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Planning for Home: Aging, Advocacy, and Housing with Dignity Part 7: Putting It All Together Thumbnail

Planning for Home: Aging, Advocacy, and Housing with Dignity Part 7: Putting It All Together

Insights Retirement

Planning for Home: Aging, Advocacy, and Housing with Dignity

Part 7: Putting It All Together -- Your Housing Vision and Action Plan

We’ve explored a wide range of options for aging, from living near children, to CCRCs, to solo aging and co-housing. Now comes the most important part: turning reflection into action.

Aging isn’t just about where you live. It’s about how you live, and who’s in your corner when life gets complicated.

This final piece offers tools to help you design your own vision, voice, and plan for home and care as you age.

Step 1: Clarify Your Priorities

Before deciding where to live, ask yourself:

  • What do I value most: autonomy, connection, simplicity, security?
  • What are my non-negotiables: pet ownership, access to green space, spiritual community, proximity to medical care?
  • What lifestyle supports my health, identity, and joy?

Tip: Your answers may change over time. That’s okay. What matters is naming them now.

Step 2: Understand the Landscape

Here’s a quick recap of housing models explored in this series:

  1. Living Near or With Family: emotionally resonant, but requires honesty and boundaries
  2. 55+ Communities: low-maintenance and social interaction, but may lack care infrastructure
  3. CCRCs (e.g., Panorama, Heron’s Key): full-spectrum care, but with financial and cultural tradeoffs
  4. Home Sharing / Co-Housing: high on community, lower on formality
  5. ADUs / Backyard Units: proximity + privacy, but requires property access
  6. Solo Aging Plans: legally and socially intentional networks
  7. Outside-the-Box Models: from RV life to university retirement to rural retreats

There’s no one right answer, only what aligns with your vision.

Step 3: Identify Your Support Circle

Regardless of where you live, you’ll need:

  • Advocacy: Someone who will speak on your behalf when you can’t.
  • Care: People or services to help with health, mobility, and safety.
  • Connection: A reason to wake up each day and feel seen.

If you don’t have children or close family, build your chosen circle now: friends, professionals, neighbors, church or community contacts, even a future housemate.

Step 4: Take Concrete Steps

Here’s a mini checklist to begin planning with clarity and peace of mind:

  • Appoint a Power of Attorney and Healthcare Proxy
  • Update your will and advance health care directive
  • Tour a CCRC, 55+ community, or co-housing group (even if just to compare)
  • Meet with a financial advisor who understands long-term care
  • Make a list of people you trust, and begin conversations
  • Explore house-sharing or ADU ideas with your circle or kids
  • Write your housing preferences in plain language (it helps!)

Step 5: Name Your “Plan B”

Hope for independence. Plan for dependence. What happens if your first plan falls through?

  • If your spouse dies?
  • If your health changes?
  • If your kids move or can’t help?
  • If your money runs lower than expected?

Resilience comes from having contingency options before you need them.

Final Thought: Planning Is a Gift

Planning for aging isn’t just about logistics. It’s a declaration of self-respect, a message to your future self that says: “You matter. And I’ve got your back.”

It’s also a gift to your loved ones. Children (if you have them) aren’t left scrambling. Friends aren’t guessing. Professionals know what you want. You stay in the driver’s seat.

Home isn’t just a place. It’s a plan, for living with clarity, care, and dignity.

 

 

Disclosure: This material is presented solely for information purposes and has been gathered from sources believed to be reliable, however, Pacific Asset Management cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information, and certain information presented here may have been condensed or summarized from its original source. The preceding information is not intended to be tax, legal or accounting advice, and nothing contained in these materials should be relied upon as such. It may not be used for the purpose of avoiding any federal tax penalties. Please consult legal or tax professionals for specific information regarding your individual situation. Nothing in this presentation in intended to serve as personalized investment, tax, or insurance advice, as such advice depends on your individual facts and circumstances. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Pacific Asset Management and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Pacific Asset Management unless a client service agreement is in place.

 

 

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