Discussion and a reply

Question

 

In the video, “The top 7 retirement planning risks”, select one of  the risks and tell me how you think that this particular risk could be  addressed in a retirement plan.

Post by classmate

 

I recently retired from the military and started my second career.   Knowing that I have a retirement income until I pass is nice however  there are many things that I have overlooked.  One of those things is a  long-term care plan.  I have two friends that are currently trying to  figure out what to do with their parents that are going through  dementia.  One of them has a very robust long-term care plan that will  cover up to about $9,000 a month.  This is approximately $300 a day for a  treatment facility.  Although she has a long battle with medical issues  she is lucky because her husband made plans to ensure she was taken  care of before he passed.  As I started doing some research I found that  the average daily cost for this type of care in the Baltimore Maryland  area is about $220 a day with the national average around $184 a  day (The Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program, n.d.).  The real  issue when planning for a long-term care plan is the time of money  increase that we need to plan for.  The national average in 2041 will be  around $305 a day for long-term care.  When going off of the 2021  average it will cost around $67,000 a year if you need long term care.  I  wasnt able to get an exact quote but I found that the average cost for  a policy is around $3,000 a year for a couple who was about 55 and in  average health.  These costs will drastically change if there are any  underlying health conditions (Phillips, 2021).  The problem with  long-term care plans is that if you dont need them you essentially lose  out on that money.  With a solid retirement plan you would be able to  combine different annuities to help cover the costs.  Some of these  annuities are specific for long-term care and if the owner of the policy  does not need the care when they pass the remaining balance will be  given to their heirs (Tarver & Rhinehart, 2021).  In the end as long  as we think about these different risks and have a plan we will be  better off than just ignoring them all together.