Are you saving enough for retirement?

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Slava

...I'd say that spending $10k a month in Calgary you're either layering on a bunch of care, or you're in a place like the Edward or Amica. Nothing wrong with that, but that's pretty clearly a personal decision at that point.

They are in Edward, yes. And, yes, this was a personal decision, which means they were fortunate enough to be able to make that decision themselves. The spouse had a spinal operation and became wheelchair bound. That place is not a nursing home, btw. It is more of a nice apartment building with lots of care options to choose from. They live in a 1,000 sq.ft. unit; again, not a palace; but also not a 150 sq.ft. bed and night-table room you'd get at Mayfair.

Point was, much more often than not, people in their 80s cannot make that decision themselves, because they can't afford it; so they go wherever the system can place them.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

They are in Edward, yes. And, yes, this was a personal decision, which means they were fortunate enough to be able to make that decision themselves. The spouse had a spinal operation and became wheelchair bound. That place is not a nursing home, btw. It is more of a nice apartment building with lots of care options to choose from. They live in a 1,000 sq.ft. unit; again, not a palace; but also not a 150 sq.ft. bed and night-table room you'd get at Mayfair.

Point was, much more often than not, people in their 80s cannot make that decision themselves, because they can't afford it; so they go wherever the system can place them.

Yeah, and of course it's better to have the choice. I don't know the specifics of The Edward, but there are quite a few Private Assisted Living places in Calgary. For a single room you're getting somewhere around 500-600 square feet, programming, meals and everything for around $4500-5500/month. You can add more care and such. There is home care available for things that are scheduled. It's when you need unscheduled care that the costs really increase.

The reason I say it's pretty nice though, is as a senior who isn't going places and doing a lot, it's a great arranment. You get the care you need, they prepare all your food, clean your place, and there are a lot of activities and outings you can do as well. The food isn't incredible, but it's like going to a restaurant for lunch and dinner, and there are plenty of options. It's definitely not what I would've had in mind for these kinds of places!

[CliffFletcher]

I didn’t know any of this stuff until I started dealing with it recently, but there are two kinds of seniors facilities:

Private assisted living facilities are for people who can’t or don’t want to bother looking after their own home anymore. They might need some health supervision, (medication, mild dementia) but nothing serious. These can be quite nice - they put real resources into furnishings, amenities, meals, and programming (bistros, movie rooms with theatre seating, etc) and cost around 3.5k to 5.5k.

Long-term care facilities are for people requiring constant supervision and medical care (strokes, severe dementia, etc). The facility might be privately operated, but the care is managed and mostly subsidized by the provincial government as a function of public health care. Staff do their best, but as might be expected these facilities are pretty grim. They cost around 2k, and low-income seniors may be eligible for subsidies that further reduce the cost.

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I didn’t know any of this stuff until I started dealing with it recently, but there are two kinds of seniors facilities:

Private assisted living facilities are for people who can’t or don’t want to bother looking after their own home anymore. They might need some health supervision, (medication, minor dementia) but nothing serious. These can be quite nice - they put real resources into furnishings, amenities, meals, and programming (bistros, movie rooms with theatre seating, etc) and cost around 3.5k to 5.5k.

Care homes are for people requiring constant supervision and medical care. The facility might be privately operated, but the care is managed and mostly subsidized by the provincial government as a function of public health care. Staff do their best, but as might be expected these facilities are pretty grim. They cost around 2k, and low-income seniors may be eligible for subsidies that further reduce the cost.

It is a bit more complicated. Seniors' care in Alberta nursing homes is based on the number of Government-funded beds available. Operators (profit or non-profit) receive the same amount per bed per day from the Government. The number of new beds added to the system is reviewed and approved annually, as is the funding amount, which is quite low (used to be about $80/day a few years ago; not sure what it is now). Cost of being in a nursing home to a person is not free; but it is also not a fixed same amount for everyone. For some it is equal to their CPP+OAS pension income. Some homes charge more.


Privately run care homes can have both funded and unfunded care components. In fact, having government-funded beds improves overall profitability of a home greatly; because they can share expensive services between both resident groups. "Assisted-Living" is just a marketing term invented to de-stigmatize a "nursing home". In AL facility you can have different levels of service starting from "independent" living and all the way to full nursing care. In an Alberta nursing home, the level of service is always the full level of nursing care (which also varies between memory-loss and other specialty units).

[CaptainYooh]

To add, some private operators are adopting a newer model of rental building complexes for seniors with common areas and various care and maintenance services available for purchase (some mandatory though), but no medical care services available at all. Statesman built one at Fish Creek LRT station. Two high-rises with small units (300-500 sq.ft.) renting in the $4,000-$5,000 per month range.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

I'm another one in the camp of 'not sure if I have saved enough'. I've been saving for many years and have built up a nice nest egg, it just doesn't seem like enough though when I look at things. Housing prices have escalated so quickly in the past year or two it's probably pushed out of the market we were hoping for in retirement, I doubt the sale of our house now would get us into what we were hoping to, and there's not enough saved to make up the difference and also fund retirement. Hoping for another 5-6 years of work but it's been touch and go the past 6 so nothing is guaranteed. Normally one would make hay while the sun shines but it's been a rough 7 years at work which has not allowed us to put any extra money away other than our regular savings. My wife's job probably disappears in 3 years when the business she works at will close, that's another hit to absorb in the retirement funding.

I'm probably still okay, it just doesn't seem like there's enough in the retirement kitty at first glance.

Talk to Slava. He'll help you and you need advice.

[I_H8_Crawford]

Wife and I saved like crazy through our 30's, hit our "number" to retire in our late 30s. CoVid hit, and I was a huge beneficiary, we have more than doubled our net worth now, but I love my job and it pays super well, so no plans to retire anytime soon.

The "Hardest" part for us is moving from "Save as much as you can" to "time to YOLO" - yes I know that sounds awful, but it's true.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by I_H8_Crawford

Wife and I saved like crazy through our 30's, hit our "number" to retire in our late 30s. CoVid hit, and I was a huge beneficiary, we have more than doubled our net worth now, but I love my job and it pays super well, so no plans to retire anytime soon.

The "Hardest" part for us is moving from "Save as much as you can" to "time to YOLO" - yes I know that sounds awful, but it's true.

Wow, neat. Good for your guys. What are your retirement plans?

[Geraldsh]

You lost me at YOLO

Yell Our Lungs Out?
Yank Our Little Organs?
"????”

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Geraldsh

You lost me at YOLO

Yell Our Lungs Out?
Yank Our Little Organs?
"????”

You only live once

[Yoho]

Originally Posted by I_H8_Crawford

Wife and I saved like crazy through our 30's, hit our "number" to retire in our late 30s. CoVid hit, and I was a huge beneficiary, we have more than doubled our net worth now, but I love my job and it pays super well, so no plans to retire anytime soon.

The "Hardest" part for us is moving from "Save as much as you can" to "time to YOLO" - yes I know that sounds awful, but it's true.

I’d love to know the “number” your comfortable retiring with in your late 30’s is.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Yoho

I’d love to know the “number” your comfortable retiring with in your late 30’s is.

Hard not to be curious, but I think that's a mystery we'll have to learn to live with. Can't imagine a dude throwing out a specific number on a forum.

[agulati]

Hit the number to “retire in our late 30s” or to “retire” in our late 30s?

[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Wow, neat. Good for your guys. What are your retirement plans?

We have 2 young kids, so plan on continuing working for now, as they are entering school years. My wife is likely going to quit her job, she hates it and it has a ton of stress, and my paychecks cover all living expenses and then some, so our nest egg keeps growing.

Do plan on doing travel when we can, no issues taking the kids out of school for a couple weeks to go hit up Korea, Japan, Vietnam, France, NZ, etc... I feel that will be better for education for them anyways as opposed to sitting in class learning about different cultures, they can experience it.

When the kids have grown up, would love to live on a beach in a place like Vietnam - enjoy the beach life, amazing food, CHEAP, and come back to Canada for our medical stuff.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by I_H8_Crawford

We have 2 young kids, so plan on continuing working for now, as they are entering school years. My wife is likely going to quit her job, she hates it and it has a ton of stress, and my paychecks cover all living expenses and then some, so our nest egg keeps growing.

Do plan on doing travel when we can, no issues taking the kids out of school for a couple weeks to go hit up Korea, Japan, Vietnam, France, NZ, etc... I feel that will be better for education for them anyways as opposed to sitting in class learning about different cultures, they can experience it.

When the kids have grown up, would love to live on a beach in a place like Vietnam - enjoy the beach life, amazing food, CHEAP, and come back to Canada for our medical stuff.

That's cool.

I've kind of put on myself a goal of coming up with down payments for the kids' houses, so that'll keep me working an extra year or two beyond just covering my own needs. I really want them to graduate debt free and then be able to get into a house as soon as they're ready to settle.

It sucks young people have all these expenses to get set up in life (university, house, car) during their low-earning years. If I can take away that from my kids, hopefully they'll pay it forward for their kids, and we'll remove some stress from future generations in my family until some prick decides to become an alcoholic and blow their advantages. Hopefully that'll be after I'm gone, though.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Sliver

That's cool.

I've kind of put on myself a goal of coming up with down payments for the kids' houses, so that'll keep me working an extra year or two beyond just covering my own needs. I really want them to graduate debt free and then be able to get into a house as soon as they're ready to settle.

It sucks young people have all these expenses to get set up in life (university, house, car) during their low-earning years. If I can take away that from my kids, hopefully they'll pay it forward for their kids, and we'll remove some stress from future generations in my family until some prick decides to become an alcoholic and blow their advantages. Hopefully that'll be after I'm gone, though.

The adage is "shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations".

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Slava

The adage is "shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations".

I guess as long as my kids are in good shape I'll be happy. If my grandkids suck I'll fata them over in my will just because I can. I'll leave their share to a dog shelter.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by I_H8_Crawford

When the kids have grown up, would love to live on a beach in a place like Vietnam - enjoy the beach life, amazing food, CHEAP, and come back to Canada for our medical stuff.

How would that work? My understanding is once you're a non-resident, you have no medical coverage in Canada and it's a 3-month waiting period to have coverage whenever you do re-establish residency. You can't just live somewhere else and then fly back for treatment here.

[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by opendoor

How would that work? My understanding is once you're a non-resident, you have no medical coverage in Canada and it's a 3-month waiting period to have coverage whenever you do re-establish residency. You can't just live somewhere else and then fly back for treatment here.

Honestly, we are looking 25 years into the future still for that, but my plan would be keep Canada residence, spend winters over there and summers back here.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Hard not to be curious, but I think that's a mystery we'll have to learn to live with. Can't imagine a dude throwing out a specific number on a forum.

Living on cat food and not having much to do with life or giving back is very different than eating well, Having toys, travelling, and taking care of and educating kids. All whilst in either late 30’s or early 40’s.

For myself that’s the difference between about ~750k (cat food) and ~$2mil+, or $4mil+ (caviar).