The unplanned expense in your 50s: Paying for ageing parents’ care

The shift caught Kakkar off guard. “I had never incorporated this expenditure into my financial planning, despite both my wife and I being finance professionals. This situation arose unexpectedly, and as I’m the sole earner, hiring full-time help became a necessity rather than a choice.”

Kakkar’s case is not standalone. Most people build their financial plans around predictable milestones such as children’s education, buying a house and retirement. Caregiving for ageing parents often doesn’t find a place in these plans because its timing, duration and cost are difficult to anticipate. At the same time, with more women participating in the workforce and nuclear families becoming the norm, it is increasingly less feasible for family members to take on full-time caregiving responsibilities on their own.

What to expect

Geriatric care mainly has two recurring expenses: round the clock care and medical costs. The first typically starts within the family with spouses and siblings taking on the responsibility, but when care becomes continuous and demanding, especially when the family members have full-time jobs, hiring a professional becomes necessary.

The baseline cost of a full-time caregiver ranges from ₹25,000 to ₹40,000 per month in metro cities. In smaller cities, informal or part-time help could be cheaper around ₹15,000-18,000, but may often require supplementation with trained medical attendants during recovery periods, which could cost ₹20,000-25,000 even for short durations.

Medical expenses run parallel. Chronic conditions can mean ₹20,000–25,000 a month on medicines and doctor consultations alone. Add diagnostics and hospitalizations, and the expenses can shoot up significantly.

In Bharuch (Gujarat), Amit Luharuka was spending about ₹1 lakh every month towards the care of his mother, who was diagnosed with cancer. A trained professional who looked after her day-to-day caretaking would cost ₹30,000 per month, while about ₹70,000 was spent towards her medicines, at-home treatments and doctor consultations. “On two occasions, she was hospitalized in Mumbai for 2-3 days, which cost us about ₹50,000 each time,” he said.

While Luharuka admits he had never anticipated geriatric caregiving to become a significant routine expense, he said hiring a full-time attendant helped ease the process. “It freed us to focus on her nutrition, coordinate with doctors regularly and spend quality time with her,” said the finance professional, whose mother passed away in November 2025.

He notes that even for elderly parents, professional caregivers can sometimes offer greater comfort. “Assisted activities can feel awkward with family members, whereas a caregiver is simply doing their job,” he said.

In many cases, the impact of caregiving is well beyond recurring expenses.

Arindom Baidya, based in Delhi at the time, suddenly found himself taking on the responsibility of caring for his mother in Guwahati after his father’s sudden passing. Although she was covered under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), the practical challenges of managing her care, doctor visits and medications from another city meant frequent travel and prolonged stays in Guwahati, gradually affecting his work and, in turn, his income.

“The nature of my work required visibility, such as attending conferences and taking up international assignments. As caregiving demands increased, I shifted to freelancing so that I could spend more time with her in Guwahati,” said the microinsurance consultant.

The opportunity cost of caregiving is rarely built into financial planning. Even when parents are financially independent, as in Baidya’s case, their physical and emotional dependence can demand regular involvement, often at the cost of career progression and long-term earning potential.

How to plan ahead

According to Manikaran Singal, principal officer at Good Moneying Wealth Planners Pvt. Ltd, a Sebi-registered investment advisor, the way to approach this is not by trying to estimate an exact number, but by building flexibility into finances early on.

"Start with recognizing the likelihood of parents’ future dependence on you, whether partial or full, and whether there are adequate resources. Next, assess whether you need to get health insurance for your parents,” Singal said.

While health insurance will cover hospitalization and related expenses, it won’t cover home care. “Standard health insurance policies are structured around hospitalization, so they cover treatment during hospital stays and related pre- and post-hospitalization expenses within defined limits,” explained Shilpa Arora, co-founder and chief operating officer of Insurance Samadhan.

“There is a provision for domiciliary treatment, which covers nursing care at home, but this applies only when hospital beds are not available or the patient’s condition does not permit shifting to a hospital in specific medical situations and is capped,” Arora said.

Long-term caregiving costs, such as hiring a full-time attendant for daily support, are not covered.

This limitation, and more, applies to government sponsored healthcare programmes as well. For instance, Kakkar’s father is a retired state government employee and is entitled to reimbursements of his medical costs, but the relief is limited. “The reimbursements come after 7-8 months and after deductions. Out of the monthly ₹70,000 spent on his treatments, about ₹50,000-55,000 comes back only if we take treatment in an empanelled hospital. If we need to go to another hospital in an emergency, we don’t get the money,” he said.

Similarly, while Baidya’s mother was covered under CGHS, he often spent a significant chunk out of pocket on consultations, diagnostics and even hospitalizations. “CGHS offers discounts on OPD visits, tests and medications too, but it was often not possible to get approvals as I would be travelling or stuck with work. Also, taking her to hospitals for blood tests meant putting additional stress on her body, so I chose to get tests at home," Baidya said. "These recurring costs added up to about ₹25,000-30,000 every month on an average. Each hospitalization was another ₹50,000-1 lakh despite CGHS coverage, as some of the tests and consumables weren't covered. In 2020, I spent almost ₹1.5 lakh on human albumin (a vital protein) alone,” he recalls.

For these reasons, Singal advises setting aside money regularly for geriatric care like an extension of emergency fund—something you may or may not need, but should still be prepared for when it comes to supporting parents. “Emergency funds should also be adjusted if supporting parents is a possibility.”

One's own care too

He also suggested planning for one’s own care needs in retirement. “While calculating your retirement corpus, include the current cost of a home attendant as part of your expenses. If you want to take a more conservative view, assuming some existing expenses may fall away, consider budgeting for at least half that amount,” he said.

Caregiving for parents, or even for oneself in later years, is not a one-time financial event and must be factored in well in advance. Drawing from his experience, Kakkar advises, “It is important to set aside a dedicated fund for such contingencies, for both yourself and your parents.”

Beyond the financial aspect, caregiving also brings emotional and mental strain, and in some cases, can affect career choices, especially when managing care from a distance. Adequate savings and the right insurance cover can help assuage some of this pressure.