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7. Caregiving Will Change Your Life
ОглавлениеThere are many ways your life will change if you step into the role of caregiver, especially if you assume a caregiving role from within your own home when a parent comes to live with you. Your job, finances, and social life will be impacted. Your ability to travel, your emotional well-being, and your retirement dreams will be impacted. That sounds like a lot, but know that with good planning, that impact will feel far less overwhelming.
Remember that despite the challenges, there is a great feeling of satisfaction in knowing you are taking care of a loved one and helping him or her make the most of his or her later years in a safe and loving environment.
Another of my cherished clients, Dawn, went through this caregiving process with her mother not so long ago. Her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and while many patients with this diagnosis live less than 12 months, Dawn’s mother lived another 5 years. Since Dawn was told of the short time frame expected, she willingly took on the full caregiving responsibilities for her mother, assuming that her mother did not have much longer to live.
While her mother enjoyed much better health in years three and four — thanks to remission and pain control — Dawn still experienced a lot of mental and physical fatigue in those five long years. Thankfully she had a very supportive husband who helped keep her from “losing it” or throwing in the towel, and little did they know that all the while, he was learning from her example and would use that knowledge to assist his own ailing mother shortly thereafter.
Finding a healthy balance between the rewards and the challenges can be done with awareness, diligent planning, and preparedness. There is still time to build a solid financial plan that will allow your parents to be taken care of in their home as long as possible, and in the facility of their choice, in the style and manner they wish, when the time eventually comes.
There is still time to ensure that your retirement dreams can come true as well. Most importantly, there’s no time like the present to get started. In the next Chapter, we’ll discuss how planning starts with you and your own retirement readiness.
1. Names and case details have been changed to protect the clients.
