Financial Diva: Spend Now, Save Later On Long-Term Care

Victoria Woods, Financial Diva

As folks get older, life happens. No matter how well we plan for our futures and make all the right choices financially, no one can totally prevent a sudden illness or tragedy.

However, we can plan for it.

It would be a terrible tragedy for you to reach retirement with a grand portfolio and then watch it trickle away all because you weren't pro active and did not get a long term care plan in place. Medicare does not pay for extended, non-medical long-term care. So if you have a stroke or develop some other condition that requires long-term care, you'll be left to pay for it out of pocket!

Many people dismiss this option because of the added expense. I'll be honest, it isn't cheap. But in the long run, consider how much it could end up costing you.

70% of people over 65 will require long-term care. Long-term care costs an average of $68,000 a year. The average yearly premium of a long-term care insurance plan costs around $2,200 a year. It would take a long time of paying premiums before you even got close to paying the same as one year of out of pocket expenses long-term care later on.

It makes sense to spend a little now and save a lot later. And most importantly, this also saves your family the headache and heartache of providing financially for you in your later years.