What If Aging In Place Isn’t As Cheap As You Think It Is?
The decision to stay in the home where you raised your children for as long as your health permits or to move to a smaller one that better fits your post-retirement lifestyle involves strong emotions, as well as practical considerations of a financial and non-financial nature. If you are already living in a multigenerational household, then staying where you are is the obvious choice. If your children have moved beyond commuting distance from you, then whether to move closer to them will play a role in your decision. Then there is the question of whether your house would better serve your future self if it were a sum of cash from the proceeds of the sale, which you could spend on an assisted living facility, a tiny house, or some other senior-friendly accommodation. Of course, all of this assumes that you own a house. If you don’t, then all this talk of aging in place or starting over again in retirement sounds like so much aspirational claptrap. Even if you own a home, your options, including aging in place, might not be as affordable as you think they are. A Tampa estate planning attorney can help you live within your means during retirement.
Senior Friendly Home Renovations Cost Less Than a New House, but They Aren’t Cheap
David Cravit, author of The New Old and Beyond Age Rage argues that many seniors think of aging in place as the default option based on a faulty assumption that the costs of home modifications will be negligible. In fact, senior friendly home modifications are an ongoing process. How much it costs depends on your needs and on the current state of your house. You can choose from an endless variety of “smart home” features, but many of these are prohibitively expensive. Turning the room that was once your study into a downstairs bedroom costs considerably less, but it is a whole lot of work. Building wheelchair ramps inside and outside your house is as big an undertaking as it sounds.
If You’re Going to Age in Place, Florida Is the Place to Do It
The good thing is that the houses in Florida are notably senior friendly. For one thing, they are one story, and they tend to have wide hallways. It is no more difficult or more expensive to move to Florida than it is to turn a tall, skinny, charmingly idiosyncratic New England house from the Federalist Era into a senior-friendly dwelling with wheelchair ramps and a medical alert system. Home modifications for aging in place in Florida could just be a matter of installing a bench in the shower and railings on the walls.
Contact David Toback With Questions About Staying Within Your Housing Budget During Retirement
A Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you make a plan for modifying your Florida home so that you can comfortably age in place. Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.
Source:
davidcravit.substack.com/p/the-biggest-barrier-to-aging-in-place
