Many adults look forward to their retirement, when they can take their well-deserved rest after years of hard work and enjoy their free time the way they choose. However, as older adults continue to age, they may require more assistance in their day-to-day lives.
While many opt for professional care in an assisted living environment (click here to learn more about assisted living), many older adults choose to receive home care and continue to age in place.
If you or your loved one are considering aging in place, it’s essential to consider a few factors before making the final decision. Of particular importance is the financial aspect of opting for home care. Below, we’ll cover some financial factors to consider, so keep reading!
Home care workers and medical professionals
When considering aging in place, one of the first things to consider is the cost of paying for care workers and medical professionals to make regular home visits. The cost of this care largely depends on how much assistance you or your loved one require, along with your private or provincial health plan.
For an older adult who requires basic daily assistance with housework, meal preparation, shopping, laundry, and similar day-to-day tasks, the cost per hour for a caretaker can vary from $20 to $30, depending on your province. The cost of healthcare professionals’ visits is around $50 an hour.
However, if your loved one requires 24-hour supervision or night and weekend care, the price of a caretaker can skyrocket, often accumulating to thousands of dollars per month.
As mentioned above, many private and provincial health plans will cover some or all of these costs, but the number of visits may be limited, and the eligibility requirements may vary.
Therefore, if you choose to go with a health plan, examine your options with the assistance of a friend or family member to see which plan will give you the best cost coverage and the most thorough care.
House maintenance and utilities
Another aspect of home care that can become quite expensive is the cost of living in and maintaining your home. Even if your mortgage has been paid off, you’ll still be paying utilities, property taxes, internet, cable, phone bills, and other miscellaneous expenses.
Additionally, the longer you remain in one home, the more you’ll have to pay for home maintenance to ensure everything is up-to-date and functioning correctly. Such maintenance costs include plumbing, roof repairs, furnace and air conditioning repairs, and property maintenance like lawn and garden services, snow removal, window washing, and more.
Further still, you’ll also have to account for the costs of renovations if you require mobility modifications, such as installing chair lifts, widenings entryways, adding ramps, and modifying baths and showers to include handles. These, and other similar renovations, often come with a hefty price tag.
Transportation
Many older adults who require home care are no longer licensed to drive themselves around and therefore have to find alternative ways of getting around.
There are a few different options for transport you can choose from. Many older adults will arrange for a close friend or family member to drive them around when they need to leave the house.
If the person driving you is using their own vehicle, you may only have to account for the cost of gas. However, if you decide to keep your car and have another person drive it, you must consider expenses like car insurance and vehicle repairs.
Other alternative methods of transport include:
- Having a deal with a taxi service
- Applying for subsidized transit service
- Selecting a driver from a list of volunteers
Public transit is also an option for older adults who can still get around alone or with little assistance.
All of the above options can vary in price, and their availability largely depends on where you live. Therefore, research the transport options available in your area to see which options are available.
Meals and nutrition support
Finally, another significant cost to consider when working out a plan for aging in place is the cost of food, meal preparation, and nutrition support.
Grocery bills often account for a large part of home expenses, especially if you or your loved one require a specialized diet in which the food products are more expensive. If you prefer to have your groceries delivered, you must also factor in service, delivery, and courier tip costs.
If meal preparation is a task an older person struggles with, many at-home caretakers will include cooking meals in their hourly rate.
However, if you prefer to have your meals delivered pre-cooked instead of having a fridge full of food during the week, many prepared meal delivery programs are available.
Services like Meals on Wheels, We Cook, Clean Plates, and similar companies will provide boxes of ready-made meals that can be altered to suit most dietary needs.
These meal services offer individual meals at affordable prices, but if you’d prefer to have all your meals prepared and delivered this way, it will usually cost a couple of hundred dollars per week.
Final thoughts
When making a plan for aging in place, there are many factors to consider regarding the cost of staying at home. The expenses can vary dramatically depending on the level of care required for you or your loved one, the upkeep costs of your house, transportation, and several other variables, as touched on above.
If you’d like to age in place as your chosen retirement lifestyle, consider all the above costs when creating your budget and plan. We recommend enlisting the help of a friend, family member, or professional to ensure you have a full scope of your monthly expenses before beginning this next chapter of your retired life.
