How to ensure your retirement plan is self sufficient

Find an alternate support system that keeps you nurtured. The joint family setup was a good one, it had in-built buffers and support for each member and each type of member but that is now long gone. Today, hardly anyone wants to burden their children. However, no one wants to be lonely either and thus, the need for community is felt. Create your community or an in-group with close circle of family and friends. Pool resources, help each other and bring to the table managerial skills to create a sustainable solution that is fair, equitable and well-funded.

One big reason for assisted living facilities or old age in general to be gloomy and pale is the lack of laughter and cheer, which children and the young bring to the atmosphere. This is more essential for a happy post-retirement life than it seems from afar. If you can integrate the young, via activities that interest them, it may prove mutually beneficial. One could tell stories; teach math and languages; watch films, read novels and discuss the nuances; listen to music and pass on the lessons of our life without becoming too overbearing.

Pursue the path of consuming less, hoarding lesser and living with just the essentials. The burden of things becomes too much as we age. It is sensible to stop spending money and time on material things and focus instead on living life. That reduces our expenses, makes it easy to move when needed and reduces the stress about what happens to stuff after we are gone.

Even as you plan and get ready to retire, figure out how to fund this phase of life. The cost of establishment, living, activities, and interests, the corpus needed for healthcare and medical treatments and the details of bequest and giving away are the major spending heads. This is a serious financial enterprise, where money must be found for the expected and the unexpected.
For the same, consider a consolidation of all assets into primarily financial assets that will have higher flexibility. Properties will be disposed and the proceeds invested. Make plans for the house and how the finances of that enterprise will be shared and managed by your group or collective. Leverage the wisdom that comes with age to establish common rules to ensure harmonious co-living.