How Not To Pull Your Family Apart

In the Zoom call with their children, Jackson relates how the longevity estimates could impact Jodi and his retirement. “As we saw on the site, Mom’s life expectancy means she will likely live a long time after she retires. If you think about it, you can control a certain amount of expenses in retirement, like housing costs, travel expenses, clothing, gifts, eating out, and technology related expenditures. We will not have as much flexibility or control over health-care costs, such as Medicare or Medigap premiums, supplemental health insurance premiums, vision or hearing, deductibles, co-pays, prescriptions, over-the-counter medicines, medical equipment, and support services and the wild card, extended or long-term care expenses.”

“I think you now understand why a redo of the three steps for us is, well, simply smart,” says Jodi. “Financial preparedness for living longer is more than a simple math problem. Here’s how we will move forward. We will review with our advisor the potential impact of longevity on our retirement, especially on my side. We will carefully review how and when we figure in Social Security benefits, our pension funds, and various investments, housing, and cost-of-care estimates. Neither one of us wants to cause the other an unduly limited lifestyle by depleting our resources due to extended or long-term care needs. As you know, Jackson and I have completed Step One. We each created our own Care Guide. Next, we will lay out our Care Squad and get back to you. Love you,” she says and finishes the call.

The key to avoid exhausting even the largest emergency funds is to plan in advance. The biggest advantage of advance planning is that it opens up a pretty robust list of possible options.