The traditional to-do list for couples approaching retirement includes several familiar elements: signing up for Medicare, deciding when to take Social Security, figuring out what to do about the 401(k), and so on. But what about selling the big family home and downsizing to the smaller house with lower costs and less maintenance? A significant…
The ads on television, the slick brochures and the finely-targeted websites for today’s retirement homes typically portray the same types of images: groups of seniors happily doing things together. They take bike trips together, they do wine tasting together, they go antiquing together. If all that advertising were to be believed, retirement living today is…
About a year ago here on the AgingOptions blog, we told readers about a small program, started in Little Rock, Arkansas, that is now providing care to about 1,000 veterans, at a fraction of the cost of nursing care. Besides saving the Department of Veterans Affairs millions in care costs annually, this initiative, called the…
It’s a dilemma that almost every family faces sooner or later: an aging parent or spouse can no longer live at home and has to move into a care facility. Sometimes the move into long term care is planned, but often – due to a health crisis, accident, or lack of preparation – it catches…
In our technology-driven society, it seems we tend to rely too much on professional health care providers, nursing homes, and digital solutions to solve all of our health care problems – an observation that seems especially true when it comes to senior care. But often the best ideas for healthy aging appear to come, not…
We hear it frequently at AgingOptions: a loved one urgently needs to move to assisted living and the family is caught completely unprepared. But in many if not most cases this “urgent” need to make a senior housing choice for mom or dad probably could have been anticipated, and properly planned for. How can seniors…
As people plan ahead for retirement, they often think about downsizing – and that often means selling the large, old family home and moving into a low-maintenance condo or a planned senior community. Those can be terrific options for seniors looking for the dream of carefree living. But be careful: that type of home typically…
Hoarding is one of those little-understood habits that people sometimes laugh about or make light of (or even feature on so-called reality television shows). But you are the adult child of a hoarder, you know the issue is no laughing matter. This article that appeared a few months ago on the NextAvenue website, written by…
You’ve heard about it – you’ve read about it – you’ve thought about it. The idea of a reverse mortgage has been on your “retirement radar” for quite a while, but for some reason you’ve delayed taking action. A pair of recent news articles might just change your mind and persuade you that now is…
As today’s boomers hit retirement, more and more are grappling with the question, “Do we downsize or do we age in place in our current home?” As this just-published Bankrate article makes clear, the choice isn’t quite that clear. “Baby boomers are struggling to downsize,” the article warns, “and it could create the next housing…