senior living communities and the varying nature of their scope, cost, and offerings. It suggests there are five primary options in this housing realm, including independent living communities, assisted living, memory care, nursing homes, and in-home care. These experts bring up another key point that should factor into our research: “As older adults’ needs increase, they may require a move from one type of community to another.”

The NCOA describes and defines the appropriate consumer for these five housing types below:

• Independent living: “For: Older adults in relatively good health wanting a maintenance-free lifestyle and access to social activities and on-site amenities, like fitness centers and movie theaters. Care provided: Usually a meal plan and light housekeeping. Personal care and medical services not provided, unless arranged by resident with third-party contractors.”
• Assisted living: “For: Older adults no longer able to live independently, and may need assistance with medication management and assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs), like bathing and dressing. Care provided: Meals and snacks, housekeeping, laundry, and ADLs as needed.”
• Nursing home: “For: Older adults needing ongoing skilled nursing care, which can no longer be provided at home or in assisted living. Care provided: Required to have a registered nurse (RN) on staff 24/7 to provide skilled nursing services.”
• Memory care: “For:  Older adults living with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. Care provided: Some, but not all, will offer skilled nursing care and have secured entrances and exits.”
• In-home care: “For: Older adults needing additional services to help them age in place. Care provided: A range of care—from companionship services to skilled nursing—provided by professional caregivers, including certified nursing assistants (CNAS) or RNs.”

The website WhereYouLiveMatters.org adds the following senior care and living arrangements: 

“Home health, hospice and respite care are other senior care options. Home health care services include comprehensive skilled nursing care and rehabilitation therapies. Home care is often prescribed when more care is needed after hospitalization. Hospice care is non-curative comfort care for those facing life-limiting illness. While there are freestanding hospice communities, care is most often provided at home. Respite care refers to a short-term stay for an older adult in an assisted living community or skilled nursing facility.”

The costs vary wildly between these options. According to AssistedLiving.org, “Depending on your location, living in an independent living community can cost from $1,500 to $4,000 a month, and seniors residing in assisted living facilities have a monthly average cost ranging from $3,500 to $10,500 a month. The average cost of senior living varies by state and region, but expenses are going up across the board for the basics seniors need every month. These expenses include rent, food, medication, and transportation costs. Add to that fees for typical utilities, such as gas and electric, and the cost of living for seniors quickly mounts.”

It’s worth exploring all of these options for senior living because there is a strong likelihood your Grand Plans will include a little bit of each, depending on your health needs and mobility. Factor these possibilities into your thinking! The hardest part about planning is mitigating the unexpected. Being knowledgeable about the contingencies is super important to the process.

As part of your residential planning research, it may also serve you to explore the costs and opportunities of downsized living in a smaller single-level home, a garden home, a townhome community, an apartment, or a condominium. One of the biggest challenges to happiness during the senior experience, experts say, is loneliness and lack of community. Dwellings that provide more manageable space and daily access to others could be just the ticket! Realtors in your area are well-informed on the options available. Exploring an independent living arrangement in a community of this kind is well worth your time.

If you like this idea, make sure you explore home healthcare costs as a line item. Understanding these figures could make or break your decision. According to the care website, A Place for Mom, the national median cost of home care is $30 an hour. Their site includes some extremely valuable state-by-state information for determining in-home care costs vs. those you might expect at senior communities. Here are some of the expenses you might expect for normal in-home care arrangements, according to A Place for Mom:

• “7 hours a week: $910 a month. Healthy, independent seniors may be able to get all the care they need from a few short visits a week. Housework, companionship, meal preparation, and cleaning can be accomplished in this time frame for less than $1,000 a month. Seven hours a week is generally the minimum requirement for home care agencies, though some have higher or lower thresholds.”
• “15 hours a week: $1,950 a month. A two-to-three-hour daily check-in can benefit seniors who need more care but are independently mobile and cognitively sound. Several hours in the morning could provide necessary assistance with bathing, dressing, and preparing meals for the day.”
• “30 hours a week: $3,900 a month. A 30-hour week may be ideal for seniors living with family caregivers who work. It’s also ideal for seniors who prefer companionship and social stimulation. Thirty hours a week equates to six hours a day for five days, time a senior would otherwise be alone while their family caregiver is at work.”
• “44 hours a week: $5,720 a month. Forty-four hours of care would provide coverage for a family caregiver who works full-time and doesn’t want their senior loved one to be alone. An aide could assist with all ADLs, including toileting, dining, and bathing. For an aging loved one who requires help with a chronic condition that prevents them from being alone safely, this may be an ideal schedule.”
• Live-in home care: $21,840 a month. Agencies and private caregivers have different price structures for more intensive schedules like round-the-clock care and live-in home care. For example, the price of live-in care depends on the number of care aides needed, sleeping arrangements, and room and board. The costs of this type of care can vary greatly on a case-by-case basis.”

As discussed earlier, the aging-in-place model is the most sought-after vision for elder living. If a mortgage is paid off and a family is nearby to offer free assistance, aging-in-place can be a financially responsible choice. This option allows for maximum independence and familiarity.

But it can also get expensive quickly when considering the cost of in-home caregiving, accommodation renovations, and maintenance. The costs associated with aging in place include one-time home modifications for accessibility, such as installing grab bars or ramps, ongoing utility expenses, property taxes, home maintenance, and healthcare services. It can get pricey, trust me!

If aging-in-place is your goal, consider making the following upgrades and additions to your home and figure out how to pay for them:

• Accessibility upgrades such as widening doorways, installing ramps, and eliminating barriers between rooms
• Bathroom modifications for safe and accessible use
• Kitchen adaptations, including lower countertops and modified faucets, shelving, and storage that make daily tasks easier
• Lighting and flooring that make getting around the house clearer and less inhibited, especially for future wheelchair or walker use
• Technology integration for motion sensor lighting and convenient voice-activated controls
• Home security to keep you and your valuables safe and connected to help should you need it
• Heating, cooling, and insulation to help reduce energy costs
• Emergency communication systems that can get emergency help to you quickly
• General repairs and upkeep to ensure your home is salable and holds its value

Renovating a home for age-in-place living can be a considerable expense. Still, if you invest in these improvements, you can maintain independence, stay in familiar surroundings, and enjoy a safer and more comfortable living environment as you age. The big negative with an aging-in-place plan, however, is that you can often be unprepared – financially and socially – to deal with unexpected emergencies.

When asked what she’d do differently from her parents’ caregiving experience, one friend suggested she would never wait until it was too late to plan for other living arrangements.

“We will not wait too long to leave our two-story home and move into a place where we can build a group of friends and support system before we need it, and where our daughter can be certain we will be cared for as we age,” she wrote. “I begged my parents for years to get out of that house. They’d visit retirement communities and eat the free lunch but not make a move. Then, my dad had a stroke, and everyone panicked. We were super lucky to find a place for them to go, let alone a place they love, which they do. The chance they would have had to take something they DIDN’T love was high at that point because they had to go somewhere. I credit the Holy Spirit. There’s no other explanation.”

The lesson here is to know your options when it comes to housing arrangements. Luckily, there are lots of options out there. The bottom line? A workable Grand Plan includes aligning your beautiful vision of the Golden Years with the cost realities, being an expert on your options, and communicating these plans with your loved ones. These are the fundamentals of a home, sweet senior home!

Susanna P. Barton, a member of Jacksonville Mayor Donna Degan’s subcommittee on elder care, has worked as a professional writer in Jacksonville for nearly 30 years and is the founder of the Grand Plans online community, podcast, newsletter, and blog.  Her book Grand Plans: How to Mitigate Geri-Drama in 20 Easy Steps and its accompanying workbook, the Grand Planner, are available in local stores and on Amazon. For more information, visit http://www.mygrandplans.com.