Category: Finances

If you share your home with an aging loved one, you’ve probably thought about enrolling them in an independent living program. Independent living facilities put your old folk in a soothing environment, surrounded by their peers, to promote their physical and mental wellbeing. While it might seem boring and drab to you, an independent living facility is like a vacation home to the old folks.

An independent or senior living community seems like a perfect idea for most folks, but unfortunately, not everyone can afford to send their loved ones to these facilities. According to Assisted Living, living in an independent living facility costs between $15000-$4000 every month. Few families can afford that, and if you’re in that category, we’re here to help.

Today’s piece will look at how you can pay for an assisted living community for your old folks.

How Much Is Independent Living?

Independent living prices vary, so there’ no clear-cut amount on how much you should expect to pay for independently living. However, as mentioned above, expect to pay around $1500 to $4000 for your aging parents to live in such a facility. 

It’s worth noting that there are various types of independent living facilities, and the type you settle for will determine how much you’ll pay. Before we get into the figures, let’s first look at the common types of independent living.

Types of Independent Living

There are a few types of independent living you could opt for. Here are the main types of independent living for senior citizens.

Senior Apartments

Senior apartments go by many names, including independent living communities or senior living communities. These apartments are typically part of a larger facility premised on providing accommodation and care for older adults. 

The senior residents of these apartments receive services like housekeeping, laundry, and even transportation. Most senior apartments have a dining room where residents can eat instead of cooking for themselves.

Retirement Communities

Retirement communities are neighborhoods where active retirees and senior citizens can live surrounded by their peers. They offer the least services compared to other independent living facilities. They are ideal for the not-so-elderly who can still take good care of themselves.

Residents in senior communities clean and cook for themselves but leave ground maintenance to the community.  These communities can contain single-family homes, condos, and even townhomes. They offer amenities like tennis parks, clubhouse, pools, and the likes.

Such communities offer an ideal vicinity for old folks to live through their retirement in a conducive environment. A fine example of a distinguished retirement community is https://johnknox.com/independent-living-florida/.

Low-Income Housing

Low-income housing is a housing arrangement that the government offers for senior citizens from less-privileged backgrounds. Other names for low-income housing include public housing or government-subsidized housing. 

Ways to Pay for Independent Living

 You’ll need to dig deep in your pockets to pay for your aging folks to live in an independent living community. Here are some ways you can pay for independent living.

Personal Funds or Savings

Most of the elderly use their retirement to pay for independent living. That’s why most older adults may choose to sell their homes to get a townhouse in an independent community. It takes them away from the racket and city commotion to a quiet place where they can live peacefully.

You can use your personal savings or income from your job or business to pay for independent living. You can use any other source of income to pay for your aging parent’s independent living. You can use interest, stocks, certificates of deposits, and even liquidated assets.

Housing Assistance

The US government has put measures in place to help seniors from low-income backgrounds find safe and affordable living. The department of housing and urban development(HUD) is charged with ensuring proper living conditions for less-privileged older adults. HUD offers vouchers, public housing, and rental subsidy as forms of assistance.

Older adults can take advantage of this assistance and pay for independent living. The problem with housing assistance is that they might have long waiting lists. Still, there’s nothing old folks have to le by applying for housing assistance on the HUD website.

Annuity Payments

Older adults can use their annuity payments to pay to live in an assisted living community. An annuity is an arrangement made between you and an insurance company. You pay the insurance a lump sum, and the insurer pays you monthly, quarterly, or a lump sum payment after some time, based on your agreement.

The amount you’ll receive for your annuity payment depends on several conditions. One of them is your initial investment amount and also whether you chose a fixed or variable annuity. With a fixed annuity, you agree on a fixed annuity payment, but a variable annuity changes depending on the annuity’s investments.

Social Security Benefits

If your loved one receives social security benefits or any other pension, they can use that money to pay for their independent living. The maximum social security benefit at age 65 is about $2,841 which should be enough to cover independent living expenses. If not, you can top up with personal funds to meet the cost.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

If your loved one is disabled, blind, and over 65 years, they qualify for supplemental security income. SSI guarantees consistent monthly payments to help blind and disabled folk pay for basic needs like food, shelter, and clothing. 

The amount they receive as the SSI depends on their current income, living arrangements, and other factors. These payments can help applicants meet the costs for independent living, of course, with a bit of topping up.

You Can Afford Independent Living

Independent living might seem expensive. But the information above should help you find a suitable payment method for your aging folks.

If caring for the elderly in your home seems too much work, consider enrolling them in an independent living community. That way, both of you can live happily ever after.

For more interesting content, keep visiting our posts.

If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of owning an event venue, you can see why the concept sounds like a good idea. After all, who doesn’t want to be in the business of helping people celebrate their events? From weddings to conventions to author events, hosting excited people on their big day sounds like a blast.

However, there’s a lot more that goes into an event rental business than drinks and party favors! If you’re thinking about buying a space of your own, here are four tips you should know in advance.

1. Your Event Venue Location Matters

Before you plan out the details of your event rental business, it’s important to consider one thing: location, location, location.

Do your homework to find a place that’s both convenient to access and comfortable for guests; these details are what help you stand out from the crowd. In addition, make sure you’ve researched your target audience well enough to determine what they’re looking for and where they want it to be.

2. Plan Your Space With Care

After you’ve found the right location, take time to plan an event space that will provide everything you need while adding value for customers. This means providing sufficient room for large parties as well as storage.

In many cases, it may help to work with designers who can advise you on creating flexible spaces that can adapt to different needs. This might include strategies like including moveable partitions or modular furniture you can refigure whenever you want.

Don’t forget to consider your local building codes, fire marshal requirements, and more!

3. Consider Your Expenses Ahead of Time

With any small business, the number one factor that puts you at risk of premature closure is financial strain.

To avoid this, it’s critical to understand your expenses ahead of time.

Research the details to estimate your rent, utility payments, taxes, and insurance. Find out what you’ll need to pay to get a food or liquor license, to build up an event inventory, to maintain the property, to advertise your services, and to pay your staff. These details can help you understand what you’ll need to make in order to break even.

4. Get Your Pricing Right

Once you’ve finished the step above, you should have a better idea of what you’ll need to charge for your services in order to stay afloat.

However, you’ll also need to make sure you’ve priced your offerings in line with the market—or potentially even lower. Having competitive prices, especially when you’re just getting started, can be a great help. Finding ways to get people through the door early on through promotional prices can encourage the kind of word-of-mouth marketing you’ll need to make your business a success.

Owning an Event Venue Is Worth the Effort

At the end of the day, owning an event venue can be tough at first—but you’ll find that the end result is well worth the effort and investment. As long as you’ve done your research and planned well in advance, running an event rental business doesn’t have to be hard. Better still, you’ll be able to spend your days helping your customers celebrate, connect, and have fun!

Looking for more tips to help you make the most of your big goals? Check out our other posts for additional insights.

Are you wondering how to set up payroll for a small business? If you are a business owner with either employees or contractors, you will need to set up a payroll system. 

While setting up payroll is necessary, it can be a confusing and difficult task. Unlike other mistakes in your business, if you set up or run payroll incorrectly, you can face fines, lawsuits, and even the closure of your business. Fortunately, by knowing what steps to take, you can set up your payroll correctly and decrease your risks of making mistakes.

If you need to set up a payroll system but aren’t sure how to get started, this short and simple guide is for you.  

Know What You Need To Get Started

The first step towards setting up your payroll management system is to know what you need to get started. This is an essential step, one that can save you a lot of legal trouble long-term. Visit your state’s labor website to find out everything you need to get started with payroll. 

Choose a System and Schedule

The next step for setting up your small business payroll is to choose a system to use. You can choose to process payroll manually or use an automatic system. After choosing your system, you should also choose your payroll schedule. 

Add Your Employees

After choosing your payroll system and schedule, it’s time to add your employees into the system. Depending on the system you have, this can be as simple as having your employees fill out a few online forms, or as difficult as manually processing each employee. Make sure you are adding the correct information for each employee to decrease your risks of making a mistake. 

Learn the Ins and Outs of Running Payroll

After your payroll is set up, you need to learn the ins and outs of running it. This can be a complicated process as there are many moving parts to processing payroll. Consider taking advantage of the customer service and support that is available for the system you choose. 

Consider Outsourcing

If you are feeling overwhelmed with all of your payroll tasks, considering outsourcing. This is a great way to take advantage of a team of experts for a fraction of the price. Research payroll outsourcing companies and choose the best one for your business. 

This Is How To Set up Payroll for a Small Business

By following these tips for how to set up payroll for a small business, you can make sure your system is set up correctly. 

Start by knowing all the rules and regulations you need to follow. You should also choose a payroll system, determine a payroll schedule, and add your employees. Make sure to learn the ins and outs of running payroll and consider outsourcing if you are feeling overwhelmed. 

Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to paying your employees or contractors.

Don’t forget to browse our site for advice on relationships, travel, beauty, and more.

Maintaining a healthy smile doesn’t require breaking the bank.

When it comes to dental procedures, people often settle for the dentists they regularly visit. However, many dentists charge outrageous prices that can make it difficult to get things done. Because of this, people end up getting loans or buying into payment plans with high-interest rates.

Understanding how to save money when you need a dental procedure will ensure you can afford more things. To save you time, we’ll go over several money-saving ideas so you can avoid high dental costs.

Read on to learn about 7 ways to save money on your dental costs!

1. Open a Health Savings Account

One of the best ways to save money on dental costs is to open a health savings account (HSA). These accounts are designed for people to grow tax-free dollars until they need them for medical expenses. They also come with favorable interest rates, so you can expect to earn money even when you’re not contributing.

If you’d like to take a more traditional approach, you can open a regular savings account and make contributions to that. However, you won’t qualify for some of the financial benefits that a health savings account can offer.

2. Use Employee Benefits

Most employers offer a plethora of employee benefits that you can take advantage of to save money. When it comes to dental care, you should see if your employer offers a healthcare plan. If they do, you can get a variety of services done without having to pay much money.

Some employers may also partner with specific dentists. If you visit them, you may not have to pay anything. This will vary depending on the type of dental procedure you do, but necessary procedures should be free. You may also get discounts when visiting the best cosmetic dentist your employer works with. 

3. Visit a Dental School

A dental school is one of the best places to go when you need a dental procedure but don’t have much money. Most schools offer dental services for free because the students need to practice on someone. While this may seem daunting, the student dentists you’ll work with have already practiced numerous times.

Not only will it give the students more experience, but you can receive high-quality work from someone that’s being supervised. The only downside to visiting a dental school is that the procedure may take longer.

4. Compare Different Dentists

Before you settle on a dentist, you should compare the rates and services of several. This is something that many people overlook, but it’ll help you find someone that offers reasonable rates. Keep in mind that dental offices are privately-owned, so they can charge any amount they’d like.

One of the main services you should look for is a payment plan. When dentists offer these, it’s much easier to get a procedure done because you won’t need to pay everything upfront. You may end up paying more in the long run, but you can get things done when needed instead of waiting.

5. Go to a Retail Clinic

A retail dental clinic offers a variety of low-cost services to those in need. What makes them stand out from other clinics is that their services are high-quality and affordable. They don’t offer many types of procedures, but you can expect to get things like cleanings, fillings, implants, and more.

Retail clinics can be found in high-traffic areas. Places like malls and drug stores are some of the most common, though you can also find them in various neighborhoods. When visiting one, you can get a dental procedure done without having to schedule an appointment.

6. Find Discounts Online

Out of all the cost-saving ideas, people often get interested in looking for coupons and discounts. This is an effective way to save money because many local dentists offer them when they want to attract patients. The best part about looking for them is that it takes minutes when searching online.

All you must do is search for something like, “dental discounts near me.” You’ll then see sites like Groupon appear, which offer a variety of coupons and discounts to new patients. These discounts often apply to basic dental procedures, but some dentists offer them for more expensive ones.

7. Practice Preventative care

Preventative care will ensure that you spend as little money as possible on dental care. Dentist pricing can be extremely expensive depending on the procedure, but they’re often ones that resolve hygiene-related problems. If you practice preventative care, you won’t have to visit a dentist often.

Things like brushing and flossing frequently will prevent your teeth from needing serious procedures. You should also schedule regular checkups to detect problems as soon as they arise. These checkups are much more affordable than getting something like an implant, which may be necessary if you have a deteriorating tooth due to poor hygiene.

Start Reducing Dental Costs Today

When you start looking into dental procedures, you shouldn’t have a problem getting them done without breaking the bank. Providing you use this advice, you’ll find a dentist that offers exactly what you need at affordable rates. However, ensure that you go through each of these steps before choosing one.

We encourage you to start by looking online for several dentists in your area. From there, you can look into coupons, dental schools, and retail clinics. If you get discounted dental costs from your employer, you may not have to do more searching.

Check out our other articles to read more about different topics!

Everyone needs to think about the future. Life is full of many twists and turns, and failure to prepare for them could leave you in a precarious position. You’ll need to embrace the idea of long-term financial planning if you want to come out the other side of life in one piece.

Setting financial goals can help you get in control of your personal financial future. However, if you’ve never thought of the long-term in this way, it can be difficult to determine how to get started.

What are some financial planning tactics that you should look into if you want to set yourself up for a more stable future? Read on and we’ll walk you through what you need to know. 

1. Considering Retirement

We don’t all work forever, even if we do for most of our lives. The last period of most people’s lives is marked by some sort of retirement. This is where the routine of work is cast aside and the idea of freedom is embraced. Usually, sometimes after your 60s. 

Retirement is often the biggest subject on the mind of many people as they look towards their financial futures. It’s important to really think about what your retirement might look like, what your goals and hopes are, and how much money you might need to live in the way that you envision. 

Doing so can be a challenge for many Americans.

You can start off by creating a budget for these years. Think about what a week in your retired life might look like: where will you live, what will you do? This can help you to create an estimated budget for what this lifestyle might cost.

Don’t forget to factor other costs into your week-by-week life at this point. Higher healthcare costs, for example, will likely be difficult to avoid. This is just a reality of getting older.

If you think you’ll have money coming in at this point, whether it be through some form of income or through social security, you’ll want to factor this in as well. Retirement plan payouts and pensions should also be considered. 

Your expected expenses minus your expected income should give you a number that will represent how much you’ll need to have saved up for retirement.

How much are you saving right now on an annual basis? If you haven’t been keeping track, now is a good time to start doing so. Have a retirement date in mind and see how much you will have saved by that time if you keep up at the same rate of saving as you are now.

How are things looking? You should have a clear idea by doing this simple math. If you need to start saving more in order to reach your retirement goals, it’s time to start doing so. Look at your current budget and see where you can divert funds.

2. Late In Life Living

Another big element of late in life living you need to consider? Where you’ll be living. It is obviously difficult to plan for what your situation might be many years into the future. You don’t know how your health might be. You don’t know if you’ll be alone or not.

Maybe you’ll be able to live on your own, take care of all your responsibilities, and travel from place to place freely. Maybe you won’t be able to and you’ll need assistance. 

You might need to look into nursing homes near me if you’re interested in getting a view of what all the options might be like. If you think you might end up needing assistance in your later years, you’ll need to budget for this kind of care as well.

There are many different kinds of retirement homes out there and they can vary wildly in price. Looking into the many options and considering which might be right for you can help you plan for your future.

3. Life Insurance

Do you have a life insurance policy currently? If not, it’s something that you might want to consider. If you have a family, part of your long-term financial planning should be considering how you will care for them in the future, even once you are no longer on the Earth.

Getting a strong life insurance policy is generally considered the best way to go about this. The earlier in life you lock in a life insurance policy, the better price you’ll get for it. If you wait too late, you might end up locking yourself in at extremely high premiums.

This is especially true if you do so once health complications have already arisen. It can be extremely difficult to get proper life insurance if you have pre-existing conditions. The earlier you can obtain it, the healthier you are, the better.

There are many different kinds of life insurance out there and you’ll need to do your research and decide which is best for you. Whole life insurance covers you without question until death, while term life insurance covers you for a certain number of years before expiring.

It’s important to shop around and see what the provider might offer you the best rate.

Long-Term Financial Planning Tips and Tricks

If you think it’s time to start thinking about your later years, you’ll want to dig into some of the long-term financial planning tips listed above. Each of these subject matters is important to think about if you’re hoping to ensure a stable and comfortable future for yourself in your later years.

Need more health and family advice? Keep scrolling our blog for more.