
Man Plans to Retire to Holiday Inn Instead of Nursing Home Because It’s Cheaper - rohmanhakim
https://www.distractify.com/p/retire-to-holiday-inn
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massysett
This is ridiculous because a nursing home and the Holiday Inn are not remotely
comparable. A nursing home is for people who can't take care of themselves.
They have nursing staff available 24 hours a day. They assist people with
going to the bathroom, eating, taking medicines, etc. A Holiday Inn does none
of that.

Clearly this man is capable of taking care of himself, which is great. He
doesn't even need assisted living. He would fare just fine in a regular
retirement community or just in a regular apartment, so the question is not
how a Holiday Inn compares to a nursing home. It's how a Holiday Inn compares
to an apartment.

~~~
ufmace
Eh, it seems like a nice solution for people in a middle case. If you aren't
in bad enough shape to need constant medical attention, but aren't quite up
for the cleaning and maintenance requirements of a regular apartment, you can
live pretty nicely and not spend too much money.

Suppose it also helps if you only really want to have a suitcase or two worth
of possessions.

~~~
williamdclt
I would think hiring a cleaning person (and handyman maybe?) would be cheaper

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JorgeGT
Everything old is new again. It used to be common to live in hotels, specially
towards the end of one's life, at a time where specialized facilities were
scarce or nonexistent. Just off the top of my head Tesla's last years were
spent at the Hotel New Yorker, with Westinghouse footing the bill.

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evochimp
Even before you retire, if you are single or just a small family it is far far
cheaper and far far better to live in a Holyday Inn than an Apartment
building. First they will give you monthly rate instead of daily rate which is
half. Then you have no deposit. You interact with hotel staffs who treat you
like God instead of a landlord who treat you like slave. You need not clean
the room or bed. Officially you occupy a small area though, your bedroom and
bath, but you have the whole Hotel facility and area to share, you can also
visit the city parks and libraries.

~~~
eugeniub
What city do you live in where hotel rates, even at half, are far cheaper than
apartments?

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Ntrails
A 1 bed flat in zone 1-2 London is approx £1500 a month. Call that £50 a
night?

I think it is pretty rare to see a similarly located London hotel < £100 a
night. Certainly i have airbnb'd for ~55-60 comfortably - but with way less
personal space.

For my city, at least, i dont think it would be cheaper but if the monthly
rate thing is true can imagine it being similar order of magnitude?

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Consultant32452
At the hotel you're not paying utilities and are getting free breakfast every
day. How much is weekly maid service in London?

~~~
Ntrails
The cheap end of hotel rates dont include breakfast. You are right on
utilities, but the counterpoint is that you have (for example) lost access to
a kitchen to cook, pushing other costs up.

I reckon costs being of "similar magnitude" is plausible (if the monthly rate
discount is truly ~50%). Interesting trade offs imo

~~~
scarface74
When we stayed at an extended stay, there was a stovetop and a microwave. I’m
sure if you wanted to cook you could get a hot plate.

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berbec
I'm going through this with my father. Since he didn't buy a long term care
plan, the assisted living facilities by us will be $11k a month out of pocket.

If you live in the USA, please talk to your parents/spouse/friends about long
term care.

~~~
brianwawok
Not sold on LTC. That’s great if your goal is to live in a facility some day.
But hopefully I never have to. Can downgrade from big house to maybe a smaller
condo over time. Take care of myself so hopefully will end up OK.

If not? I get checked into the same home as a LTC user with Medicare. I pay
for it until I am broke, then Medicare takes over.

I really don’t see the upside. In the case I have a large estate and need LTC,
the LTC insurance protects my estate so I can pass more of it on. But as not a
huge fan of generational wealth, I see no benefit to me or the world to buy
LTC insurance. In fact, less money to enjoy now or grow my estate.

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trixie_
Medicare won’t pay for assisted living, but you can use your social security
money towards it. If you can’t pay, and you can’t take care of yourself then
Medicaid kicks in, your social security gets taken and you go to a nusing
home.

~~~
brianwawok
Yah so at that point you are living out your days in a home. So not seeing how
the long term care insurance mattered.

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howard941
> If you're thinking he's overlooking the care one gets in a retirement home,
> he's considered that as well, and feels confident the staff of Holiday Inn
> are up to the task.

Having lived out of a suitcase at a competitor's inn for 3 years on a job out
of town I think Planning Man is in for a care let-down. Or if dementia sets
in, perhaps not.

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latchkey
This is really no different than the huge number of older retired people who
move to foreign countries. Expats. Obviously, not for everyone as it is quite
different and sometimes challenging to live in a foreign country.

As someone who has moved to SE Asia (Vietnam) and is 'only' 45, I think almost
daily about how much money I'm saving for my eventual 'retirement' and how
much happier I am.

~~~
DelightOne
> As someone who has moved to SE Asia (Vietnam) and is 'only' 45

How did you cope with the loss of (connection to)
friends/acquaintances/possibilities/family/children? They can't be dead with
45.

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matz1
You build new connection.

~~~
TimTheTinker
Other expats? Or learn Vietnamese and make friends with locals?

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matz1
Whatever you prefer.

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ccnafr
As someone who's facing this with his parents. Sadly, it's true. Nursing homes
prices have tripled over the last five years.

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berbec
The nursing and rehab center my dad is currently staying costs $700/day.
That's what I paid for Sandals Jamaica for my honeymoon, an all-inclusive all
you can eat/drink resort.

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Damogran6
A quarter million a YEAR? It's a wonder there's any inheritance left...

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scarface74
I’m not optimizing our lives to leave an inheritance. The optimum scenario is
to spend our last penny on our last breath and leave nothing for our kids.

We took care of them growing up, we gave them the advice and financial backing
to help them get their lives off to a good start. It’s up to them to not mess
that up.

I’ve told my parents the same thing - I am an only child. They should enjoy
their lives to the fullest and not worry about me. We’ve had discussions that
they brought up. They know I’m not keeping the house and I am going to sell it
as quickly as possible if they pass and not worry about optimizing what I get
out of it. I’ve done the real estate thing before. It’s a headache when you
live close by, let alone when you are a hundreds of miles away. They know we
aren’t keeping anything in the house besides the pictures.

They have long term care insurance, but if they didn’t and it meant selling
the house to qualify for Medicaid - so be it. They said it is just “stuff”.

My parents are in their 70’s and they both retired in their mid 50s when they
were both healthy enough to enjoy themselves. They are still relatively
healthy today. They didn’t have millions in the bank. My dad was a factory
worker and my mom was a school teacher.

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maxerickson
Did they have solid pensions? That's like having lots and lots (and lots) of
savings.

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scarface74
My mom had the standard teacher’s pension which I believe is 60% of your last
years salary. Assuming she made 60K a year at retirement that is like 900K
savings at a 4% withdrawal rate. My dad had less than a million in savings.

Of course she did have guaranteed access to health care insurance. My dad has
less than a million.

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cletus
Similar idea with cruise ships [1].

In Australia this largely seems to work better. There's obviously public aged
care but that can be a crap shoot in many ways. Like there might only be a
place for you 200 miles from where you'd been living, which might be a
challenge to maintain contact to friends and family. But if you have some
capital behind you (eg you own your house and sell it) then you have private
options, which tend to be a lot better. Typically, you pay a "deposit" (for
lack of a better word) and then the facility collects 85% of your aged
pension. When you die, your deposit is returned to your estate. The size of
that deposit varies a lot. It might be as little as $300k or it might be $1m+.
It depends on what you want.

The whole thing seems a lot less "gougey" than what I know about aged care in
the US, for example.

[1] [https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/2013-2-2-cruise-ship-
retir...](https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/2013-2-2-cruise-ship-retirement-
assisted-living/)

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honopu
I'd seriously look at retiring on a cruise ship. Might not be as cost
effective, but it would give you a ton of stuff to do. I could probably live
on a cruise ship for less than what it costs me to live.

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amelius
How is there more stuff to do on a cruiseship than on mainland?

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braythwayt
What if we tweak it to, “More stuff to do within (walking/assisted mobility
device) distance of your personal living quarters?”

There are assisted living residences in urban areas, of course, but even then
you may need to use public transit or taxis to get to all of the activities
you enjoy.

I doubt the statement is always true, but it feels like it might be true
enough of the time for it to be worth a “Hunh, that’s an interesting
conjecture to explore.”

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baybal2
Our generation of people, millennial, have no hope of having the same
retirement as people in their sixties today.

Simple arithmetic says that once the taxpayer/dependent ratio will hit that of
Germany, it will be very very hard. Either you have a very strong industrial
economy, or you study Greek.

Having some kids, and expecting them to give back one day does not seem to be
anything unnatural to me. Though, I hope I will get some humility by then, and
not have them bail out me financially by my fifties as my own parents did :(

~~~
ravenstine
That is why it is important not to solely rely on W2 income. Income has to be
supplemented by starting side businesses in order to actually save and invest
for anything without falling for the illusions of debt. On top of moving to
places more affordable, it _might_ be possible for the average person to
retire. I just doubt that employment and a 401k are going to do that on their
own. All the modestly wealthy people I know have other sources of income
besides their main job.

~~~
scarface74
Because the majority of businesses don’t fail in 5 years....

~~~
ravenstine
Just because a lot of people fail at it doesn't mean that those who might want
to take the risk shouldn't be made aware of the benefits. I would personally
rather deal with failure for the shot at making more income. It's not for
everyone, and they can certainly stay on the beaten path and do just fine. (so
long as their debt doesn't spiral out of control) I'm not saying that people
should dedicate their lives to home businesses, but they can try different
things on the side to see what works with a minimal risk of catastrophic
failure.

~~~
scarface74
If you are a software developer in any major city in the US and you’re just
really good at your bog standard enterprise developer type jobs or yet another
software as a service CRUD app developer, you’re already probably in the 80th
income percentile. If your goal is increasing net worth, it’s quite easy to
live a comfortable middle class lifestyle and still put aside enough to have a
couple of million and a paid off house in 15 to 20 years just by putting money
in an index fund.

There is really little risk of being long term unemployed as a software
developer if you keep your skills in line with the local market and keep your
network strong. This is coming from being a developer for the past 20 years.
I’m not talking about how much I have personally saved, just how easy it is to
get a job or at least a contract. It’s even easier for dual income earners.
You can literally save an entire second income or put it toward net worth
building.

On second thought, the best “investment” I guess is a working spouse and a
happy marriage. Statistics back that up.

~~~
baybal2
With all respect, this logic fails to account for the rising
taxpayer/dependent ratio.

If American tax rates will reach that of Europe, even dual income high
earners, will just break the comfortable level — way less what I deserve with
my position in society. And even that will worsen further over time.

At some t/d ratio, the nation will simply turn into a "transfer economy" —
when cash value of all pensions/savings withdrawals/welfare/rents will begin
closing on on the total income of working populace. That's something close to
what we had in Eastern Europe when Bloc collapsed.

You don't realise the severity of issue until you calculate that NPV of an
average boomer generation person, might've been higher 40 years ago, than NPV
of savings and future contributions of highest earning young people today.

~~~
scarface74
I’m going to repeat a previous argument in a way that hopefully doesn’t get my
hand slapped and my comment flagged:

There is an easy answer to that: a pro immigration policy for both high
skilled labor that creates a jobs by starting businesses and low skilled labor
that can do the work that our native born society is too old to do.

~~~
baybal2
You think that can happen with this political climate?

And people don't immigrate to economically unsuccessful nations.

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scarface74
In the current climate - no.

We could have a progressive (not politically/mathematically) immigration
policy to keep the number of workers/retirees in the right ratio.

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vezycash
I read this story a few weeks ago. Don't know if it's fiction or not
[https://www.reshareworthy.com/old-lady-alone-on-a-cruise-
shi...](https://www.reshareworthy.com/old-lady-alone-on-a-cruise-ship/)

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purplezooey
It's interesting that anything paid for with funny money, like loans, the sale
of one's nest egg, or insurance, is wildly overpriced.

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bfdm
I can't tell whether this is satire or April Fools material or not, and that's
a little bit sad for the way we treat our seniors.

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EGreg
Reminds me of this

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-dWFKp-
bJtk](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-dWFKp-bJtk)

