Be prepared is my motto. I often look at my parents' life choices as examples of how not to do things. They were great at saving money, which is good, but terrible at planning for a physically comfortable old age. My mother turned down a subsidized apartment two years ago for very viable reasons: the thought of physically moving scared her to death, she was worried about what would happen to my brother if she took the apartment, and she didn't know how she would like living in an apartment, having lived in a single family home for 50 years. Totally get it. We wouldn't force her to do anything she didn't want to. But...there aren't many options for her now. It's either assisted living or staying in her home. For now, we would like to keep her in her home. Not perfect, and not the way I want to do it in my old age, but it could be worse.