@ChoatieMom - perfect plan. B-) This is my plan also. Can’t wait to tell you all about how it will work out! Wait… Dang. I will be dead then. Have to leave kiddo my CC password and instructions on what to post.
“My parents left me nothing. It all went to the cats.” - signed BunsenBurner’s Burned Offspring
Ha @BunsenBurner! We’ve told kiddo that if we see funds beginning to stockpile, we’ll just sharpen our spending skills. DH and I have told both sets of parents to enjoy every minute they have left–spend it all, and don’t worry about us. 
@doschicos - not a bad plan. In WA, one can set up a trust to leave money to the caregivers of one’s pets. That way, kiddo1 could be for life in dogs, and it will keep kiddo2 for a while in cats! 
Anyone here scared to kick the bucket? I think I am not, but I would be royally annoyed though if someone told me that it would happen tonight. Or next month. Nope. Too much unfinished business!
Not eventually. But I would like to stick around long enough to get to know some so-far-imaginary grandchildren.
I would be sad not to meet my future grandkids, but would prefer dying to being in constant severe pain or being trapped in my body and unable to think or move. One of H’s best friends has a wife who is trapped in her body and unable to move or talk. It’s been over three years and is pretty awful for the husband and family.
That is terrible, HImom!!
Hopefully as we all age, death with dignity laws will become more widespread.
People have to be willing to make choices, like not installing feeding tubes except in very specific circumstances.
I don’t think I would wish myself or someone I loved to be starved to death. I think I’d rather just get ahold of a bottle of pills. A death that takes many days is not what I would wish on anyone.
At the end of life, one no longer needs food or drink as our bodies shut down. Hospice care can provide for a peaceful death.
Wow, this thread took a morbid turn…
In other news, this week I’ve spent over $3000 repairing and then replacing my water heater. This kind of thing could be a real budget-buster if we were on a small fixed income like only social security.
What do you do if a new roof would cost 50% of your income for the year?
Well, Elon said that his roof will have an infinite lifetime. 
That will be our warranty against having a budget-busting roofing disaster. Just kidding.
If the income does not cover a needed expense, then one has to dip into the principal. Granted, one has to have a principal to be able to do so.
A lot of folks in our area move into these 55+ freestanding condo units. Everything on the outside is taken care off - landscaping, shoveling, exterior painting, etc. so in the case above, you’d still be on the hook for the $3K hot water heater but not the roof. I can see the appeal, especially in a snowy climate. You have your separate space with no shared walls yet limited maintenance and fairly predictable expenses.
Or you could buy a cheap water heater and install it yourself in a condo. As far as roofing, you can do what we do…just keep on patching it endlessly. I’m thinking that eventually every single seam on our roof will be patched before we get it replaced. Annoyingly, the roof started leaking in one spot big league (or is that “bigly”?) while my husband was on a trip, and I had to get out there in the rain and patch it. No fun, but hey, my patch actually worked. It’s just such a big expense to replace a roof, we just don’t want to do it!
As far as the condos, they appear to have predictable expenses, however…someone has to pay for all that roofing, painting, water leaks and upgrades, and that is the condo owner. Surprise, big assessment coming. We recently got about an 11K assessment on one of our rentals that took us aback. And then they keep upping the HOA dues.
My mom just had to have her pipes totally replaced (clay was clogging them). She said the bill will eat up her entire earned income (almost $10,000) for the year. Fortunately, at age 88, she relies on her part-time job mainly for social support, not for the money it brings in.
Mr. B would rather be buried alive than move into a planned community with HOA dues. When we were looking for our first house, I thought he would be against having any garden or yard because he grew up in a city, but he really enjoys digging in the dirt without anyone telling him that the rose bush he planted needs to go because it is not approved by the HOA.
We love our upscale town home community. HOA can be a pain sometimes, but also is one of the reasons our places look so fantastic and the values just keep going up and up. We hope to stay here as long as possible as we age. At some point in the future the stairs will probably be too much for us, but hopefully that’s many years down the line. We also are able to walk to grocery stores, movies, shops and restaurants which we take full advantage of now and will be useful at the point we are not driving so well!
I will not be climbing on a roof when I am 75 years old.
You might as well replace it now and enjoy it, when you sell the buyer will want either it replaced or a big credit.
This is vastly beyond the skill on most people. How many homeowners can sweat a pipe joint? Hook up a natural gas connection and chimney? Correctly wire in a 220v connection?