Navigating Your Later Years For Dummies

Long-Term Care: Planning for Finance, Medical, and Living Expenses

We’re living exciting bonus years―decades that our parents and grandparents didn’t have. But how to navigate this complex terrain? Questions abound around long-term care planning: Where to live? How to get the best medical care? What to do about advance directives, wills and trusts, and estate planning? And how to pay for it all after you retire? Getting accurate information and answers wasn’t easy. Until now.

AARP's Navigating Your Later Years For Dummies helps you and your family understand the growing range of opportunities. Even more importantly, it helps you chart the next steps to live the life you choose, as independently as you choose, no matter your specific circumstances and needs. This book:

• Covers home modifications so that you can stay at home safely for as long as you like
• Lays out the opportunities and costs associated with independent living, assisted living and other options
• Gives you a range of driving and transportation alternatives
• Helps you navigate the healthcare system, Medicare, and Medicaid
• Sorts out the various sources of care at home
• Reviews the legal documents you should prepare and update
• Helps you determine whether you need long-term care insurance
• Gives you guidance on talking with your family about sensitive issues, including your wishes as you age

With this new comprehensive book, you’ll get the credible information and resources you need to face the challenges facing us as we live the life we choose. Here, finally, is a roadmap for you and your family to best understand, and plan ahead.

Carol Levine directs the Families and Health Care Project at the United Hospital Fund in New York. She is an expert on aging, health, long-term care, and family caregiving, and writes on those topics for both professional and consumer audiences.