55 Plus Communities Carry Lots of Extra Fees and Offer Little in the Way of Cultural Diversity

The good news is that you have started your retirement in good health.  You do not need long-term care, so there is no need to move to an assisted living community, even though healthy retirees should buy long-term care insurance in case the need for assisted living or nursing home care arises.  The affliction that is bothering you is not a physical illness, but rather the feeling that, now that you are retired, you feel out of place in a nondescript Florida suburb where people’s lives seem to revolve around work.  Advertisers are happy to pounce on your senior Weltschmerz and sell you dreams of a nondescript Florida suburb where people’s lives revolve around being retired, and where everything is as affordable as a senior breakfast at Denny’s.  For some seniors, 55 plus communities are an ideal new home, but they are not nearly as idyllic or as inexpensive as the promotional content makes them sound.  For help thinking clearly about whether to age in place or move somewhere else, contact a Dade City estate planning lawyer.

Senior Living Communities Are Not As Affordable As They Seem

When you are just looking at the cost of a month’s rent, 55 plus communities sound like they are so economical that you would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to live there.  Before you sign on the dotted line, though, think about how affordable the impossibly handsome speaker during the timeshare sales pitch that you only signed up for so you could get free Disney tickets made the timeshares sound.  55 plus communities include lots of other mandatory fees that aren’t rent but aren’t not unavoidable housing costs.  It costs a bundle to move in and to move out.  Furthermore, you must pay for all the amenities, such as the swimming pool, ballroom, gym, and tennis court, even if you use them only rarely, or not at all.

Who Is the Ideal Candidate for a 55 Plus Community?

Money is never the only factor that determines where you live, and paying for a shuffleboard that you never use is not the biggest bummer about senior living communities.  The most disappointing thing is the lack of cultural diversity.  Consider that the population of Florida is 51 percent non-Hispanic White, but senior living communities are 97 percent non-Hispanic White.  Even worse, the population is 100 percent old folks.  Being entirely surrounded by people from your same demographic group does not keep you young, and neither does being the only person of your cultural background for miles around.  The architecture in the Florida suburbs may be boring and monotonous, but at least in terms of diversity of ages and ethnic backgrounds, it is a microcosm of the larger world.

Contact a Florida Estate Planning Attorney About Finding the Right Place to Spend Your Retirement

An estate planning attorney can help you make wise decisions about where to live after you retire.  Contact The Law Office of Laurie R. Chane in Dade City, Florida to discuss your estate plan.

Source:

finance.yahoo.com/news/5-problems-living-55-plus-102300915.html