245: Improve the Quality of Your Retirement Years: Aging in Place with Carol Chiang

What does it mean to “age in place,” and why does it matter? Those questions motivated my conversation with Carol Chiang, today’s guest on the Love, your Money podcast. 

We’ve been taught to fear aging, and most people prefer to focus on maintaining their youth than thinking realistically about care and comfort later in life. But aging is inevitable, so why not focus on setting your future self up for success instead of chasing the idea of youth?

According to AARP, 9 out of 10 retirees say they’d prefer to age in their home, and it’s safe to assume that most people want to age with their dignity, grace, choice, and freedom intact.

But. Only 15% of people have done any preparation to support aging in their current home–and that’s why I brought Carol onto the show. She is the founder of Evolving Homes, which provides expert consultations to homeowners who want to age in place.

From maintenance of health and functionality to structural adaptations for your physical living space, there are so many ways you can minimize the chance of injury and build multi-generational mobility support into your existing space.

Carol’s goal is to help people understand those potential aging costs, so they can make a purposeful decision about saving for their future self. It is incredibly expensive to delay care–and if you don’t know what your options are, how will you know how much to save?

Any proactive planning you start *now* will pay off in both dollars saved and quality of life preserved.

So hit download on this episode, listen in, and check out the show notes at www.hendershottwealth.com/245 to get all the goods about setting yourself up to successfully age in place. 👇

(Oh–and if you like this interview, make sure you subscribe to the Love, your Money podcast, because you won’t want to miss what’s coming up next week. I got to chat with a Decision Engineer, and I think our conversation will pair well with this one!)


Here’s what you’ll learn in this week’s episode of Love, your Money:

• What it means to “age in place,” how you can be proactive about taking care of your future self, and the compounding returns of beginning early 
• How to build an accessible and age-inclusive space without sacrificing elegance and smart design
• Why proactive planning is a long-term cost-savings opportunity, especially for future caregiving costs or structural adaptations
• How home modifications, lifestyle mentoring, physical fitness, remote monitoring, and “age tech” impact successfully aging in place 
• The difference between an Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, and other healthcare professionals involved in caregiving
• The tipping point where Carol will recommend a client move out and find a new space vs aging in place
• Our signature LYM question: If Carol’s money were writing her a love note, what would it thank her for?
  
  

Show Notes
To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned, visit: https://hendershottwealth.com/podcast/carol-chiang

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Hendershott Wealth Management, LLC and Love, your Money do not make specific investment recommendations on Love, your Money or in any public media. Any specific mentions of funds or investments are strictly for illustrative purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice or acted upon by individual investors. The opinions expressed in this episode are those of Hilary Hendershott, CFP®, MBA.