FREE PLANNING WORKSHEET

Home care vs assisted living: what would each cost?

Reviewed September 24, 2026

Compare your own quotes and known expenses in one place. The lower entered cost is a financial result; it cannot tell you which setting is safer or better for your family.

Build your comparison

A little clarity for the conversation ahead.

A paper-first way to compare

Write down your home-care weekly rate, billable hours, minimum visits and fees. Multiply weekly paid help by 52 ÷ 12. Add ongoing housing, utilities, food, transport and other expenses. For assisted living, start with a written monthly quote, then add charges the quote does not already include, plus any housing costs that continue. Keep unknown charges on a separate list. Add one-time charges and refundable deposits to first-month cash needed; do not add deposits to recurring cost.

Use the home-care schedule calculator or print the free quote comparison pack.

Build your comparison

Start with a quote or planning numbers you enter. Blank amounts remain not known yet. No national median or local price is prefilled.

Your entries stay in this tab. Printing or copying shares them only when you choose. We do not submit your costs to FEP or analytics.

At home

Paid help plus the costs of keeping the home running.

Home-care hourly rate

$/ hour

Requested hours each week

Weekly recurring fee

How is paid help priced?

Housing and other monthly costs

Mark a charge included only when you have confirmed there is no additional cash cost.

Housing that continues

Utilities

Food

Transportation

Maintenance

Other recurring costs

One-time charges and deposit

Home-care setup

Home changes and setup

Refundable deposit

Assisted living

Start with the facility quote and avoid adding items already included.

Use an entered quote. Confirm exactly what its base includes before adding care, meals, utilities, or transport.

Quoted monthly base

Additional care charges

Meals

Utilities

Transportation

Personal expenses

Housing costs that continue

Other recurring costs

Move-in charges, overlap and deposit

First-month overlap is a one-time transition estimate. Keep any housing you will continue paying in the monthly housing row above.

Nonrefundable move-in charge

Moving costs

Additional first-month housing overlap

Enter only housing costs not already counted in the monthly housing field. If those costs are already included there, choose “Included / no added charge” here.

Refundable deposit

Optional: family time impact

Unpaid family hours/week at homeUnpaid family hours/week with assisted living

These hours are shown separately. No wage or dollar value is assigned to them.

YOUR ENTERED ASSUMPTIONS

Monthly costs and first-month cash

At home

Assisted living

Source: amounts you entered in this tab; no benchmark, local quote, geography or price year was supplied by FEP. Confirm each amount and its included services with the source you used.

An average month uses 52 weeks ÷ 12. Actual bills can differ. First-month cash adds known one-time charges and refundable deposits; deposits are shown separately because they may be returned. Funding, insurance, taxes, benefits, home-sale proceeds and investment returns are outside this worksheet.

Take the known costs and open questions to your next conversation

Print or copy the summary below the totals. Ask each agency or community to confirm the charges marked “not known yet” before you compare the full cost.

Turn unknowns into useful questions

Ask a home-care agency about minimum visits, weekly fees, taxes, overtime and cancellations. Ask an assisted-living community what its quote includes, which care charges can change, and whether a deposit is refundable. Keep housing costs in view during a move.

Use the free quote comparison pack for written agency answers. The optional $29 Care System can organize unresolved calls, family tasks and follow-up. See its fictional demo.

How the calculation works

Paid home help uses the existing FEP weekly calculator: (hourly rate × billable weekly hours + weekly fees) × 52 ÷ 12. If a minimum per visit applies, billable hours use the larger of requested hours per visit and the minimum. Assisted-living monthly cost adds only the entered base and charges marked additional. Unknowns remain listed beside the result. We show a crossover only when both monthly sides are complete and home-care pricing is simple hourly without minimums.

For example, a fictional $35/hour × 20 billable hours/week plus $1,000 in monthly household costs is $4,033.33 per average month. An entered $6,200 all-in assisted-living quote would be $2,166.67 higher each month under those assumptions. Those numbers are an illustration, not a local quote, benchmark or care-hour recommendation.

Research a published price separately and check its year and included services before using it as your own planning input. Explore the home-care schedule calculator and read the home-care cost guide.