The Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone and we’re well into December, which means holiday gatherings are finding their way onto the calendar. For the families of nearly 6 million Americans, these otherwise happy occasions come with an added emotional burden: they have a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease, and as much as they want…
Back in mid-2018, we found a pair of articles that shone a spotlight on a highly important but frequently overlooked aspect of retirement planning: spousal harmony. If you and your spouse have conflicting visions of the what, when and how of retirement, you could be on an emotional collision course. It’s far, far better to…
Here at AgingOptions, we often talk about how most retirees would do almost anything to avoid being forced into a nursing home as they age. Still, a large number of seniors will find themselves in institutional care someday. While the residents may have to sacrifice some of their independence and mobility, the nursing homes are…
Serving as a caregiver for someone you love is one of the hardest things any of us will ever do. But when the caregiver is also the spouse, the experience is particularly devastating. This article just published by Kaiser Health News, written by columnist Judith Graham, shines a revealing spotlight on the pain of caring…
We focus a lot of our energies here at AgingOptions in helping people prepare well in advance for retirement. Our philosophy is simple: we believe that, with a comprehensive and strategic plan in place – a plan we call a “LifePlan – just about anyone can enjoy their retirement years securely, knowing that they won’t…
We’ve said it many times before: there may be no tougher task than being a caregiver for a loved one suffering with Alzheimer’s disease or some other form of dementia. Being a dementia caregiver is an experience shared by more than 16 million Americans, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, men and women who provide unpaid…
In the arena of medical care, there are times when good intentions produce bad outcomes. That was our reaction when we read this important article published recently on the Kaiser Health News website. It’s called “‘Fear Of Falling’: How Hospitals Do Even More Harm By Keeping Patients In Bed,” and the premise is straightforward: in…
It’s an all too common scenario: an elderly loved one on Medicare is hospitalized, and the family expects the stay to last a certain length of time. Then suddenly, with little or no warning – and often days earlier than anticipated – the hospital tells the surprised family that the discharge date has been moved…
Here at AgingOptions we have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients in the process of estate planning. In our experience, it’s not unusual to be deep in discussion concerning how a client wants to dispose of his or her assets after death, only to have the client look across the desk…
Last year, we discovered a highly disturbing article on the website HealthDay that put an ominous spin on the recent chorus of headlines about the nation’s opioid crisis. According to two government reports released in 2018, a growing number of seniors are falling prey to this insidious category of highly addictive painkillers. Because this problem…