I'm glad you're doing okay. Health/ medical surprises can be extremely expensive; not just financially but emotionally. Being able to financially handle a surprise medical bill(s), can give one a lot of peace of mind and makes you appreciate all the hard work we do for savings, and educating ourselves in financial matters.In the absence of a crystal ball, we don't really know the worse case. I thought this year was going to be smooth, but I had an urgent appendectomy (it burst on the way out) and ended up with an extended hospital stay and a private-pay caregiver at my home for a week. I couldn't have predicted this.Our current spending is based on my best guess. So far so good.
I'm wondering how people plan for the worst case. What even is the worse case?
I told my kids they would never have to support us financially. My worst case is I was wrong!
This is why I tend to live a modest lifestyle. I am single and needed help, and it was wonderful to be able to have healthy meals served to me, and my housecleaning taken care of, and my in-home safety watched over, and the wherewithal to simply write a check at the end of a week's care. Even if you are not single, a spouse or adult child may or may not be able to provide that level of care for a person.
Like you, it is important to me to provide for myself financially.
Statistics: Posted by ROIGuy — Wed Feb 04, 2026 1:29 pm — Replies 53 — Views 2562