There’s a moment a lot of us hit somewhere in our forties or fifties that nobody really sits you down and prepares you for. A parent’s health slips. A spouse dies and the survivor is suddenly rattling around a house that’s too big and too far away. The stairs stop being a good idea. And the question of elderly parents moving in with you goes from something you’d vaguely assumed you’d “figure out someday” to a decision you have to make this year.
Here’s the thing most Canadians get wrong about it: they treat it as a purely emotional decision, make the housing and money choices on autopilot, and then discover eighteen months later that they triggered a benefits clawback, botched the tax treatment on the “rent” they charge, or spent $180,000 on a bigger house when a $60,000 basement build would have done the job better — and come with a federal cheque attached.
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