The single single biggest reason people lose their home and life savings to nursing homes or Medicaid is procrastination. They don’t prepare in advance. Why? We all know that tomorrow is not promised to us, yet most of us live life as if our health and our time are infinite resources. We put off things that we may find unpleasant or tasks that remind us of our mortality. Its as if by simply ignoring the fact that we have a 70% chance of needed nursing home services at sometime in our lives, we can prevent having to be in one.
Plenty of people who I speak with about protecting their home and life savings from long-term care costs start the conversation by asking “when is it a good time to start protecting my assets from the nursing home”?
Others aren’t worried about nursing homes, but they want an opinion about the best time to have their estate plan in order.
I have two answers for the “when is a good time” question. The first is tongue-in-cheek. “Tell me when you are going to die or go into a nursing home. We can work backwards from there“.
My sincere answer is based upon an old Yiddish proverb: Man plans, and God laughs. That ancient wisdom reminds us that “now is the best time, because you are here and well, and you can make the plan that you want“. As early as tomorrow, that could all change.
My sincere hope is that you have all of the time you ever wanted and that your are physically and mental able to do all of the things that you hope to do. Sadly, for many people, that dream will not be their reality. Their reality will include with nursing home bills that run $16,000.00, per month.
We have been given a finite gift of health and time. Don’t let those gifts expire without taking a couple of hours to protect your home, your life savings, and your family.