This checklist is neither complete, nor necessarily in sequence for your circumstances. It has been the pathway I took, at age 84 years, as I entered the sixty second year of a wonderful marriage.
Our five children are all happily married and they and our grandchildren are dispersed around Australia, some even overseas, but always in contact.
Each of you who are reading this will have a different profile, assets and needs, but our experience, related on this site, might help you along your ‘Eldermost’ way…….
….if you are considering a change of lifestyle and/or a move to care
- Is it one partner moving (because of health) or both?
- Ensure both of you discuss with your doctor and have a thorough medical check
- Look at options: (a) move as a couple or (b) one partner only
- Decide on locality, if only one is moving keep close by for easy transport to visit
- Consider proximity of family, medical care and transport options
- Analyse financial assets and income resources
- Be aware of current annual costs of present lifestyle
- Simplify finances – consider disposal of Shares, check Term Deposits
If you are on a government pension it’s probably at about this point, having begun to tidy up your financial assets, that you will need to consult a specialist aged-care financial advisor. I am happy to suggest the one we used, contact me for details.
The pathway to a settled, final-phase retirement becomes more convoluted when we have fewer financial resources. That path is uphill with twists and turns and ruts to trip us up. Especially when we are elders of mature age, not well-heeled and not in the best of health.
Dealing with government departments and banks, as well as arranging new housing for one or both of you, as well as coping with all the paperwork is, for people like us, daunting!
- These following points will need to be considered……
- Consider segregating banking accounts to simplify future record-keeping
- Start visiting appropriate Care facilities and analyse and record costs and likes
- Start de-cluttering your present home: personal effects, clothing, appliances
- Ensure both of your Wills and Powers of Attorney are current, retain originals
- Consider vehicle ownership, costs and alternatives
- Ensure you have an up-to-date friends and relatives Contact list
- Consider the benefits of using an iPad, a laptop and/or a Smartphone in your life!……….Take some lessons if needed!
- Consider effects on hobbies, collections, pastimes, clubs, entertainment activities
That sequence might not suit your circumstances, but the chances are that all of the above points will almost certainly apply to you!
