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I had a very sad situation occur last week with an Uncle.
He'd retired about 5 years ago. At the top of his career he was earning north of $250k per year, and if I had to guess about my Aunt, she was probably at $150k. I have no clue about their personal finances beyond that, but they come across as frugal and handle money well. If they have <$5M in the bank I'd be surprised, honestly I'm guessing closer to $10M.
He worked non-stop. But now that he was in retirement, I suspect he was having a hard time of it. He had enough property to keep him busy, he'd just purchased close to 200 acres next door to them. Between my Aunt, my two Cousins, and four grand kids he had lots of family around him.
From what I gather, in the last couple of months he had started having a rapid onset of dementia related issues. Trying to put pants on over pants and trying to get into the wrong truck were the only examples I heard. Back in July he seemed perfectly normal to me at least.
This week he was due to have some types of scans completed to help in the diagnosis process of exactly what the problem was. However last week he walked up to the hill above their house, sat down in a chair, and that is where he concluded his story. While the situation doesn't appear to be accidental, there may be outstanding facts discovered in the autopsy (I am assuming they'd check for medications, alcohol, etc). I have a friend who accidentally hit himself in the shoulder while clearing a jam for example, we only know it was an accident because he lived.
It's my understanding he drank a couple of Jack & Cokes every evening. He was diabetic. Both of these may have contributed to the suspected dementia. He'd always been reserved, but I wouldn't have said reclusive and I never would have guess depressed.
I understand being scare or worried about what news was coming from the upcoming scans, but I can't wrap my head about making this sort of decision before you knew what the actual facts were. Even for the worst case situations, I suspect he could have lived a comfortable life for many years to come some type of facility paid for out of pocket without significantly impacting the savings for my Aunt or future inheritance for my cousins.
We'll probably never know, was it depression, or dementia, boredom, a rash decision, or an accident, or something else?
So yeah, it's a really sad back story to the topic. I figured it was worth discussing having a plan in place for once you've retired, for keeping yourself occupied. And to what extent it's discuss-able, looking out for family or yourself if similar cases arise and getting help if needed.
He'd retired about 5 years ago. At the top of his career he was earning north of $250k per year, and if I had to guess about my Aunt, she was probably at $150k. I have no clue about their personal finances beyond that, but they come across as frugal and handle money well. If they have <$5M in the bank I'd be surprised, honestly I'm guessing closer to $10M.
He worked non-stop. But now that he was in retirement, I suspect he was having a hard time of it. He had enough property to keep him busy, he'd just purchased close to 200 acres next door to them. Between my Aunt, my two Cousins, and four grand kids he had lots of family around him.
From what I gather, in the last couple of months he had started having a rapid onset of dementia related issues. Trying to put pants on over pants and trying to get into the wrong truck were the only examples I heard. Back in July he seemed perfectly normal to me at least.
This week he was due to have some types of scans completed to help in the diagnosis process of exactly what the problem was. However last week he walked up to the hill above their house, sat down in a chair, and that is where he concluded his story. While the situation doesn't appear to be accidental, there may be outstanding facts discovered in the autopsy (I am assuming they'd check for medications, alcohol, etc). I have a friend who accidentally hit himself in the shoulder while clearing a jam for example, we only know it was an accident because he lived.
It's my understanding he drank a couple of Jack & Cokes every evening. He was diabetic. Both of these may have contributed to the suspected dementia. He'd always been reserved, but I wouldn't have said reclusive and I never would have guess depressed.
I understand being scare or worried about what news was coming from the upcoming scans, but I can't wrap my head about making this sort of decision before you knew what the actual facts were. Even for the worst case situations, I suspect he could have lived a comfortable life for many years to come some type of facility paid for out of pocket without significantly impacting the savings for my Aunt or future inheritance for my cousins.
We'll probably never know, was it depression, or dementia, boredom, a rash decision, or an accident, or something else?
So yeah, it's a really sad back story to the topic. I figured it was worth discussing having a plan in place for once you've retired, for keeping yourself occupied. And to what extent it's discuss-able, looking out for family or yourself if similar cases arise and getting help if needed.
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