Avoiding the self-insurance trap

* Mistake No. 2: You stay self-insured, which is what you are doing right now. Then one or both of you needs care.
Not only do you pay for it yourself out of your pocket, but the rest of the burden is placed on your family.

Let's look at the two mistakes.
Let's say you buy a plan, and your premium is about $1,800 a year. You live another 30 years, and at age 85 you die in your sleep with a smile on your face, never needing a day of care and thus never getting a dime out of the policy. You get to the pearly gates, they look at your file and they laugh at you, because you made a $54,000 mistake for having this policy and never needing it. By the way, that amount is less than one year of care in today's dollars.
Or consider mistake No. 2. You decide to not get this policy and roll the dice. Twenty years from now, when you are 75, you need care, just for three years. You pay for the care out of pocket. Based on past trends, the average cost of care will be about $435,000.

If you have to make a mistake, which mistake has the least impact on your family–the first one or the second one?
That is why top financial advisors and the federal and state governments encourage people like you to look into LTCI. It is just common sense.