Are Children Going into Debt for Their Parents?
As parents age into their Golden Years, children often feel responsible for ensuring their parents’ comfort, safety and wellbeing. Often times that means welcoming them into our own homes, while other times it can be helping them adjust to a new lifestyle in a senior living facility.
We don’t mind giving back to Mom and Dad; after all, it’s the least we can do for the people that raised us. Despite wanting to foot the bill for parents, some children just don’t have that sort of extra money lying around. The average nursing home costs about $6,400 per month, while assisted living is around $3,300. Home care is typically per hour and depends on how often the caregiver is there, but averages out about $3,000 to $4,000 per month.
5 Ways to Limit Senior Care Costs
In some cases, spending money in order to ensure an elderly parent’s health and wellbeing is unavoidable, but there are a few things you can do in order to limit the potential cost.
1. Spend your parent’s money first
This sounds blunt, but if your parents have the money, spend that first. This will help you stay out of debt, and it could potentially help your parents take advantage of money that could be offered to them.
2. Take advantage of Medicaid
In order for your parent to receive Medicaid, they can’t have more than $2,000 worth of assets (aside from a house and car). This is another reason it’s important to use a parent’s money before spending your own.
3. Don’t try to pay it by yourself
If you have siblings, ask them to help. This can be a costly venture, and it’s completely understandable that one person cannot pay it alone. If you happen to be an only child, reach out to other family members that could potentially offer help.
4. Assess your parent’s needs
As we mentioned in earlier, the more care a parent needs, the more expensive the care type. If your parent doesn’t need 24/7 care, check out assisted living rather than a nursing home. Understanding the needs of your parent could potentially help you save thousands of dollars per month.
5. Shop around
If you know that a parent may have an interest in moving into an assisted living residence within the next year, start your search. It can appear difficult to find a place that is a) not too far away, b) suits the needs of your parents, and c) doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. SeniorCaring.com can help make this search easier, by offering thousands of senior care facilities across the country. Taking the time to find the right place, rather than rushing into one, can potentially save you thousands of dollars.
Despite the fact that senior care facilities can be quite costly, there are definitely ways to help keep that cost down while finding the perfect place for your parent or loved one – just follow these tips!
