This is ridiculous because a nursing home and the Holiday Inn are not remotely comparable. A nursing home is for people who can't take care of themselves. They have nursing staff available 24 hours a day. They assist people with going to the bathroom, eating, taking medicines, etc. A Holiday Inn does none of that.
Clearly this man is capable of taking care of himself, which is great. He doesn't even need assisted living. He would fare just fine in a regular retirement community or just in a regular apartment, so the question is not how a Holiday Inn compares to a nursing home. It's how a Holiday Inn compares to an apartment.
Eh, it seems like a nice solution for people in a middle case. If you aren't in bad enough shape to need constant medical attention, but aren't quite up for the cleaning and maintenance requirements of a regular apartment, you can live pretty nicely and not spend too much money.
Suppose it also helps if you only really want to have a suitcase or two worth of possessions.
- Nursing home (NH) is a much higher level of care and if you need it then living in a hotel is not an option. Medicare covers NH so it may be cheaper overall to go there than live in an apartment with your own nursing staff.
- Assisted living facilities are closer to living in a hotel and they get (partially?) covered by Medicaid in some states. Prices vary so I don't know how they would compare directly though.
One theme that I see more often lately is seniors transferring their assets to their (grand)kids so that they look poor on paper so that they qualify for low cost assisted living/ Medicare and then cost is not a consideration any more.
Everything old is new again. It used to be common to live in hotels, specially towards the end of one's life, at a time where specialized facilities were scarce or nonexistent. Just off the top of my head Tesla's last years were spent at the Hotel New Yorker, with Westinghouse footing the bill.
Even before you retire, if you are single or just a small family it is far far cheaper and far far better to live in a Holyday Inn than an Apartment building. First they will give you monthly rate instead of daily rate which is half. Then you have no deposit. You interact with hotel staffs who treat you like God instead of a landlord who treat you like slave. You need not clean the room or bed. Officially you occupy a small area though, your bedroom and bath, but you have the whole Hotel facility and area to share, you can also visit the city parks and libraries.
I'm going through this with my father. Since he didn't buy a long term care plan, the assisted living facilities by us will be $11k a month out of pocket.
If you live in the USA, please talk to your parents/spouse/friends about long term care.
Not sold on LTC. That’s great if your goal is to live in a facility some day. But hopefully I never have to. Can downgrade from big house to maybe a smaller condo over time. Take care of myself so hopefully will end up OK.
If not? I get checked into the same home as a LTC user with Medicare. I pay for it until I am broke, then Medicare takes over.
I really don’t see the upside. In the case I have a large estate and need LTC, the LTC insurance protects my estate so I can pass more of it on. But as not a huge fan of generational wealth, I see no benefit to me or the world to buy LTC insurance. In fact, less money to enjoy now or grow my estate.
I'm new to it myself, but it seems difficult to navigate the minefield of LTCI, particularly the Daily Benefits payouts available are around $200/day, which is lower than the cost of many facilities.
Long Term Care insurance was a massive miscalculation in the insurance industry and shareholders paid dearly for it. It was super smart to buy it in the 80s and 90s but most insurers have gotten out of the business. The rest have raised rates so high as to make it not worth it.
Genworth’s stock more than halved when they announced they had to take additional LTC write offs a few years ago.
There's actually a whole industry around this in certain low tax areas in Switzerland. High end retirement/nursing homes in olaces with low/zero inheritance tax, so the family can park the elderly relatives in good care until the inevitable happens but then avoid paying inheritance tax. It looks silly, when you have almost entire villages whose core business is this.
> If you're thinking he's overlooking the care one gets in a retirement home, he's considered that as well, and feels confident the staff of Holiday Inn are up to the task.
Having lived out of a suitcase at a competitor's inn for 3 years on a job out of town I think Planning Man is in for a care let-down. Or if dementia sets in, perhaps not.
This is really no different than the huge number of older retired people who move to foreign countries. Expats. Obviously, not for everyone as it is quite different and sometimes challenging to live in a foreign country.
As someone who has moved to SE Asia (Vietnam) and is 'only' 45, I think almost daily about how much money I'm saving for my eventual 'retirement' and how much happier I am.
The nursing and rehab center my dad is currently staying costs $700/day. That's what I paid for Sandals Jamaica for my honeymoon, an all-inclusive all you can eat/drink resort.
In Australia this largely seems to work better. There's obviously public aged care but that can be a crap shoot in many ways. Like there might only be a place for you 200 miles from where you'd been living, which might be a challenge to maintain contact to friends and family. But if you have some capital behind you (eg you own your house and sell it) then you have private options, which tend to be a lot better. Typically, you pay a "deposit" (for lack of a better word) and then the facility collects 85% of your aged pension. When you die, your deposit is returned to your estate. The size of that deposit varies a lot. It might be as little as $300k or it might be $1m+. It depends on what you want.
The whole thing seems a lot less "gougey" than what I know about aged care in the US, for example.
I'd seriously look at retiring on a cruise ship. Might not be as cost effective, but it would give you a ton of stuff to do. I could probably live on a cruise ship for less than what it costs me to live.
Our generation of people, millennial, have no hope of having the same retirement as people in their sixties today.
Simple arithmetic says that once the taxpayer/dependent ratio will hit that of Germany, it will be very very hard. Either you have a very strong industrial economy, or you study Greek.
Having some kids, and expecting them to give back one day does not seem to be anything unnatural to me. Though, I hope I will get some humility by then, and not have them bail out me financially by my fifties as my own parents did :(
That is why it is important not to solely rely on W2 income. Income has to be supplemented by starting side businesses in order to actually save and invest for anything without falling for the illusions of debt. On top of moving to places more affordable, it might be possible for the average person to retire. I just doubt that employment and a 401k are going to do that on their own. All the modestly wealthy people I know have other sources of income besides their main job.
[+] [-] massysett|7 years ago|reply
Clearly this man is capable of taking care of himself, which is great. He doesn't even need assisted living. He would fare just fine in a regular retirement community or just in a regular apartment, so the question is not how a Holiday Inn compares to a nursing home. It's how a Holiday Inn compares to an apartment.
[+] [-] ufmace|7 years ago|reply
Suppose it also helps if you only really want to have a suitcase or two worth of possessions.
[+] [-] evoloution|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] commandlinefan|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] g6nhe9twPd66|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] JorgeGT|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] evochimp|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eugeniub|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] berbec|7 years ago|reply
If you live in the USA, please talk to your parents/spouse/friends about long term care.
[+] [-] brianwawok|7 years ago|reply
If not? I get checked into the same home as a LTC user with Medicare. I pay for it until I am broke, then Medicare takes over.
I really don’t see the upside. In the case I have a large estate and need LTC, the LTC insurance protects my estate so I can pass more of it on. But as not a huge fan of generational wealth, I see no benefit to me or the world to buy LTC insurance. In fact, less money to enjoy now or grow my estate.
[+] [-] sorryforthethro|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdsully|7 years ago|reply
Genworth’s stock more than halved when they announced they had to take additional LTC write offs a few years ago.
[+] [-] short_sells_poo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] howard941|7 years ago|reply
Having lived out of a suitcase at a competitor's inn for 3 years on a job out of town I think Planning Man is in for a care let-down. Or if dementia sets in, perhaps not.
[+] [-] latchkey|7 years ago|reply
As someone who has moved to SE Asia (Vietnam) and is 'only' 45, I think almost daily about how much money I'm saving for my eventual 'retirement' and how much happier I am.
[+] [-] DelightOne|7 years ago|reply
How did you cope with the loss of (connection to) friends/acquaintances/possibilities/family/children? They can't be dead with 45.
[+] [-] ccnafr|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] berbec|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cletus|7 years ago|reply
In Australia this largely seems to work better. There's obviously public aged care but that can be a crap shoot in many ways. Like there might only be a place for you 200 miles from where you'd been living, which might be a challenge to maintain contact to friends and family. But if you have some capital behind you (eg you own your house and sell it) then you have private options, which tend to be a lot better. Typically, you pay a "deposit" (for lack of a better word) and then the facility collects 85% of your aged pension. When you die, your deposit is returned to your estate. The size of that deposit varies a lot. It might be as little as $300k or it might be $1m+. It depends on what you want.
The whole thing seems a lot less "gougey" than what I know about aged care in the US, for example.
[1] https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/2013-2-2-cruise-ship-retir...
[+] [-] honopu|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] duxup|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amelius|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] baybal2|7 years ago|reply
Simple arithmetic says that once the taxpayer/dependent ratio will hit that of Germany, it will be very very hard. Either you have a very strong industrial economy, or you study Greek.
Having some kids, and expecting them to give back one day does not seem to be anything unnatural to me. Though, I hope I will get some humility by then, and not have them bail out me financially by my fifties as my own parents did :(
[+] [-] ravenstine|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neffy|7 years ago|reply
Apropos... I wouldn't worry about retirement per se, I would worry about their being an intact ecosystem to retire in.
[+] [-] scarface74|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] vezycash|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] purplezooey|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bfdm|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EGreg|7 years ago|reply
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-dWFKp-bJtk