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Real Money , a free weekly newsletter giving expert tips on how to save, invest and make the most of your money, is sent every Sunday. You’re reading an excerpt – you can sign up to get the whole newsletter in your inbox .
I hate to say it, but we’re all getting older. Some of us are a bit further along the track than others, but, inevitably at some point our bones will start to creak a bit more than we’d like, and we’ll start to think seriously about the prospect of owning a caravan. And if you already own one? Well, the end is nigh.
Alongside the more mundane milestones, our last half of life contains some of the biggest and trickiest financial decisions we’ll ever have to make. Super, age pension, inheritance, downsizing – none of them are simple, and how you structure or execute them can have a meaningful impact on your funds and quality of life as you age.
But all of these pale in comparison to the inscrutable black box that is aged care. I think all of us dream of quietly getting older in our own home, fully self-sufficient until we pass peacefully away, but the reality is that we’re probably going to need some form of care at some point.
Aged care has always been confusing, and the government’s reforms of the sector , implemented in 2025, didn’t help. A major study from Ageing Australia done this year found just a third rated their knowledge of the aged care sector as high, while 38 per cent said it was poor. It also found there was limited understanding of how the aged care system is currently funded.
Part of this is because the system is unreasonably complex, with myriad ways to pay and various fees and the like to keep track of. But if you want to get a general idea of how much it might cost, and how you can pay for it, read on:
Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.
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