Old age and sickness will exhaust a lot of Boomer assets. From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:
The younger generations expecting to inherit the immense wealth piled up by Boomers in home equity and stocks may be in for a shock.
I’ve reached the point in life where I see a sharp line dividing the adult populace: there are those of us who are old enough to retire who are taking care of very elderly parents / family members at home, and then there’s everyone else.
Instead of life getting easier as we age, it gets harder–much harder , as we no longer have the same energy we had in our 40s and 50s.
This article captures what life is like for those of us fulfilling parents’ wishes to live out their final years at home: The Crushing Financial Burden of Aging at Home: Families face soaring costs and mounting pressures in taking care of their loved ones. ‘I never feel truly free.’ (WSJ.com)
In my case, we spent the last 8 years taking care of my mother-in-law, the last 6 years of her life here at our home. (She passed away at 92 last year.) So from ages 62 to 70, we had two jobs: caregiving and our self-employed paid work. In those years, we managed one vacation–not exactly the ideal retirement scenario.
