June 6, 2009 at 7:01 pm

My husband Jim and I are 45 and new empty nesters. Jim’s mother died of Alzheimer’s at 64 after showing noticeable symptoms for 8 years, and early symptoms before that that were hidden/explained away.

Jim, a teacher, has been experiencing problems with language (not remembering familiar names, being unable to recall common words) for about 3 years. He has learned to compensate for it and hide it, but still has issues with it most every day.

I’m concerned Jim may be on his way to early onset disease himself. He’s extremely healthy physically. If he does get it I will still need to work, so some type of outside care would definitely be necessary. He has a healthy retirement account, and mine is doing OK, but outside of that the only real asset we have is the house.

For a long time we have talked about selling the house. Now I’m thinking if we do sell, we should buy another to keep at least one asset from being potentially eaten up by the cost of care. He is very resistant to this, and wants to be free of home maintenance, and to use any profits we might get to travel.

I want him to enjoy any time he/we have remaining, and don’t want to assume he will get it, but I don’t want to be left penniless in my early 60s either. Any suggestions?