4 Reasons Why Your 50s is a Good Time to Start Planning for the Future

Start planning

When you’re in your 50s, thoughts of the need for long-term health care and what you’re going to do when you’re unable to take care of yourself may not be high on the agenda. Your 50s, on the other hand, are a great time to start making plans. Before you know it, the day will arrive, and you’ll be kicking yourself for not getting prepared when you could. If you’ve not yet started giving your future years a thought, here are some reasons why you need to start planning for them.

There are Still Plenty of Years

When you’re in your 50s, you’ve still got a couple of decades, at least, before you need long-term care. If you wait until you’re much older before making plans, you may find some of your options are no longer available.

There are three approaches to your long-term senior living care you can take. The first is to pay for everything yourself, but it might actually surprise you how much certain types of care cost. You can find out more about senior living care costs by visiting Inhomecare.com.

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Your second option is to let Medicaid pay for your care. If your retirement assets are lower than $150,000, this is definitely a viable option.

The third option is to let insurance pay for your care. There are several different insurance policies you can pay into that will cover the cost of long-term care.  

You’re Healthy

When you’re still in your 50s, it’s very likely that you’re going to be healthy. This is very beneficial when it comes to looking for long-term care insurance. Finding yourself unable to get dressed or go to the bathroom isn’t something you want to think about when you’re still fit and healthy, and this is often the reason why many people find themselves not making adequate plans.

You probably know what you need to do to keep yourself healthy, but just in case you need reminding, here are a few tips you might find useful.

  1. Eat more healthy fats such as oily fish, fats from plants, nuts, and flaxseed
  2. Get a pet because it can lower your risk of heart disease
  3. Include lots of low-impact activities such as walking and cycling to help strengthen muscles
  4. Keep learning
  5. Reduce the salt in your diet
  6. Change your lifestyle and ditch the bad habits, such as smoking
  7. Socialize more
  8. Get a good night’s sleep

Cheaper Insurance

To get the best deal on long-term care insurance, you need to start paying your premiums while you’re still healthy. Premiums tend to go up if your health has already begun deteriorating or you may even find you’re no longer eligible. Long-term care insurance generally covers the cost of hiring someone to help with getting dressed, going to the bathroom and other daily tasks. The actual cost of this type of insurance varies depending on the insurance provider, the kind of policy, your age, and health.

Peace of Mind

Nobody can predict what’s going to happen in 10, 20 or thirty years from now. In all reality, predicting just a couple of years into the future can be difficult. There is, however, an excellent reason to make plans and that’s for your own peace of mind. Knowing that you’re covered should something happen, and you can no longer take care of yourself stops you from worrying. Hopefully, you might not find yourself in need of such care, but it’s far better to be prepared just in case it does.

When you’re in your 50s, there are still plenty of things in life for you to enjoy. You might not want to spend time making plans for the future, but you’ll be glad you did when the time comes. Get things sorted early on and you’ll still be able to enjoy all the good things in life, safe in the knowledge that you’ve done everything you can to prepare for your senior years.

 

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4 Reasons Why Your 50s is a Good Time to Start Planning for the Future
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