How Does One Afford Assisted Living?

L

Lon

Well-known Member
Location
Central California
When you no longer have to pay Property Taxes, utilities, home owners insurance, gardener,house keeper, cable/wifi, food, and have Social Security and pension coupled with the interest earned on your home sale invested assets you will find that it is not difficult to come up with the monthly fee for Assisted Living without paying any UP Front Endowment Fee.
 

Five to six grand a month is a pretty big, if not impossible, nut to crack for most seniors.

I'm wondering if Oakmont or similar places offer any inflation protection that limits future increases in the monthly rates.

When my mother was in assisted living her annual rate went from $42k/year to $50k/year in the three years that she lived there.
 

Property Taxes, utilities, home owners insurance, gardener,house keeper, cable/wifi, food​
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For most people, the total of these expenses - even IF they have a gardener & housekeeper - is nowhere near the cost of living in an assisted living facility.
 
Right now my husband and I live in my house...a double wide mobile home. We have no property or school taxes, but also no equity as it is not considered a "permanent" structure as we do not own the land we live on. We still pay $500 a month lot rent. I am the gardener and housekeeper. Not a lot of assets, but we figured out that with our monthly income, we will do OK.
Assisted living in a place like Oakmont, is probably out of the question. My brother and I were discussing my future, with the assumption that sadly, I will probably outlive my husband. My brother reminded me that where I would like to live after, and where I could afford to live are two different places.
 
Lon said:
When you no longer have to pay Property Taxes, utilities, home owners insurance, gardener,house keeper, cable/wifi, food, and have Social Security and pension coupled with the interest earned on your home sale invested assets you will find that it is not difficult to come up with the monthly fee for Assisted Living without paying any UP Front Endowment Fee.
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Most people can’t afford that standard of living before they retire.
 
I can't figure out how my mother did it ?...Her total retirement income, SS & pension was $414...p/mo...yes I helped her when she was short [inside joke ...she was only 5' tall] :) But she never asked for or needed [that] much. She lived in 3 different ones, and they ALL were nice...efficiency style apts.

This was back in the mid-late 90's....Have they gone up in price that bad ?
 
This link has a calculator to get an idea of costs in your area and also some information on Medicaid programs that can help to subsidize the cost in some of the more basic facilities.

[video]https://www.payingforseniorcare.com/longtermcare/costs.html[/video]

My plan is to piece together enough assistance to stay independent as long as possible and then head for an assisted living facility similar to Lon's for the last few, very few, years.

We'll see!
 
Lon said:
When you no longer have to pay Property Taxes, utilities, home owners insurance, gardener,house keeper, cable/wifi, food, and have Social Security and pension coupled with the interest earned on your home sale invested assets you will find that it is not difficult to come up with the monthly fee for Assisted Living without paying any UP Front Endowment Fee.
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Virtually everyone, who is not on welfare, pays the Above mentioned taxes and fees...irregardless of whether they are in their own house, or renting or living in a assisted living center. The primary difference is that while home owners have to pay the monthly/annual bills and taxes, those bills and taxes are "bundled" into the cost of the Assisted living arrangement. The owners of these assisted living facilities have to pay the costs of taxes, utilities, upkeep, and food, etc, etc., and those costs are "hidden" in the monthly charges to the residents of the facility. There is No free lunch.

https://www.homeadvisor.com/article.show.What-is-the-Cost-of-Assisted-Living-Facilities.17133.html
 
ray188 said:
I believe that Medicaid assists.
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They do in New York at some facilities, if it has been determined that it is medically necessary to enter assisted living or skilled care and a person does not have sufficient income or assets to cover it.

When my mother was in assisted living she paid the full freight and many of her neighbors received the exact same care under Medicaid. At the time Medicaid required all income over $50.00/month to go towards care and they would cover the difference. That worked out for the folks that had a family or close friends to help subsidize some little items along the way but $50.00/month for clothing, haircuts, personal care and the odd bag of cookies or candy is pretty grim. The state was reviewing a bill to increase the amount but I'm not sure if it has been changed at this point.
 
Aunt Bea said:
Five to six grand a month is a pretty big, if not impossible, nut to crack for most seniors.

I'm wondering if Oakmont or similar places offer any inflation protection that limits future increases in the monthly rates.

When my mother was in assisted living her annual rate went from $42k/year to $50k/year in the three years that she lived there.
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No inflation protection here at Oakmont but I am not concerned about that. I have COLA's on my pensions and have been able to keep investments ahead of inflation, also, I have not had to use my LTC policy yet.
 
Lon said:
No inflation protection here at Oakmont but I am not concerned about that. I have COLA's on my pensions and have been able to keep investments ahead of inflation, also, I have not had to use my LTC policy yet.
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Thanks, Lon

You are very fortunate, it sounds like you have your bases covered.

I'm hoping that I can keep my stay in AL and skilled care within the national averages, if that happens I will be ok and if not I'll have to depend on the kindness of strangers!!!

 
Doing some financial planning helped us. We probably made less $$$$ income than 90% of our friends and relatives, but doing a financial plan and some good luck (which happily outweighed the bad luck in our lives) got us to a good point in retirement.

We're starting to look around at AL places since we can see the time is coming to give up the SFH and downsize. Like Lon, we have LTCi so we can do Type A or Type C contracts (you can read about the differences here: https://www.aicpastore.com/Content/...rticles_2010/CPA/Sep/ProspectiveResidents.jsp

One thing to keep in mind: in our area, every AL facility we researched for my MIL, did not take Medicaid patients at all. If a resident ran out of funds, some facilities forced those people out immediately. Others would keep them as residents/patients, and apply to Medicaid for whatever partial reimbursement they could get. The latter facilities had "charity funds" that were used for those who had run out of money.

Also, some AL facilities are strict about who they will admit. At some we met with, if you could not pass a basic physical - meaning you were mostly independent but needed mild-to-moderate help with non-critical issues - you could not be considered for residency. We were surprised at this, although it makes sense since most have a limited # of skilled care nursing beds.
 
Lon said:
When you no longer have to pay Property Taxes, utilities, home owners insurance, gardener,house keeper, cable/wifi, food, and have Social Security and pension coupled with the interest earned on your home sale invested assets you will find that it is not difficult to come up with the monthly fee for Assisted Living without paying any UP Front Endowment Fee.
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Lon, you seem to fail to realize how fortunate you are compared to most others. Whether you gained your wealth through inheritance/hard work, dumb luck or a combination of all,you are not typical of most seniors. Your affluence resonates through most of your posts,and at times it seem as though you have no basis of understanding the less fortunate among us.
 
Robusta said:
Lon, you seem to fail to realize how fortunate you are compared to most others. Whether you gained your wealth through inheritance/hard work, dumb luck or a combination of all,you are not typical of most seniors. Your affluence resonates through most of your posts,and at times it seem as though you have no basis of understanding the less fortunate among us.
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I'm sorry, but I disagree. I think Lon is aware that he is fortunate. We are too. It would be silly to be ashamed of being able to afford a good life in retirement. I'm sure we all know "there but for the grace of God...."

That kind of envious carping is ungenerous.
 
Robusta said:
Lon, you seem to fail to realize how fortunate you are compared to most others. Whether you gained your wealth through inheritance/hard work, dumb luck or a combination of all,you are not typical of most seniors. Your affluence resonates through most of your posts,and at times it seem as though you have no basis of understanding the less fortunate among us.
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You are so wrong!! I am fully aware of where I stand in relation to others and feel no guilt about it and the fact that my posts do not reflect a sympathetic attitude towards the less fortunate is not an accident.
 
I'm hoping that I can stay in my apartment and hire part-time helpers for a while. Since I only have a 1 bedroom, a live-in is pretty much out of the question as they want their own room and a make-do sofa bed in the living isn't going to cut it. Having been through the nursing home scene when I was looking after my mother, I think I could deal with an assisted living situation, but I would also like my own "apartment" type. Don't think I'd want to share. But I would have to find a place that I could afford and go in without having to pay any extra fees or buy-ins etc. Actually now that I have been through the aging process with my mom it's starting to scare me. Have no idea what the distant or maybe even not too distant future will bring.
 
Lon said:
You are so wrong!! I am fully aware of where I stand in relation to others and feel no guilt about it and the fact that my posts do not reflect a sympathetic attitude towards the less fortunate is not an accident.
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Wow. Just, wow. Good on you for your situation. Absolutely no reason you should feel any guilt, but, “the fact that my posts do not reflect a sympathetic attitude toward the less fortunate is not an accident,” whew.
 
That bothered me too, shalimar. Is there a typo in there we're missing?

I mean, who would think like that and if they do who would admit it...and with such gusto to boot.

Lon, did you really mean to say that you feel no guilt for not showing any sympathetic attitude in your posts for the less fortunate?
 
“the fact that my posts do not reflect a sympathetic attitude toward the less fortunate is not an accident,”

This is by far the most insensitive post that I've seen in all of my years on senior forums or in person. I agree with one point, no one needs feel any guilt for being successful, but to look down with scorn on those less fortunate is IMO beyond the pale.

Some of the folks on here are open and asking for advice because for whatever reason, they find themselves struggling. I'm not one of them (at present) but I would think twice about opening up about any problems if this is the scorn that I would receive in return.
 
Frankly, I'm starting to understand Giantsfan's remark about how cranky some "elders" can get. I think some of "us" just don't really stop to think anymore about being tactful. Too much work. :sleeping:
 
I certainly agree with those in awe at Lon's post. I'm not sure what the issue is. My mother was not unsympathetic herself but even she seemed to forget that her 5-6 hundred a month in social security was not what kept them going. It was my stepfather's county retirement and his social security.

Assisted living is very expensive. Even my stepfather's income falls short of the starting rate in the low 3000. These places are sadly big money makers for someone.
 
Kitties said:
I certainly agree with those in awe at Lon's post. I'm not sure what the issue is. My mother was not unsympathetic herself but even she seemed to forget that her 5-6 hundred a month in social security was not what kept them going. It was my stepfather's county retirement and his social security.

Assisted living is very expensive. Even my stepfather's income falls short of the starting rate in the low 3000. These places are sadly big money makers for someone.
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Sad, really.
 

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