As I continue to write on the “lighter” side of retirement issues, I’m also monitoring a retirement series through my wife’s company.  As a spousal dependent on her insurance, there are certain educational requirements that must be followed throughout the year to be included on the policy.  This particular seminar series is part of their wellness campaign and required participation for all beneficiaries.  While I’m presenting the enjoyment of retirement, they are focusing on some of the more serious issues related to the topic.  This morning, for example, was all about long term care insurance.

I tend to be about as pessimistic as they come, worrying about everything that could possibly go wrong.  I try to maintain a humorous mood, as I write about the hassles of retirement.  However, I have seen the ugly side of growing old and have dealt with health issues, nursing homes, funeral homes, and Alzheimer’s Disease.  Fortunately, my experience has been limited to being on the outside looking in.  Friends and family have been faced with cancer, memory issues, death, loss, and bankruptcy,   They have been forced to rely on others for assistance, or worse yet have become burdens to their family.

My parents passed relatively peacefully in their early nineties.  On the other hand, my wife’s father died of painful pancreatic cancer at a much earlier age.  My mother’s health failed as a result of taking care of my father, who could often times not tell day from night and gradually lost his long-term memory.   Both of them passed within weeks of each other, which I found to be comforting since they were born less than one day apart.   My wife’s mother is 96 years old and living in a care facility.  Her health is excellent with the exception of hearing loss.  She remains active with our help and the round-the-clock attention of the great nurses that care for her when we’re not there.  I know that I could die tomorrow, or even before I finish this paragraph, or I could live for another 30 or more years.  As an adopted child, I have no family background to give me any history on medical issues.  I have no reason to worry about my health, but I can see what’s happening to others that are 65 years young like myself, let alone older in age,

I’m financially sound, and it helps that my wife is still working,  I have most of my savings earmarked for travel, but what if I no longer can?  A car accident, bad fall, stroke, or any number of health issues could drastically change my plans.  These are the biggest hassles of retirement!   In fact, they are beyond hassles; they are tragedies!  If we don’t have our health and other assets, we don’t have a happy retirement.  I’m not an insurance salesman, but Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) might be something for all of us to look into soon.  It may be a missing piece in my retirement plan, especially as I get into my 80’s and 90’s.  Hopefully, by that time, I will have traveled the world and will want nothing more than an easy chair and a good book.  However, I will have intentionally spent most of my IRA, and will be living strictly on a pension and social security.  At that point, excessive health costs could burden other family members.  I want to live a long, healthy life, but more importantly I don’t want it to be at the expense of my wife’s or children’s lives.  I would rather pay a monthly premium to assure that long term care expenses are covered, so my family doesn’t have that worry.

I’m not talking about medical insurance.  I currently have that through my wife’s company, and the sole reason why I listened to today’s seminar.  When she retires, we both will both then move to Medicare D.  If you have much in the way of assets and/or income, Medicare or even Medicaid will not be much help when it comes to assisted living.  As with any other kind of insurance, I would buy it just to never have to use it!

I did buy a long term travel plan through the Marriott Vacation Club (even though we don’t use that word “vacation” in retirement).  I’m paying monthly for a lifetime of travel, and it includes travel insurance.  Why wouldn’t I invest monthly to make sure that if I needed to leave my home for assisted living, it would not burden my family?  It only makes sense.  Unless, of course, I was to rely on the Marriott Vacation properties to provide my long term care!

I’m enjoying retirement to the point that I never want it to end.  But it Could.  I’ll continue to work on my tan today, read a book, give some blood, run some errands (It’s Errand Day – see yesterday’s post #67), and enjoy a nice dinner with my wife.  By the way, she decided to put off last night’s Date Night until tonight.  As a result, I was honestly confused on what day it was when I woke up this morning.  It tells me that I’m really starting to adapt to this retirement thing!