Long Term Care Calculator projects future care costs by compounding inflation, over time, and compares the outcome with current savings to show any resulting funding shortfall.
Project Future Long-Term Care Costs and Find Your Monthly Savings Gap
This calculator projects what nursing home, assisted living, or in-home care will cost by the time you’re likely to need it, applying compounding inflation to today’s monthly rate, then compares that inflated figure against your current dedicated savings to show any funding shortfall. It’s built for people in their 40s through 60s doing retirement or eldercare planning who want a concrete monthly savings target rather than a general warning to “save more.”
Entering Your Care Timeline, Monthly Cost, and Savings Assumptions
Enter Current Age and Projected Care Age in years, Current Monthly Care Cost and Current Dedicated Savings in dollars, and Care Inflation Rate and Savings ROI as annual percentages. Inflation and savings both compound annually to produce the Target Future Cost and Funding Strategy figures. Changing Currency only swaps the displayed symbol; it does not convert the entered amounts.
How the Future Cost and Required Monthly Savings Are Calculated
The projection uses the standard future value (compound interest) formula and the future-value-of-an-ordinary-annuity, or sinking-fund, formula from retirement and savings-goal planning mathematics. First, today’s monthly cost is inflated forward to the year care is projected to start, using the number of years between Current Age and Projected Care Age as the exponent:
$$C_{start} = C_{now} \times (1 + g)^n$$
where $g$ is the annual Care Inflation Rate and $n$ is the number of years until care begins. That inflated cost then continues compounding for each year of the Expected Care Duration to produce the Target Future Cost shown at the top of the results:
$$FC = \sum_{i=0}^{d-1} C_{start} \times (1+g)^i$$
Current Dedicated Savings are grown forward the same number of years at the Savings Expected ROI, compounded annually, to get projected future savings. The gap between that figure and the Target Future Cost is the funding shortfall. To close it, the calculator solves the sinking-fund formula for a level monthly payment:
$$PMT = \dfrac{Gap}{\left(\dfrac{(1+i)^m – 1}{i}\right)}$$
where $i$ is the annual ROI expressed as a nominal monthly rate ($i = ROI \div 12$) and $m$ is the number of months until care begins — a nominal-rate, monthly-compounding convention, distinct from the annual compounding used for existing savings above. If ROI is entered as 0%, the calculator falls back to a simple $Gap \div m$ division rather than dividing by an interest rate of zero.
The most common input mistake here is reversing the compounding basis — entering a monthly figure (like 0.5% per month) into either the annual Care Inflation Rate or annual Savings ROI field, both of which expect a whole annual percentage.
The calculator’s default 4.5% Care Inflation Rate is not a statutory or fixed number — it’s an approximation of the historical growth convention cited in the Genworth/CareScout Cost of Care Survey trend data, which has tracked long-term care costs rising roughly 4–5% a year over the past two decades. Actual regional inflation can run higher or lower, so this field should be adjusted to a locally sourced estimate whenever one is available.
Current Age must be less than Projected Care Age (a wait of at least one year), and Current Monthly Care Cost, Expected Care Duration, and the two rate fields must be zero or greater; a 0% inflation or ROI is valid and simply means no growth is applied.
If projected future savings already exceed the Target Future Cost, the calculator floors the displayed gap at $0 rather than showing a negative “surplus.” Pushing the waiting period or inflation rate to extreme values — a 60-year wait or a double-digit inflation rate — doesn’t break the math, but the compounded totals it produces become increasingly speculative the further out they run.
Because the Care Inflation Rate and Savings ROI are assumptions you enter rather than promised outcomes, every dollar figure this tool produces is an illustrative projection based on those inputs, not a guarantee of what care will actually cost or what savings will actually earn — treat it as an educational planning estimate, not personalized tax, legal, or investment advice.
How Monthly Care Costs Compound Over a Multi-Decade Waiting Period
The chart below illustrates the effect described above using a $6,000 starting monthly cost and the 4.5% historical convention: the same care compounds to roughly $9,300/month after 10 years, $14,500/month after 20 years, and $22,500/month after 30 years — before a single year of care duration is even added on top.
National Median Long-Term Care Costs From the 2025 Cost of Care Survey
These U.S. national median figures come from the CareScout Cost of Care Survey (data collected July–November 2025, the successor to the Genworth Cost of Care Survey). Actual costs vary by roughly 2–3x across states and are not FX-converted if you select a non-USD symbol above — the currency dropdown only changes the displayed symbol.
| Care Type | National Median | Annualized |
|---|---|---|
| Assisted living community | $6,200 / month | $74,400 / year |
| Nursing home, semi-private room | $315 / day | $114,975 / year |
| Nursing home, private room | $355 / day | $129,575 / year |
| In-home, non-medical caregiver | $35 / hour | ≈$80,080 / year (44 hrs/week) |
Common Questions About Long-Term Care Cost Projections and Savings Gaps
Does this calculator account for Medicaid or long-term care insurance benefits?
No. It projects the full private-pay cost of care based on your inputs. Medicaid eligibility depends on state-specific asset and income rules, and insurance benefits depend on your policy’s daily or monthly limit — neither is factored into the Target Future Cost or Funding Strategy figures.
Why does the required monthly savings use different compounding than my existing savings?
Existing savings are grown annually at the entered ROI. The required new monthly contribution is solved with the standard sinking-fund formula, which compounds the same annual ROI monthly (ROI ÷ 12). Both are standard conventions, just applied to a lump sum versus a stream of monthly payments.
What happens if I already have enough savings to cover projected care costs?
The Funding Strategy card shows a $0 gap and $0 required monthly savings — the shortfall is floored at zero rather than shown as a negative number, so the tool won’t display how far ahead of the target your savings are.
Should I use my current age or a specific future age I expect to need care?
Current Age should be your age today. Projected Care Age is your own estimate of when care might begin — many people base it on family health history or the age a parent or grandparent first needed similar care.
How reliable is a fixed care inflation rate over 20–30 years?
It’s a simplification. Actual long-term care cost growth has varied year to year — recent CareScout survey data shows swings from roughly 1% to 10%+ depending on care type and year — so treat the projection as directional, not a precise forecast, and revisit it periodically.