Good for you Shoveler, Valencia is a great place to retire if you can afford it, I grew up there and while it is in LA county it doesn’t feel like it is. It has to feel good knowing your mom is in a nice town.
One thing I haven’t seen discussed is long term care insurance. I realize many companies have gotten out of the business and those who have remained have increased prices to unreasonable levels. But for those who got policies years ago, keep them in force. For everyone here, there may be help on the way. Currently most people liquidate and give inheritance away while living so they can get medicare to cover the cost, but most piggs are savers and want another option.
Ignore the stuff in this Forbes article about “middle income” and “median IRA,” I’m guessing if you are on this site your 401k balance will not likely be 50k at retirement.
I bought my LTC policy 20 years ago, in my low 30’s and no longer need to make payments. But I had to buy my wife’s policy in her late 40’s at 4x the price and have to pay forever, I’d welcome the tax deduction. My policy only pays $150 a day with an inflation adjustment (probably at $200 a day by now) so it wont pay for the lavish oldster place i have in mind but it will take the sting out of it. The govt should encourage LTC plans with tax incentives as without them, these people will be on the governemnt’s dime.
If incentives do happen, my advice is to take advantage of them asap and as young as possible. We all pay for fire insurance yet very few of us will have our houses burn down, yet all of us will get old and most will need care. *disclaimer-I do not sell insurance, but I do sleep better having lots of it. Perhaps I’m too optimistic the feds will approve of these proposed incentives, they seem to make too much sense for government approval.
