<p>Collegehelp,</p>
<p>“How much do you need in retirement to supplement social security?”</p>
<p>“Why would kids ever have to pay for the care of their elderly parents? Buy long-term care insurance. Give your money to your children as early as possible and let medicaid/medicare pay for the care.”</p>
<p>My dear child, it is blindingly clear that you have not yet had to do any serious homework on this topic.</p>
<p>Ask your parents to show you their Social Security Statements (they should receive one each year), and then take a look at how much of their living costs would be covered by that amount of money. Ask your grandparents or elderly friends/neighbors to share their medicaid/medicare information with you and see how well their medical expenses are covered. Ask your parents and their friends just exactly how much they slip to their parents/grandparents/siblings/etc. each year to help those people cover their living costs. Ask your parents what long-term care insurance is costing them, and what exactly is covered. Ask them which of their friends/relatives have suffered a medical condition that has made it impossible for them to qualify for long-term care insurance. Look at your own next paycheck, and think long and hard about how much is taken out of it each pay period for Social Security (FICA) and Medicare, and ask yourself how many senior citizens you are already helping to support, and then ask yourself how many younger people are in the pipeline to keep supporting everyone who is your age or older. And, while you are at it, ask yourself what you are going to say to the love of your life when his/her family arrives on your doorstep in need of food and shelter, and possibly a good immigration lawyer.</p>
<p>You don’t know yet what life will throw at you. You don’t know yet whether you will be able to create the dream conditions for your own future children. I fully sympathize with your disgust with rich parents who won’t pay for their kids’ educations, but please stay off the case of the rest of the middle class.</p>