It's funny you should mention comfort keepers. We had to get them for my Mom, even though she is already in assisted living, while my dad was in rehab for his hip. My Mom does not have the capacity to sign anything regarding hours. I'm not sure if my sister signed an hours sheet, but they sent me the billing information and all the hours were detailed on the bill.

It's a little different in that we requested certain hours for comfort care to be there (like 7pm to 9am for example) and there was a comfort keepers care giver physically in the assisted living apartment during those hours. With the care provided by the assisted level staff, they come at certain times of the day to assist with tasks like using the bathroom. That may take 10-15 minutes each time they come in, but it's been indicated to me that none of that is recorded. The hours they charge are for are based solely on how many hours a computer program states that type of care should take. This facility has many residents and the people who run it have many facilities. So, I would have a hard time believing that what they are doing is illegal and no one has ever called them on it. I've researched average cost of assisted living on various web site. Seems like the overall costs for my Mom and Dad are in line with the averages for Wisconsin. It's just frustrating to me and I wish they would bill in some other manner, like for care service provided or by care level, and not hourly....because the amount of hours is not correct.

Also, while we need to keep the facility accountable, it's a tricky situation. They are providing care for my parents and it seems that all elderly care facilities are currently struggling to find quality care givers that they can employ. If we have an issue with care and complain and word gets back to the actual care giver....does that fix the situation, or just makes the care that much worse for my parents. Unless we are willing to uproot my parents and move them because we believe the grass is greener somewhere else (and that is probably not true), then it's hard to do too much complaining or to threaten any type of legal action. Overall, I feel where my parents are is probably better than many other places. The state of elderly care in the country is just really bad.

Other than in these situations (which I don't see that often), I have a hard time understanding why everyone does not use credit cards almost exclusively. My wife and I put everything on the credit card and we fly at least one place for free every year (domestic flight), sometimes 2. You could also choose cash back or other rewards. Why would you not take advantage of that?

I basically use the credit card like its a debit card and pay it off every day, so I never pay interest and always know what my cash situation is. At some point several years ago, when I realized I could make a payment towards my credit card on a daily basis, it was a no brainier to switch from using an debit card that had little or no rewards. Takes me about 2 minutes every day to go in and make the payment towards my cc.

Ok, not sure if you understood my post. If you log in every day and pay off what you spent the day before it's basically just like using cash or a debit card. Should really be the same discipline. Since many people spend a lot of time looking at their phone anyways, really does not take that much effort to login in to their credit card and make a payment on a daily basis. Don't have to change your spending habits at all to also receive free flights, gift cards, etc. To me that's the same or worse than people who don't contribute to a 401(k) plan where the employer matches because they "can't afford it". Your employer is saying, "Hey, here is some money" and you are responding with "No thanks" (not to mention the tax deferral benefits).

I definitely applaud the wanting to stay away from credit card debt mentality. However, really hard for me to understand turning down rewards because you can't exercise a small amount of self discipline.