After more than 21 years of membership, 91-year-old George Boyd reflects on his experience with Friends Life Care’s aging in place support and caring for his wife, Sandra, throughout her Alzheimer’s journey. He shares how concerns about the rising cost of long-term care led him to begin planning for the future, knowing they wanted to remain in the home they loved. “We didn’t know what sort of policy we should get, but we did know that we wanted to stay at home.”  

George and his wife, Sandra, lived in the same home for more than 50 years. As they planned for …

You’re in your 60s, and you’re getting to that point where you’re starting to think about when you’ll retire. You can begin collecting Social Security benefits as early as age 62 at a reduced amount, or wait until age 67 for your full benefits to kick in. You may also be thinking about where you want to live. Do you want to stay in your home for the rest of your life, or relocate to your dream destination, like the beach towns along the Delaware coast? Thinking ahead and retirement planning are key to having low stress, happy, and healthy retirement.
How Much Money…

During the retirement planning process, long-term care costs are often an important consideration, and rightly so. Long-term care costs can go beyond what Medicare covers, and 70% of people over 65 will need some form of long-term care, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Because of this, many people planning for retirement begin to consider long-term care insurance. This can be a great option for protecting your finances as life evolves. However, financial protection is not the only aspect of long-term care planning that needs to be considered.

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How to Stay at Home While Planning for Reliable Long-Term Care
Seventy percent of people turning age 65 can expect to need some form of long-term care during their lives, usually due to contributing factors such as age, gender, health status, disability, and living arrangements, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. This underlines the importance of thoughtful planning. That’s why Friends Life Care has created a free, interactive resource to help adults decide how to plan for their future and what resources they’ll really need.

During the…

With a new year, we often think about resolutions and making new plans. If your preference is to age independently in the place you call home, then planning for financial security is critically important.

Planning for retirement isn’t just about saving enough. It’s also about understanding how your spending will change over time. Research shows that retirees don’t spend in a straight line. Instead, spending tends to start high, dip in the middle years, and rise again later in life. This pattern forms what experts call the “retirement spending smile.”

For Bab…