A long term care event is one of the biggest risks most people will face in retirement. You may be asking, Is this really true? And if so, why? The answer to the first question is yes, it is true. Over 70% of retirees who lived the life expectancy will be faced with some type of long term care event. Now to question number two, the reason why.
The reason so many retirees will be faced with a long term care event is because of longevity. Now, the great news is we’re living longer today than our parents or even our grandparents did. But the bad news is that this longevity isn’t always because we’re in great health. It often is because doctors are better trained to help keep us alive, even though our quality of life might not be as good as we would like it to be.
My goal today is to help you better understand long term Care and the effects of long term care event can have on your retirement. So you can start addressing the issues now rather than waiting where it’s too late, a long term care event happens when you get to a point in your life, you can no longer perform two to three of the six basic activities needed for daily living.
These six basic activities are
1. Bathing – Bathing yourself, shaving and brushing your teeth.
2. Dressing – Dressing yourself without struggling with buttons and zippers.
3. Toileting – The ability to get on and off the toilet.
4. Transferring – Being able to move from a bed to a chair or walking without any help.
5. Continence – This is the ability to control one’s bladder and bowel functions.
6. Eating – Your ability to feed oneself.
If you cannot perform two to three of these tasks, you’re deemed to be in need of long term care.
Now why do I say two to three of these six basic tasks because depending on what company you’re working with, to try to determine your long term care need some will use two and others will use three.
