Caring for an elderly family member can be extremely rewarding. For the recipient of the care, it provides the opportunity to share life experiences with someone close, deepening the familial relationship while receiving personalized care and attention. However, the family caregiver benefits from the relationship as well. The time spent with a loved one is beneficial for the family caregiver because it affords precious time together and the opportunity to forge a closer relationship. As you care for a loved one, you gain a deeper understanding of that person as well as greater patience in dealing with challenges. You’ll be stretched emotionally and physically in ways that lead to profound personal growth. However, there’s no doubt that all that stretching can be stressful.
The challenges associated with being a family caregiver are also numerous, and it’s important to learn how to manage the stress of family caregiving so that you don’t break. Taking time out for self-care is crucial because if the family caregiver buckles under the weight of caregiving stress, the results can be detrimental for all involved. Let’s look at some ways to relieve some of the pressure you may feel while caring for a family member.
1. Know how to set boundaries. It’s important to acknowledge that there’s only so much you can do, and only so much that’s within your control. If you are one of several family members but you are the one with the most caregiving responsibility, make sure your family understands your limitations. Further, recognize that you cannot control another person’s thoughts, feelings, or behavior. Empathy is good but feeling guilty because of someone else’s response to your care is not beneficial. Strive to maintain positivity, even in tough circumstances, by focusing on the good and knowing there’s rest ahead of you.
2. Acknowledge the physical demands of the job. Caring for an older adult can be extremely physically demanding. As you assist with bathing, dressing, and toileting needs, lift, or turn your loved one, and provide first aid, medical assistance, and a safe physical environment, you may find yourself overly taxed by the responsibilities. Managing the behavior of a person with cognitive behavior can be physically challenging. To cope with these demands, get the training you need so that you’ll know how to properly care for your family member. Make sure that, just as you’re tending to your loved one’s physical needs, you’re also paying attention to yours. Eat a healthy diet, get enough sleep, and exercise regularly. Make use of adaptive or assistive equipment for specific needs and strive to help your loved one remain as independent as possible. When there are tasks you physically cannot manage, enlist the help of another person or a home care agency.
3. Be clear about the financial realities of caring for an elderly person. Taking care of an older person can get expensive. There’s the cost of medical care, treatment, adaptive or assistive equipment, and hiring help when needed. What’s more, a family caregiver may have to reduce work hours and give up income in order to be available for their loved one. Caring for a family member also means managing that person’s financial concerns and preparing for the financial needs of the future. Be realistic about the financial challenges involved in caregiving, enlisting the help of financial planning specialists if necessary. Educate yourself on programs that can help by assisting with costs or providing equipment and assistive technology and use these programs when you need to. Talk to other family members about financial needs and consider getting long-term care insurance.
4. Communicate honestly about the emotional stress of caregiving. It’s easy to feel isolated and alone when you’re caring for an elderly person. Be careful not to let yourself slip into detrimental ways of thinking or give in to negative emotions. Don’t engage in worry, asking “why” questions about your situation, but rather practice concern, looking at the “what” and “how” questions so you can determine what’s within your power to change. Recognize that difficulties are temporary and hard times will pass so you can avoid giving into depression. Don’t imagine the worst-case scenarios of every situation, but instead try to remain grounded and consider realistic outcomes. If you begin to feel overwhelmed, talk to someone about what’s troubling you before it has the chance to make you resentful or depressed.
5. Learn how to manage the relationship stress that comes with caring for a relative. The normal patterns of familial relationships can be disrupted when an elderly relative needs care. You may have disagreements with other family members about how things are handled, and you may find yourself in conflict with the very person you’re trying to help. Caregiving can also take time you’re accustomed to spending on other relationships and can cause difficulties with your spouse. Find positive, uplifting experiences you can have with your loved one and take the time to nurture other family relationships. Keep the lines of communication open, involving the care recipient as much as possible in deciding his or her own care, and expressing needs and issues clearly to your other family members.
6. Take some time for self-care. Whether it’s a walk, a bath, or time to read a book, it’s important to carve out alone time to help manage your stress. Spend time with people you enjoy, doing things that make you happy. Investing this time in yourself and your own wellbeing will make you a better caregiver and help you manage caregiving stress.
7. Don’t shy away from asking for help. Managing the stress of family caregiving is much harder if you’re trying to do everything on your own. Enlist the help of family members so that you can get a break or engage a professional caregiver to provide you with support. Take advantage of respite care so that you can be refreshed and renewed, ready to dive back into the ultimately rewarding work of caring for someone you love.
At BrightStar Care, we know that caring for an elderly relative can be challenging. That’s why we work hard to deliver the right care for your loved one and to be a partner you can turn to for support. Because we believe that caring is more than just a job, our nurses, CNAs, and caregivers offer the most professional compassionate care available. In the comforting, familiar surroundings of home, we offer a full range of care services to meet your loved one’s needs and help you when you need it most. Contact us or call 866-618-7827 to learn more about our services and let us know what we can do for you.
As you know, the gig economy has been booming over the past several years. If youre thinking of using your skills to take on a side gig, what should you do with the money youll make?Theres no one right answer for everyone, and the decisions you make should be based on your individual situation. And of course, you may simply need the extra income to support your lifestyle and pay the bills. But if you already have your cash flow in good shape, and you have some freedom with your gig money, consider these suggestions: Contribute more to your IRA. If you couldnt afford to contribute the maximum amount to your IRA, you may find it easier to do so when you have additional money coming in from a side gig. For the 2023 tax year, you can put in up to $6,500 to a traditional or Roth IRA, or $7,500 if youre 50 or older. (Starting in 2024, this extra $1,000 catch-up contribution amount may be indexed for inflation.) The amount you can contribute to a Roth IRA is reduced, and eventually eliminated, at certain income levels. Look for new investment opportunities. If youre already maxing out your IRA, you might be able to find other investment possibilities for your side gig money. For example, if you have young children, perhaps you could use some of the money to invest in a 529 education savings plan. A 529 plan offers potential tax advantages and can be used for college, qualified trade school programs, and possibly some K-12 expenses. Please keep in mind that potential tax advantages will vary from state to state. Build an emergency fund. Life is full of unexpected events and some can be quite expensive. What if you needed a major car repair or required a medical procedure that wasnt totally covered by your health insurance? Would you have the cash available to pay these bills? If not, would you be forced to dip into your IRA or 401(k)? This might not be a good move, as it could incur taxes and penalties, and deprive you of resources you might eventually need for retirement. Thats why you might want to use your gig earnings to help fund an emergency fund containing several months worth of living expenses, with the money kept in a liquid, low-risk account. To avoid being tempted to dip into your emergency fund, you may want to keep it separate from your daily spending accounts. Pay down debts. Most of us will always carry some debts, but we can usually find ways to include the bigger ones mortgage, car payments and so on into our monthly budgets. Its often the smaller debt payments, frequently associated with high-interest-rate credit cards, that cause us the most trouble, in terms of affecting our cash flow. If you can use some of your side gig money to pay down these types of debts, you could possibly ease some of the financial stress you might be feeling. And instead of directing money to pay for things you purchased in the past, you could use the funds to invest for your future.As weve seen, your side gig money could open several promising windows of opportunity so take a look through all of them. Chad Choate III, AAMS828 3rd Avenue WestBradenton, FL 34205941-462-2445chad.chaote@edwardjones.com This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor. Edward Jones, Member SIPC
Its been a bumpy year for the financial markets which means that some of your investments may have underperformed or lost value. Can you use these losses to your advantage?Its possible. If you have some investments that have lost value, you could sell them to offset taxable capital gains from other investments. If your losses exceed gains for the year, you could use the remaining losses to offset up to $3,000 of ordinary income. And any amount over $3,000 can be carried forward to offset gains in future years. This tax-loss harvesting can be advantageous if you plan to sell investments that youve held in taxable accounts for years and that have grown significantly in value. And you might receive some gains even if you take no action yourself. For example, when you own mutual funds, the fund manager can decide to sell stocks or other investments within the funds portfolio and then pay you a portion of the proceeds. These payments, known as capital gains distributions, are taxable to you whether you take them as cash or reinvest them back into the fund. Still, despite the possible tax benefits of selling investments whose price has fallen, you need to consider carefully whether such a move is in your best interest. If an investment has a clear place in your holdings, and it offers good business fundamentals and favorable prospects, you might not want to sell it just because its value has dropped. On the other hand, if the investments youre thinking of selling are quite similar to others you own, it might make sense to sell, take the tax loss and then use the proceeds of the sale to purchase new investments that can help fill any gaps in your portfolio. If you do sell an investment and reinvest the funds, youll want to be sure your new investment is different in nature from the one you sold. Otherwise, you could risk triggering the wash sale rule, which states that if you sell an investment at a loss and buy the same or a substantially identical investment within 30 days before or after the sale, the loss is generally disallowed for income tax purposes.Heres one more point to keep in mind about tax-loss harvesting: Youll need to take into account just how long youve held the investments youre considering selling. Thats because long-term losses are first applied against long-term gains, while short-term losses are first applied against short-term gains. (Long-term is defined as more than a year; short-term is one year or less.) If you have excess losses in one category, you can then apply them to gains of either type. Long-term capital gains are taxed at 0%, 15% or 20%, depending on your income, while short-term gains are taxed at your ordinary income tax rate. So, from a tax perspective, taking short-term losses could provide greater benefits if your tax rate is higher than the highest capital gains rate.Youll want to contact your tax advisor to determine whether tax-loss harvesting is appropriate for your situation and youll need to do it soon because the deadline is Dec. 31. But whether you pursue this technique this year or not, you may want to keep it in mind for the future because youll always have investment tax issues to consider. Chad Choate III, AAMS828 3rd Avenue WestBradenton, FL 34205941-462-2445chad.chaote@edwardjones.com This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.Edward Jones, Member SIPC
As you go through life, youll have various financial goals and to achieve them, youll need to invest. But just recognizing the need to invest is not as useful as matching specific types of accounts or investments with specific goals. How can you make these connections?Lets look at some common goals and how they could possibly be met with appropriate accounts and investments: Saving for a down payment on a house When youre saving for a down payment, you want a certain amount of money available at a certain time so, for this goal, you wont want to take too much risk. Consequently, you might consider investing in certificates of deposit (CDs), which will pay you regular interest payments and return your principal when the CDs mature. CDs are issued in a range of maturities, from one month to 10 years. Other vehicles you might consider are money market accounts or other cash equivalents. Saving for a childs education If you have children, and youd like to help them pay for some form of higher education, you may want to consider a 529 education savings plan. Any earnings growth in a 529 plan is federally tax free, provided the withdrawals are used for qualified education expenses, and you may also receive state tax benefits. A 529 plan can be used for college, approved trade school programs, student loan repayments and some K-12 costs. And if the child youve named as a beneficiary chooses not to continue their education, and doesnt need the money in a 529 plan, you can generally switch beneficiaries to another immediate family member. Saving for retirement This is the one goal that will remain consistent throughout your working years after all, you could spend two or even three decades in retirement, so youll need to accumulate as many financial resources as you can to pay for those years. Fortunately, you likely have access to several good retirement-savings vehicles. If you work for a business, you might have a 401(k) plan, which offers you the chance to put away money on a tax-deferred basis. (If you have a Roth option in your 401(k), your withdrawals can be tax free, although, unlike a traditional 401(k), your contributions wont lower your taxable income.) If you work for a public school or a nonprofit organization, you may be able to participate in a 403(b) plan, which is quite similar to a 401(k), and the same is true if you work for a state or local government, where you might have a 457(b) plan. And even if you invest in any of these plans, you can probably also contribute to an IRA, which gives you another chance to invest on a tax-deferred basis (or tax-free basis, if youre eligible for a Roth IRA). Try to take full advantage of whatever retirement plans are available to you.Here's one final point to keep in mind: While some investments and accounts are appropriate for certain goals, they may not necessarily be suitable for your individual situation so keep all your options in mind and take the steps that are right for you. Chad Choate III, AAMS828 3rd Avenue WestBradenton, FL 34205941-462-2445chad.chaote@edwardjones.com This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor. Edward Jones, Member SIPC