Worried you can’t afford aged care? Here’s what you could pay

November 8, 2026 — 4:00am

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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.

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Aged care has always been confusing, and the........

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