Retirement Home Plans: How to Create One for Your Parents?

May 22, 2021

Do you have retirement home plans for your parents? If not, you’re not alone. Many children don’t want to think about their parents getting older. Their parents certainly don’t want to think about it.

However, if you’re not prepared for the eventuality of your parents needing to enter a retirement home, you may be surprised by the cost, finding the right community, and more. Let’s consider creating a retirement home plan for your parents and why you should get started now.

Retirement Home Plans: Planning is the Key to Being Prepared

Retirement is not cheap. Planning for your parent’s retirement is essential. It would be best if you started early; they need to start early.

Having these conversations with your parents is never easy. Being on the same page, planning together, and ensuring you’re making the best financial choices is the key to success when building a parent’s retirement home plan. By planning and saving for retirement, you and your parents can afford it.

When making a retirement plan for your parents, consider the following:

What type of care will your parents need? Will they need Assisted Living, Memory Care, or other medical care as they age?
Do your parents want to be independent, or do they anticipate needing more help than they do now?
When do your parents want to retire? Are they prepared to retire if illness or something else forces them to?
How much do you need to save to afford that care?
How have your parents been saving for retirement without your help? Do they have a 401k? A pension?
How far out do they need a retirement community? Do they know where they want to live?

By understanding your parent’s financial situation, you can begin to anticipate how much you may be able to contribute to a retirement home or assisted living community to help them.

From there, you can start to consider timelines. If they need a retirement home sooner rather than later, you want to start calling, visiting, and researching options. Some have waitlists, sometimes months or years in advance.

If you wait until the last minute, you may find you have to wait even longer to move in, causing more stress than you need to deal with. Preparing for this moment will avoid many of the pain points along the way for you and your parents.

What Happens If You’re Not Prepared for Retirement?

Not being prepared for retirement is a fear of many adults, especially those who start planning much later in life. Many people wait until they need assisted living or a retirement community and then realize they can’t afford it.

From there, as a child, you may feel the need to take care of your parents. You let them move in with you. It’s not enough. You can’t give them the care they need depending on the circumstances, leading you to scramble to figure out how to help them.

This can lead to resentment, hurt, and emotional turmoil for families. You could drive a wedge between your parents and you. That’s the last thing anyone wants. Taking care of your parents is hard.

It’s even harder if they require specific care a community like ours offers. We provide independent living, assisted living, and memory care options for families.

Plan Ahead for Your Parents’ Retirement with Generations

If you’re making retirement home plans with your parents, consider Generations for their future needs. We offer various living options and amenities and would welcome the opportunity to treat your parents like our own.