How to Make a Retirement Plan When You Don’t Have Kids
How to Make a Retirement Plan When You Don’t Have Kids
By Kara
I don’t want to have kids. So I hear often: who’s going to take care of you when you get old? And while I don’t love that question, it’s an important one to ask yourself. Today we’re going to talk about how you can set up a financial plan now and later in life to make sure that you have a plan for care.
First, let’s be clear that kids are not a retirement plan in general, and having kids just so that you have someone to take care of you later in life is a really bad idea. It’s also absolutely no guarantee of care.
Taking care of aging parents is expensive, time consuming and can be emotionally draining. Especially here in the United States where there is a home health care worker shortage and aging is really expensive because of our messed up health care. Even with rapid growth, home care agencies can’t meet demand. More than 85% of the home care agencies in the 2022 HCP benchmarking report turned down cases in 2021 due to the shortage, and 59.7% consistently turned down clients.
Plus, financially speaking, the cost of aging can be astronomical. I recently spent time with my grandmother near the end of her life, and we were quoted $5,700 per week to have a live in 24 hour nurse. $5,700 per week! That’s not per month, that is per week.
As more and more adults remain child-free, the question really does become what is the plan? Who will be there to make healthcare decisions for you or to act as your legal representative if you are incapable? And I do think these questions and more are really, really important to answer. It’s important that our younger, healthier selves make decisions, and set up systems for our older and potentially unhealthy selves.
How to make a retirement plan when you don't have kids
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