Recently my mother lost her income from my father’s benefits. We had no idea it was going to happen but when my father would have turned 65 last year part of her survivor’s benefits were cut off. It really made me think. She went from $1200 a month to $700 a month in the blink of an eye. How int he world was she going to make it. How int he world was I going to make into retirement if she couldn’t.
I worry about the costs of things such as home health care if she needed it. My father was on life support at home for eight month before he passed away and we spent $10,000 a day to keep him going until the end. That was when we had plenty of money and were doing okay. If my mother got sick the cost of a home health nurse would bankrupt me! I know I should have savings for all of that but we just don’t right now as we had some tax issues that we had to use our savings to pay off.
This issue was not caused by me but the fact that my poor mother tried to handle all of her own stuff after my father passed away and didn’t pay taxes for a couple of years. She was told by a friend that she didn’t have too when in fact she did. We had a tax professional handle her taxes and help us get her back on track. It is all a lot to think about and to plan for.
I was thrilled to read these tax tips for retirees and realized there were a few things that I needed to do in order to make sure everything was okay for me financial. I also need to see if my mother qualifies for Medicare because that would really help me with her medical costs.
How prepared for home health care, retirement, and taxes are you?
I live in a small Georgia town that you most likely have never heard of and I LOVE it! My house is more than full as I am a single mother of four & caregiver to my aging mother and uncle. Lover of all things Outlander. Goes to the beat of her own drum woman.
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I have a financial advisor who keeps me on track.
That is always a good choice! I never thought about it.
I contribute to the 401K at work but I really haven’t done much else other than that.
That is a good start. You may want to do a few other things though.
Well, I just did my own taxes with TurboTax, but it was a simple, straightforward year. If anything unusual occurred, I would go back to a tax preparer. We lost ours a couple of years ago and I haven’t found anyone else. I liked the graphics on the presentation – I’ve not seen one done quite like this.
It really is a great presentation and super helpful.
I wouldn’t trust anyone but my accountant to do my taxes. He is so thorough, I feel like I’d miss something, even with a program like Turbo Tax.
That is good though. You want to make sure that everything is covered and an accountant can do that for you.
Retirement is something I keep in the back of my mind, but I am quickly realizing that it’s something I seriously need to start planning for now.
It is because it will be on you before you know it. I was thinking as I was writing this post, I am only 12 years away from being 50!
We are not prepared at all and I worry about it. My husband went ahead and retired out of his union because there was no work and unemployment ran out. He gets a small pension but now he’s talking about getting social security at 63 and I think that wouldn’t be the smartest thing because of the cut you take by taking it early. We were offered to have retirement planning by my broker and my husband wouldn’t go for it. So, I don’t know what we are doing.
I would talk with your broker and find out what your options are now. there may be a way to still have something saved for later.
We have been saving for retirement for ages. It is something that both my husband and I worry about. We have had to help support my mother for years because my parents never planned for retirement. I don’t want to do that to my children. We would rather do without things now so that we can live comfortably when we retire.
That is a good plan and a great way to look at things. I wish I had been smarter earlier but live and learn I guess.
I worry about this all time, if something was to happen to either one of us or my parents it wouldn’t be nice, praying daily that all is well
I will pray for you as well. I know how this can weigh on a person’s mind.