My husband so kindly pointed out to me that I'm "too old to die young" now. Seriously though, we're thinking about this topic a good deal lately. We're building a house in which we plan to spend our retirement years, and we're trying to arrange things so that our lives will be more comfortable as we age:
- I'm younger (and in better health) than my husband, so the likely reality is that he's got it made. He has me to take care of him in his elderly years. He can count on being able to stay at home, have me to drive him around, etc.
- We are building a house with two master bedrooms -- one upstairs, one downstairs. We plan to use the downstairs master ourselves, but the upstairs will help two ways: 1) if a parent needs to move in with us, we can move to the upstairs master ... 2) if I need one of my adult children /grandchildren or a paid caregiver to move in with me later, that person will have a "real adult bedroom" in a separate part of the house, and I won't need to give up my long-time bedroom.
- We are arranging the house to be EASY to live in ... for example, the laundry and master closet are adjacent ... and we're planning a large, curbless shower ... and no steps in from the garage.
- We've picked an area that's inexpensive to live -- low taxes, etc. But we also made sure it is convenient to services and to medical and the hospital.
- My nurse-daughter worked home health during college, and that can be a great way to get a bit of care ... while still staying in your own home. A home health worker can drive you to the grocery store, can "prep" your meals; for example, chop all your veggies and store them in ziplock bags, can do light cleaning for you.
- I won't hesitate to hire people to drive me, to clean my house, whatever.