So often our tendancies to ignore, deny, procrastinate and avoid can leave these issues unaddressed, and when the time for care is upon us (care which will VERY likely be needed, at least for half the population), then we could be left in an ugly, ugly situation.
Caregiver contracts are a new option for caring for aging elders. Use these formal agreements set up by an attorney.
A growing number of families are setting up caregiver contracts, in which relatives are formally hired to take care of elderly or disabled family members. These new arrangements, which can also be called personal-care or personal-service agreements, can help to reduce the size of a parent's estate. They can also minimize battles between siblings and various family members. And for many other families, these contracts can help compensate for the huge amounts of time, effort and money that family members all-too-often often spend watching over and taking care of an elderly relative.
Amazingly, some 44.4 million adult caregivers, or over 21% of the U.S. adult population, now provide unpaid care to frail adults with disabilities. On average, those caregivers provide 21 hours of care a week, and what's more, the average length of time spent providing care is 4.3 years.
Another reason to have a carefully-worded caregiver contract in place:
Recent legislation now makes it much tougher to qualify for Medicaid long-term-care assistance by faking impoverishment through outright gifts to family members. These laws were passed to prevent folks who have the means to pay for their own care from obtaining Medicaid, which is intended only for poor patients.
Attorneys say that if set up properly, a caregiver contract shouldn't be considered as a gift to children, because the patient is receiving a true, real service in return.
Still, there's stigma to overcome when recommending the idea to families. The main reason: Some people can still be uncomfortable with the idea of paying their own kids, say lawyers, and many folks choose to use long term care insurance coverage, instead of trying to fake their way onto the Medicaid welfare roles.
Throw Out Fifty Things Clear The Clutter Find Your Life
I'm a firm believer that
* if it doesn't work?
* if you can't remember when you last used it....or?
* if it doesn't make you feel good ?then?
MOVE IT OUT!
Now, I know? sounds easy doesn't it? Then why do we all have so much clutter?
Here are some tips and techniques that have worked for me to move unused items from my life.
You see I've tested them on my own personal clutter and I know they work. First you will need some bankers boxes (you can get these anywhere you purchase office supplies). Bankers boxes work the best because they have lids and are stackable. And a hand-held recorder (you can get one cheaply at any electronics department).
Here's what you do to quickly eliminate your clutter:
(1) Label the boxes anyway you like ?maybe with a letter (A, B, C etc) or with a color, green, red, orange??
(2) Go around and start putting your dear clutter in the boxes while recording the contents with your recorder. (You can do this little by little whenever you have a spare few minutes).
(3) When the boxes are full, stack them neatly in a closet, garage, attic, etc?.anywhere where they are out of sight.
(4) When you have a little time, sit down, play back the recorder and transfer the information to a spreadsheet, word document, index cards or whatever system works best for you. (By indexing you can easily find and retrieve anything you might have mistakenly filed away). Simply look the object up in the index to find the appropriate box and go get it! It's that easy!
(5) After a time, if you find you really don't need all the things you have stored, You can donate usable items to your favorite charitable organization. You can have a garage sale and make some cash, or You can make money by starting your own on-line store on eBay And...
You can have fun by giving your clutter a second life!
A good rule of thumb is
?If you have not used it or thought about it in a year then you probably don't need it and you can let it go?
The great thing about this process is that it overcomes the two main obstacles to clearing clutter. First, you may have thrown something away only to realize later that you really needed it. So now you are reluctant to throw anything away. Secondly, you believe that it can take quite a chunk of time to do a really good job of sorting and eliminating your unwanted stuff. In the past, you may have started to get organized only to abandon the effort for want of time and organization and ended up with a bigger mess on your hands.
The Clutter Queen's five step process eliminates these obstacles because the sorting can be done extremely quickly without the possibility of discarding valuables.
Doing these small things is your first step in creating space for new, exciting ideas and energy.
Get ready for an abundance of fresh ideas and energy to enhance your living!
Shirley Anderson
<---****HYPERLINK****--->"http://www.minnastreetcreations.com" >Minna Street Creations
Both Clay Cotton & Shirley Anderson are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Clay Cotton has sinced written about articles on various topics from Insurance, Parental Care and Health. Long term care insurance activist, Clay Cotton, writes for - The Online Baby Boomers Decisi. Clay Cotton's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.
Shirley Anderson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Health Care, Womens Health. lives and works in San Francisco where she operates her business sewing for custom interiors.. Shirley Anderson's top article generates over 2900 views. to your Favourites.
Cal Ripken All Stars Ripken has a weekly baseball talk show on XM satellite radio that he co-hosts with his brother, Billy. The show is a wide-ranging discussion of many different baseball-related topics