The Truth About Using Medicaid to Pay for Nursing Home Care

The decision to invest in a senior living community is not always an easy one to make. However, paying for the services available can be very beneficial, especially as you grow older. Retirement communities that offer a continuum of care support individuals through various stages of life and accommodate unique and ever-changing needs. Here, St. Barnabas looks at the benefits of senior living and why its a worthwhile expense.Continuum of CareStart by thinking ahead and figuring out what your investment might mean in the future. Aging adults with evolving needs benefit from retirement communities that provide multiple levels of assistance. If youre a young, active retiree who is looking forward to making the most of every day in retirement, you can find what you need in an independent living community. Independent living communities combine the convenience of secure, upkeep-free living centered on your needs with the independence that you typically enjoy at home.If you or a loved one needs greater support for daily activities, accommodations with living assistance may be more ideal. Attendants provide 24/7 assistance, allowing residents to live as independently as they can while receiving more hands-on care for chronic illnesses and other conditions. Services may include: Regular safety checks Physical transfer assistance Ostomy and catheter care Incontinence support As health needs change, more in-depth services may be needed and can easily be accessed in a community that offers a broad range of support. Retirees who need short-term or long-term rehabilitative care can find it through skilled nursing services. Skilled nursing services are available for individuals who are recovering after a stroke, an injury, joint replacement surgery, or another event that may require access to a team of medical professionals to help them on the road to recovery.Balancing the Comforts of Home with Community EngagementWhile researching retirement communities, making sure your prospects feel like home is important in determining if paying for senior living is a worthwhile expense. Comfortable accommodations and a variety of amenities can help make the transition from home life to a senior living community easier.  Whats more, programming and social activities that keep residents active and meaningfully engaged with their neighbors can help make retirement life feel fulfilling. Some of the amenities to look for while searching for a retirement community include: Nutritious and delicious meals Calendar of social activities and special events Scenic grounds with opportunities for outdoor recreation Exercise centers and fitness classes Easy access to shops, movie theaters, and more Learn More from St. BarnabasAt St. Barnabas, we understand that your needs may not be the same today as your needs tomorrow or 10 years down the road. We offer several senior living options that support varying levels of need, including comprehensive care services. St. Barnabas proudly supports residents in the greater Pittsburgh area, including Allegheny, Beaver, and Butler counties. To learn more about our senior living services and how they support a continuum of care, contact us today.

Financial retirement strategy can be difficult. Saving for retirement (accumulation) is only half the battle the real challenge begins when it's time to turn that savings into income that lasts (distribution). Ive found that many of those that do well during the accumulation phase have little idea what to do during the distribution phase. In Tom Hegnas great book, Pay Checks and Play Checks, he addresses this by looking at risks that every senior must think about and mitigate during the distribution phase of their financial retirement strategy. Have you thought through these risks and planned accordingly?Inflation riskYou may be in danger if this characterizes you: Im so scared of the stock market and losing money that Id rather just keep all my money somewhere safe like a savings account.             Inflation is a virtually guaranteed to eat away at the purchasing power of your retirement savings. That means that whatever money you currently have saved for retirement wont be able to buy nearly as much in 10 or 20 years as it can now. Inflation has surged in recent years, with some years nearing 67%, reminding us how quickly prices can rise and purchasing power can shrink. Lets look at some numbers and imagine you have $100,000 in a savings account that offers virtually no growth. If we estimate an annual inflation average of 3% for the next 20 years, your same $100,000 would have the equivalent purchasing power of $55,368 in todays dollars. In other words, letting $100,000 sit without growing for 20 years is like giving up nearly half your purchasing power thanks to inflation quietly eating away at it year after year.Application: You should consider investing your retirement savings in something that will at least outpace inflation (something that will earn 3-4% or more).Longevity riskYou may be in danger if this characterizes you: I have some money in my retirement savings, but I havent really thought through a plan for withdrawing it. I figure Ill just withdraw money as needed and I should be ok.             As people live longer, our retirement savings must last longer as well. With average life expectancy in the U.S. near 80 and normal retirement at age 65, some plan for their savings to last 15 years. However, since 80 is the average life expectancy, many will live beyond that. Statistics also say that if youre married, you have a better chance to live longer. If you have a husband and wife who are 65, there is a 50% chance that one of them will live to age 92. To be safe, it would be wise to at least plan for your retirement savings to last 25-30 years. To help accomplish that, many financial advisors suggest following the 4% rule. (Some adjust it to the 3% rule to be extra cautious). That is, that you should only withdraw 4% of your retirement savings in the first year of retirement and then adjust annually for inflation. That may seem extremely cautious, but the last thing you want to do is run out of your retirement savings at age 91. What options would you have then? Longevity is also a risk multiplier because the older you live, the greater the chances that you will face large health and financial risks that could devastate your retirement savings.Application: It may be wise to consider utilizing a vehicle like an income-focused annuity that is designed to stretch your retirement savings and provide lifetime income that will last as long as you do.Volatility riskYou may be in danger if this characterizes you: I know that I must risk my retirement savings if I want to see it grow. Therefore, I keep all my retirement savings in market-based products like mutual funds, stock, bonds, etc.             Relying completely on the long-term upward trend of the market makes sense for the 30-year-old still in the early years of the accumulation phase of financial retirement strategy. However, for the 65-year-old transitioning into the distribution phase of financial retirement strategy, more caution is advised. At that point, you have much less time to make up for large losses that come with market volatility. If you are wealthy, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in safe investments--by all means, risk larger portions of your retirement savings in market-based products with the hope of earning more. However, if you only have a few hundred thousand dollars (or less) in your retirement savings, you need to seriously consider volatility risk. And be careful when people speak of diversification being the magic bullet with your market-based retirement savings. Yes, diversification is good. But if all your diversification is in market-based vehicles and the entire market takes a dive, what happens then? Was that really true diversification? A simple rule of thumb you can use is the rule of 100. (Some call it an oversimplification, but it can be a good quick reference and starting point). Subtract your age from 100 to determine the percentage of your retirement savings allocated to volatile investments, with the remainder going into safe investment vehicles. For example, a 70-year-old would allocate 30% of her savings into risky, market-based investments while allocating the other 70% into safe retirement vehicles. What does your retirement savings allocation look like when using the rule of 100?Application: Its wise to consider protecting more of your retirement savings as you get older. The more money you have, the more money you can risk in volatile investments. However, if you only have a few hundred thousand dollars (or less) in your retirement savings, you may want to consider being more conservative when it comes to volatility risk.Order of return riskYou may be in danger if this characterizes you: Im ok having a large amount of my retirement savings at risk to market fluctuations when Im near retirement age. I can always reallocate to safer options later.             During the accumulation phase of financial retirement strategy, the focus is on average return from your investment over a period of years. However, once you begin the distribution phase, the rules change. Studies show that experiencing a large loss from a market downturn in the years immediately before and after retirement have a much larger negative impact on how long your savings last than experiencing a similar loss at the end of your retirement years. To illustrate this, lets look at an example. Imagine Person A and Person B both retire and begin taking distributions at age 65, live to age 90 and see their retirement savings grow at the exact same rate of return over those 25 years. However, Person A experiences a large loss from market downturns at the beginning of retirement while Person B experiences a large loss from market downturns at the end of retirement. The studies show that Person A is in much bigger trouble than his counterpart and will likely see his retirement savings depleted years earlier.  When will the next market crash happen? No one knows but its a risk that should be seriously considered.Application: What some refer to as the golden window or Retirement Red Zone is around 5 years before retirement and 5 years after retirement. Experiencing a large loss from a market downturn in those years could be devastating to your financial retirement strategy. Therefore, its wise to consider protecting a large portion of your retirement savings during those critical years. Retirement should mean freedom to do the things you want to do. When it comes to financial retirement strategy, these are just a few of the main risks that everyone must navigate in order to most experience that freedom. You worked hard to save and accumulate your retirement savings. Once retired, you must work hard to educate yourself and make wise decisions so that your retirement years can be as relaxing and enjoyable as possible. Find someone you trust, that you can talk with about your specific situation and mitigating these risks. Make sure theyre looking out for your needs and not just their own. I wish you the best and heres to a great retirement!

Its widely thought that home ownership is a key to building wealth but is it? And should you consistently make sacrifices to buy your own home?            Lets start with the first question: Is owning a home essential to building wealth? It would probably be more accurate to say that home ownership can be helpful in building wealth. Building home equity essentially, the difference between the size of your homes value and what you still owe is certainly valuable. Plus, the bigger your equity, the less you might have to take out in a new mortgage if you ever want to buy a different home.            Now for the next question: How much should you sacrifice to buy your own home? This isnt an easy question to answer because buying a home isnt just a financial issue its also an emotional one. Many people simply like the feeling of owning a home. If you fall into this category, you might be willing to make many sacrifices to join the ranks of homeowners.            However, if youre relatively young and you are part of a single or even a dual-income household, you may well find that your other priorities are more important than home ownership, at least for the moment. These priorities can include paying off student loans, reducing other debts, paying for child care, meeting health care costs and even saving for retirement. With all these expenses, you might not be able to take on a big mortgage, along with real estate taxes, homeowners insurance and the inevitable but costly repairs that come with owning a home.            In addition to the danger of becoming house poor by paying too high a percentage of your income on your mortgage, you could face another issue by sinking too much money into your home and thats liquidity. A home is much more illiquid than savings or investment accounts, so if you needed money in a hurry, and most of yours was tied up in your home, you might be in a jam. You could tap into your home equity through a loan or a line of credit, but thats basically taking on even more debt, though these loans and credit lines typically offer lower interest rates than other forms of borrowing.             So, heres the bottom line: You dont need to feel that you are missing out on a chance to build wealth by not buying a home immediately especially if you would feel extremely stretched by the mortgage payments, given how expensive homes are today. You wont hurt yourself and, in fact, youll likely help yourself by taking care of your most pressing priorities first.             Of course, this doesnt mean that you can never become a homeowner. If you would still like to own a home someday, you could start saving for a down payment, keeping the money in a liquid, low-risk account. Just as importantly, though, you should plan on how owning a home can fit into your budget and how it will affect your cash flow. If you can manage it, you may indeed find that theres no place like home.Chad Choate III, AAMS 828 3rd Avenue West Bradenton, FL 34205 941-462-2445 chad.chaote@edwardjones.com This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor. Edward Jones-Member SIPC