One Senior's Story: Three Reasons I Never Planned for Elderly Care (and Why You Should) in Turnersville, NJ

For most of my adult life, I had done what I thought was the right thing, for myself, for my family, and for my future. I built a retirement fund, invested wisely, and watched what I spent money on. One thing that I didn’t plan for was elderly care and it’s not because it never crossed my mind; it was because I didn’t have any reason to.

I can point to three key reasons, or excuses that I built for myself to not plan for elderly care.

1. I never imagined that I would need elder care services. I guess you could say that a part of me never grew up. That would be the part that didn’t think anything bad would ever happen to me. I was invincible, at least in my own mind. Nothing could hurt me. Nothing could cause me trouble.

I was going to be fit until that very last day, so why would I even need elder care services?

2. No one in my family had ever required elder care services. None of my grandparents ever needed someone to care for them. My parents were healthy. In my family, you made it to your 80s and then passed quickly. That’s just the way it was.

In truth, I just didn’t know what my mother did to help my grandfather or grandmother during their final years. I didn’t realize that she had essentially been an elderly care provider for both of them, at different times.

3. I didn’t want to throw that money away. I assumed that any money I would invest toward elderly care would be money I was throwing away. That’s because since I didn’t think I was ever going to need it, that would be money I would simply lose.

In reality, I could have purchased certain life insurance policies that I could have tapped into if I ever needed elderly care.

Now that I’m 81, widowed, and my kids all live across the country from me, I find myself needing elderly care. I just didn’t plan for this and it’s become a burden for me financially. I would tell everyone, no matter how old you are, to begin planning for your future as soon as possible, and to include the potential prospect of needing someone to help you in your later years in your plans.

The only time it’s really too late to ‘plan’ for it is when you reach my age and realize that it’s absolutely essential.