AARP has found in a number of polls they have taken of their members that the vast majority – 85 to 90% - want to live out their lives in their own home.  But is it possible?  The answer is yes if proper planning has taken place and implemented.  As I reflect back on my career as a financial planner I realize that I engaged in rather thorough planning with clients with regard to their retirement but not their aging in place at home.  We would delve rather deeply into their lifestyle and what it cost.  We broke down the cost into as many categories as possible so it would be possible to evaluate the impact of inflation on each cost category but we never considered the cost of retrofitting their home so they could stay in place for their entire lives.

Not only did we not contemplate the possibility and cost of preparing their home so that they could age in place but we didn’t even stop to consider whether it was possible in the first place.  There are many things that need to be considered before you even begin to explore the possibility and cost of retrofitting your home so you can live out your life there.  The first things to consider are the physical facts about the house, its location and surroundings.  Is the house located convenient to public transportation?  As you age you may not always be able or want to drive; especially at night.  You don’t want to be trapped in your home unable to get out for visits with family, friends and for medical care.  You will want to stay engaged in your community and its culture and activities.  Does the house and its yard require a level of care that might be increasingly difficult for you to manage as you age?  What would the cost be of replacing your own current efforts to care for the house and yard with hired help?  Will this be affordable given your financial situation?  In the topic section entitled Envision But Don’t Accelerate there is an essay entitled You’ve Got to Know the Territory.  In it I suggested that you need to explore your local community and its support services for the elderly.  If you stay in your home for your entire life will there be the support services you need in order to do so.  This is all part of the process of evaluating the physical facts about your house, its location and surroundings.  I encourage you to read this essay if you have not already.  It will give you guidance on how to go about exploring your local community and learning about the support services that would be available to you as you age.

Once you have determined that your home is located and situated properly to allow you to stay there for the rest of your life, you will have to next determine if it can be retrofitted so that you can move about in it and carry out the functions of your daily life with ease as you age.  Are the entries points such that they can accommodate mobility assistance; be they walkers or wheel chairs?  Are the hallways the right width or can they and the doorways be widened?  If the home has multiple stories can lifts be put in if necessary?  Are the counter tops and door handles the right height?  There are a myriad of details and circumstances with each home that need to be evaluated.  Some should be done soon and others can be postponed in order to be sure they are really necessary.  But they all cost money.  How much and will you have the necessary funds to make the changes?  Your financial planner needs to be closely involved in the project with you so this question can be answered with confidence.
But how do you go about determining what should and can be done to your home and what it might cost?  Most of us are not experienced and expert enough to do this on our own.  Fortunately there is a new skill set that has been developed in the home remodeling industry that can be drawn upon to do this analysis for you.  The National Home Builders Association (NAHB) has developed an education program for its members leading to a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist certificate.  This is a relatively new certification program so there are not home remodelers in every area that have completed this program but the number is growing fast.  You can find a list on the NAHB website site at www.nahb.org/page.aspx/category/sectionID=686 or you can just go to the home page at www.nahb.org and type in certified aging in place specialist in the Search box at the top right-hand part of the home page.  Hiring this specialist to work with your financial planning should help you get a good fix on whether or not your home can be retrofitted and whether or not it will be affordable.

The sooner you do this the better.  If your home can’t be retrofitted you may want to sell it and buy another home that can be or already has been remodeled in a way that would allow you to age in place.  Although there is no equivalent certification in the real estate brokerage world there are a growing number of realtors who make it a point to keep current on which homes in their area are best suited for those who want to age in place.  So if your home is not situated properly or can’t be affordably retrofitted you can probably find one in your local community through a competent realtor that is or can be.  The reason that it is better to do this sooner than later is that the longer you are in your home, the harder it is to do.  And the older we get, the harder it is to do.  A new home will create new relationships and probably new activities and interests.  The sooner that process begins the richer your life will be in your new home.  If the very thought of moving freezes you in place you might want to look into hiring a moving assistance.  This is someone who can take over all of the logistics of the move from hiring the mover to supervising the packing and unpacking.  There is a national association of move managers called the National Association of Senior Move Managers.  They can be contacted at www.nasmm.com . 

This sooner than later admonition is especially important if, upon examination of your current home, you decide to move to a retirement community or continuing care retirement community that is in an entirely different community than where you now live.  In this topic section there is another essay entitled Determining the Next Stop that discusses the dynamics of moving to an entirely new living situation in order to have a living situation that will accommodate all of your needs as you age.  I would encourage you to read that essay in conjunction with this essay.  They are kind of hand in glove topics.  The sad truth is that the average age of people who move into continuing care retirement communities is 83.  This is often too late to really make your new living situation into a home and to create an engaging and stimulating community of interests and activities.  So the sooner you investigate whether you can live out your life in your current home or whether you need to move and where you might move to, the more successful will be the move. 

If your desire is to age in place don’t let the realities of your home and its circumstances sneak up on you because you may be forced to move at exactly the worst time; at a time when you are ill and ill-prepared to move.  The move will be force on you and you will lose your sense of autonomy and control.