If you're in the US, that money is always for keeping you off the street, at any age. It's funny you mention retirement homes. Those cost more than my current lifestyle does. Medicaid, you say? Ok, but first you need money for a lawyer to help you get on Medicaid, because the state will seek to deny you no matter your situation, as a matter of policy. We've been going through this pathetically broken process with my grandfather for a year. Just in case any young people out there are under the impression that 'the system' just sort of kicks in and takes care of things at a certain age, it doesn't. So you don't save for retirement so you can go jet-skiing in the tropics at 90. You save so you don't end up stuck, suffering alone for years in bad conditions, because you can't afford a roof and humane care.
I think that's exactly what a lot of people are missing. They forget that the US has very little in the way of social assistance. It seems nerve wracking to live there. I save because I like to have the peace of mind but I know that if I need it there will be assistance.
