Let’s face it: you are getting older. One day you won’t be around anymore. How will you take care of your family until then? As a parent, your job of looking after your children will never end. Even when you are sick and dying, you have to protect your family. Here are three ways that you can do that as you get older.
Plan Your Will
What are you going to leave your family after you die? You don’t have to be a millionaire to plan a will. According to LegalZoom, about 77% of adults in America believe that planning their estate before they die is important, no matter their financial status. What happens if you don’t leave a will? It pretty much becomes free for all among your children. This is what happened to singer Aretha Franklin after she passed away in 2018. Not having a will can be pretty messy when it comes to dividing up everything. That goes especially if the children and relatives have their own agenda. Sit down and plan out your will before you die.
Take Care of Yourself- Disabled or Not
In order to take care of your family as you get older, you have to take care of yourself as well. The parent is usually the one that has to sacrifice so much for their children. Sometimes, they do it at the expense of their own well-being. You have to take time to care for yourself. This is especially important if you are a disabled parent. Did you know that every year there are about two million new wheelchair users in America? Things happen. When you end up in a wheelchair, you need to have a house that can accommodate you. Build a ramp in front of your house to make it easier to get in and out. Use a mobile chair for the stairs if you have more than one story in your home. Have more than one wheelchair available just in case. If you need some extra help getting around, ask for it from family or hire someone to help you. Your well-being will be the key to taking care of your family.
Always Have a Back-Up Plan
Plans don’t always go through in life. This is why you are going to need a backup. Explore all of the options that you have. You might need to make some changes to the plans that you have. For example, if you end up getting hurt on the job, you will need to apply for disability. That alone isn’t always that easy. Applying for disability is like playing the slot machine. Sometimes, you will strike it rich, while other times, the odds are not in your favor. However, everything does not have to be lost. If you are denied for social security disability the first time, you only get sixty days to appeal. Why is that? Well, the first appeal, called reconsideration, will take up to sixty days to complete on average. In the meantime, you are going to have to look at everything on the table. This will take some help and research to get everything down pact. It will all be worth it, in the end, to make sure that your family will be okay while you are on the mend.
Your kids will be missing a parent in their lives. You have to make sure that they will be taken care of after you pass on. The last thing you want is for them to be stuck struggling with bills and your debts. Plan a will, take care of yourself, and always have a backup plan if everything falls through. Your job as a parent isn’t over until after your death. You have to keep taking care of your age as you get older. You have to try the best you can with the time you have left.