I’m with you—LTC covered/not covered expenses was vague. I also read many articles both for and against it.
My mother is in memory care in Texas to the tune of $9000 a month. It is paid using she and my father’s pension (he is deceased), her SS, and the proceeds from the sale of her home. She also has a 401k that has done very well. She is only 76, but her money can take her well into her 90s.
The remarkable thing is that my parents had nothing—my father had 100k in is 401k when he retired and he thought he was a millionaire. My mother worked a secretarial job for the state of NJ (hence the pension), but only when my youngest sibling turned 16. We all (4 of us) kids went and paid for college ourselves (to the tune of $32 a credit—my goodness how that expense has climbed). Neither of my parents went to college. I’m not saying they didn’t struggle financially, because they did. Yet every year, they took us on vacation.
Without the pensions that both my parents had, things would be much different looking. Fortunately for my DH and I, we will have a steady stream of income through our pensions that will exceed our expenses, No second home, fancy cars or anything like that. One or 2 nice vacations during the year and that’ll be it for us. We’re pretty simple folk.
I think my point is this: an awful lot depends on your income post retirement, your lifestyle and whether you plan to leave any of your assets to your children. My parents will have nothing left to leave us—and that’s perfect. Their wish was to never be a financial burden on their children, and they won’t. We are all so thankful for that. That’s our goal for our DD as well.