Planning for Family Caregiving – Danielle Miura, CFP

“First we have to lay the foundation for ourselves in our own financial situation. So about 65% of family caregivers have some type of health decline during their caregiving period. And so it’s ensuring that you have a long-term care plan in place, because as much as we would want to admit it, we have to take care of ourselves too. And it may happen that not only you’re taking care of a loved one, but you’re also needing your own long-term care. So having that plan in place for yourself, having your finances in order so you understand what those financial boundaries look like. So exactly when you need to pull from savings, how much can you pull from savings? That may be the decision of whether do I pull money from my 401(k )or do I pull it from a taxable brokerage account, because those can be two different tax implications. And then it’s looking at your loved one’s financial situation. If you’re going to be their power of attorney, you’re going to have to understand what that role looks like, and you probably should know where their accounts are, how much money they have so they can afford long-term care themselves. Do they have enough money to either pay for a care worker or pay for you to take care of them? So those are the questions that I start, I’m kind of like the devil’s advocate where I am [asking ] if this scenario happens, are you prepared for this situation? Because it may happen to you if just like me, I needed to take care of myself and I needed a couple weeks to do that and to get myself recuperated

“Take care of yourself and know those boundaries. It’s okay to have boundaries. It’s okay to have limits. Maybe you have a relationship with your loved one that’s not a healthy relationship. It’s okay to ask for help and find other ways so that you are not paying, you’re not doing the primary role of family caregiving. It’s okay to set up a support system where you’re not doing all the activities when it comes to caregiving. So for example, for my loved one, we have a neighbor that comes over and walks the dog. We have another neighbor that comes over and sees my grandmother an hour a day and they chitchat. So trying to spread out the wealth of caregiving is what’s going to help you in the long run. That could be an hour that you can go on a walk or an hour that you can relax. Sometimes you have to get a little bit creative. As I talked about previously. A lot of people don’t know they’re actually family caregivers. And the trouble with that is that there are so many great resources, but if you don’t feel like that’s part of your identity or that’s something you need help with because you’re not fitting into that role, you may not be a person that actually gets help. And there’s caregiver support groups.”

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