I'd never thought of birthdays as important milestones. But, after years of caregiving, I've drastically changed my attitude.

It started innocently, wondering, how many future birthdays I might expect until my independence was compromised to some degree, limiting my options on that special day.

Oh-oh! No longer would I approach birthdays simply as a number counted from the beginning. I would view them in reverse, in terms of what I could enjoy, if I knew exactly what I wanted, didn't leave plans to the last minute and took action well-in-advance to make it happen.

Now, instead of dismissing birthdays as 'another year growing older' I pick a memorable experience and with detailed preparation make each a 'milestone birthday'.

There has been 'my Marrakech birthday' when I travelled to Morocco, Northern Africa and celebrated in the ancient city of Marrakech, on a riad rooftop balcony sipping champagne.

My 'staycation birthday' when I took the day off, checked into a spa-hotel and went sightseeing in my own city. And the latest, 'my golf birthday' when as a beginner, I committed to an intensive 3 day, 8 hours per day, one-on-one instruction with a golf-pro at an academy in Arizona.

Since we can no longer deny that we are going to live long lives, why not view our long life span with a positive attitude. It's time to take emotion out of the equation when it comes to 'aging'.

Of course, having a positive frame-of-mind doesn't mean ostriching about our old-old age, but just the opposite. Which brings me to my next point.

We know our chances of having health problems also increase with a longer life span and consequently, our chances of needing care also increase.

Maybe we need to approach our care-years planning as we do our retirement planning. Envision what we want it to look like and working backwards from there, put appropriate plans in place for when we reach that time. (It sure works for birthday planning!)

Whether single, widowed, divorced, a married boomer or a senior couple, everyone should have a plan as to how they are going to be looked after should they need 'significant help'.

Our long-term care is the single largest out-of-pocket cost for persons over 60. Whether delivered in our own homes, in our children's homes, in assisted living retirement communities or in nursing homes, we have to expect to pay for it . . . somehow.

There are no easy solutions, no magic-bullets. These are our options if we want quality care in our future:

1. If our family is wealthy, we can self-fund our expenses

2. If we have personal savings and assets and aren't concerned about protecting our children's inheritances, we can access these

3. If we feel financially secure with guaranteed monthly incomes from annuities/pensions, we can use these

4. If we own our mortgage-free home, we can obtain an advance on its value as a reverse mortgage and use these tax-free funds. (Interest accumulates; the debt doesn't need to be paid until death, sale of the house or upon moving)

5. If we have whole or universal life insurance policies, we may consider these. (With whole insurance, we could cash-in the policy ending coverage or loan against it to access funds, realizing the death benefit decreases. With universal life, we might use the savings component or the policy as loan collateral)

6. If we have workplace disability insurance (DI) coverage and are unable to do our jobs, the prescribed monthly benefits can be used

7. If we own a critical illness (CI) insurance policy, we'll receive a lump-sum cash benefit if diagnosed with any of the listed illnesses; this sum can be used as wanted

8. If we've purchased a long-term care insurance policy (LTCI) we would use this as a specific kind of insurance which provides stated daily, weekly or monthly benefits 'to cover the costs associated directly with care'

9. We can rely on available provincial government programs (Remember, home-care and nursing home services are included in our Canada Health Act as an 'extended health care service' and, as such, are not and never have been a medically necessary insured service. Thus, they aren't guaranteed in the same way as hospital and doctor services are, but provided 'at the discretion of each province')

10. Note: Viatical settlements aren't available, they're illegal in most provinces (i. e. a terminally ill person who owns a life insurance policy sells it to a third party, which agrees to pay the premiums and pay the insured individual an amount less than the policy's value)

As for my personal plan to fund my short and/or long term care, it includes a combination of # 2, 3, 7, 8 (I own two of these) and 9 plus 4 if need be.

My best wishes with your discussions, Patty

PattyRandall, apr ofessionalspeaker,

media commentator and author, is widely considered a leading authority

inCanadaonallthepr acticalways to plan for your own or a loved one's

care-years. To learn more visit her website www.longtermcarecanada.comor e-mail her at pattyr@telus. net

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