My husband and I are at the point in our lives that we want to retire. We have been taking care of my mom for the past 4 years but she is at the point where she needs more care. We will be selling our home and moving in with her. She has plenty of money, so we do not see her needing to access Medicaid. We want to make sure that when she passes that we are not forced to sell her home.
I see from your profile that your Mom has Alzheimer's/Dementia. Moving in with her is a great idea, but as her memory loss progresses, you may need help by hiring caregivers, otherwise you would be doing the work of 3 full-time caregivers each day. Great way to crash and burn, and for your Mom to outlive you.
So plan ahead. Caregivers from an Agency could cost $20-$30/per hour depending on your area. Sounds reasonable until you add up the total number of days. Does Mom have enough in savings for that? It is less expensive to have Mom live in Assisted Living/Memory care where the cost on average is $6k per month, the cost depends on where you live.
Whatever you do, do not use your own money to pay for Mom's care, or before you know it your retirement is wheedled down to almost nothing.
Mom could also outlive her money, then she would need to get help from Medicaid if you find yourself overwhelmed taking care of Mom at home. Medicaid does look back 5 years, depending on the State, and they are very good at following a paper trail.
Oh, if only aging wasn't so complicated and expensive :(
When she first entered the nursing home, post stroke, post hip fracture, she was not expected to live out the year.
My mom will be 94 later this month; I don't see any reason why she won't live for another 5 or 6 years.