Caregiving for an aging family member

In many households, people may need to take care of aging family members or spouses. In these cases, expenses such as helping with caregiver wages, home medications, accommodating mobility issues, and travel costs, among others, can quickly drain your savings. Keep in mind that these costs may continue to so do for several years.

On top of that, you may even need to take time off work, further reducing your wages. In more extreme cases, reducing work hours or even quitting one’s jobs may be the only options. Don’t think this will happen to you? According to the AARP report Family Caregiving and Out-of-Pocket, more than half of family caregivers must resort to these actions.

Because of these costs, 3 in 10 people dipped into personal savings while 1 in 6 reduced the amount of money they set aside for retirement. Most worryingly of all, 1 in 10 individuals stopped saving for retirement entirely.