Caregiving today shouldn’t cost you your tomorrow
When someone you love needs help, retirement probably isn’t the first thing on your mind.
You’re thinking about getting Mom to her appointments. Making sure Dad is eating.
Helping your spouse get dressed. Keeping up with medications, meals, laundry and everything else that suddenly becomes part of the day.
And when it becomes too much to manage around a regular work schedule, something often has to give.
For many family caregivers, that something is work.
Maybe you cut back your hours. Maybe you turn down a promotion because you can’t take on more responsibility right now. Maybe you leave your job altogether because your family needs you at home.
Those decisions may make perfect sense for your family today. But the financial impact of family caregiving can reach years into the future in ways that are easy to overlook.
The financial impact of family caregiving goes beyond a paycheck
When we think about leaving a job, we tend to think about the immediate loss of income.
If you were bringing home $600 a week and stop working, that $600 is the obvious loss.
But employment can also be building your future in ways that aren’t as visible on payday.
Social Security retirement benefits are calculated using your highest 35 years of earnings. If you have fewer than 35 years of earnings, years without earnings are counted as zeros. Even if you already have 35 years of work history, stepping away from the workforce can mean losing the opportunity to replace lower-earning years with higher ones.
Then there’s retirement savings.
If you were contributing to a 401(k) through your employer, leaving that job generally means those payroll contributions stop. An employer match may stop too. And it isn’t only the money you would have contributed this year that matters. It’s the years that money could have spent growing before retirement.
Add in health insurance, paid time off and other benefits and the financial picture of leaving work to provide care can become much bigger than the lost paycheck.
It doesn’t mean choosing work over family
None of this is meant to suggest that caring for someone you love is the wrong decision.
Sometimes stepping away from work is the best choice. Sometimes it’s the only realistic choice.
But families deserve to understand the whole picture before making it.
Ask what happens to your Social Security earnings record. Look at what you are currently contributing toward retirement and whether your employer is matching it. Consider health insurance and other benefits you may lose. Think about what returning to the workforce might look like a few years from now.
And most importantly, find out whether there are options that could allow you to continue earning while providing care.
Depending on the situation, programs may exist that allow certain family members to be paid for providing care. In other cases, bringing in outside help for a few hours may make it possible for a family caregiver to remain employed or continue working more hours.
There isn’t one right answer for every family.
Professional caregivers should think about tomorrow, too
This conversation isn’t limited to people caring for their own family members.
If caregiving is your career, benefits matter.
Hourly pay is important, but it isn’t the only number worth comparing when choosing where to work. Access to retirement savings, employer contributions, health insurance, paid leave and other benefits can make a meaningful difference over time.
Two jobs with similar hourly wages may not have the same long-term value.
At Safe at Home, eligible employees have access to benefits including health, dental and vision insurance, and a 401(k). Full benefits are available to employees working 30 hours per week.
Because taking care of other people shouldn’t mean forgetting to take care of your own future.
Before you make a change, ask a few more questions
Caregiving decisions are deeply personal. They’re also financial decisions, even when they don’t feel like it at the time.
Before leaving a job or significantly reducing your hours to provide care, give yourself permission to look beyond what your family needs this week.
What will this decision mean next year?
Five years from now?
At retirement?
You may still make exactly the same choice. But you’ll be making it with a clearer picture of what it means for both the person you love and the future you’re building for yourself.
Caregiving today shouldn’t have to cost you your tomorrow.
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