I hear a lot of advice about putting parents in assisted living or a nursing home. How do you afford it?

AL is for people who have finances to pay as self pay. If your parent only has $1500 coming in each month, you're going to be applying for a fed funded/state managed Medicaid NH bed. If bank account is over 2 grand, you'll use that money to self pay the NH to "spend down" that asset. You should be able to apply for the Medicaid online in your state. You cannot give away or "gift" the parent's money or property. One car won't count and a house won't count if you fill out the form saying he intends to return. You should probably call legal aid services in your area. It's very possible you could get free legal advice on eligibility and navigating the Medicaid process

My parents sold their home and cashed out their 2 stocks in order to afford Assisted Living. Then the VA kicked in with Aid & Attendance benefits for dad's wartime service as a soldier on the front line on Normandy Beach. That A&A benefit extended to mom after dad died, so together with their Social Security, the A&A benefits, and their savings, they spent ALL their hard earned lifetime savings of $450K (thanks mostly to the value of TWO stocks) to live in AL and then Memory Care for a total of 7 years.

That's how.

And if mom lived a few months longer than she did, I would have applied for Medicaid to fund her future care in a SNF since she had gone through all of her savings, sparing the taxpayers the need to fund her care while I squirreled away/hid those assets for my inheritance, as we hear about ALL THE TIME.

I thought I was doing a good thing when I found out my ma was getting her social security checks redirected and lost 12 ,000$ I contacted S.S. took months on the phone got it all back and saved more money because she cashed out 401 K and now to much money. I didn't know that!!!.