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At least in the US, health care costs in old age are unpredictable and nonlinear. Long term care - where in an assisted living facility - or in home nursing c
by testfoobar 2y ago
At least in the US, health care costs in old age are unpredictable and nonlinear. Long term care - where in an assisted living facility - or in home nursing can get expensive to the point of depleting savings of even reasonably wealthy people.
- anon291 2y agoLong term care insurance is a thing and required in some states. > At least in the US, health care costs in old age are unpredictable and nonlinear. We have a few people in my family that retired early and many simply use free medicaid since they have no income (well no reportable income). Like it or hate it, the United States is quite generous if you correctly categorize yourself. In my experience, people usually don't seek out the social safety net because they're convinced it doesn't exist. At 65, you get medicare pretty universally. Yes I know it doesn't cover some things.
- Suppafly 2y agoThe medicaid route is fine as long as you are willing to sign over everything you own once you need any kind of longish term in-patient or nursing home type care. At that point you'll never live on your own again because once you sign everything over you'll never be in a position to own anything again.
- vundercind 2y agoSo are healthcare costs in middle age. It’s the biggest complication in trying to make early-retirement numbers work. The solution I’ve read for some FIRE bloggers (especially the “just barely spend anything, it’s so easy to FIRE!” sort who usually turn out to be making it work by having three part-time jobs, including blogging about FIRE for affiliate income) is they just plan to get a corporate job again if anyone in their family gets seriously ill, which… is making some risky assumptions, I think.