Helping a Parent With Personal Finance

It’s inevitable that at some point your parents may need your help paying bills, managing real estate, monitoring insurance, creating a living trust or some other financial piece that you were not helping with before. In some cases a parent will ask for help. In other cases you may have to bring it up first.

Help or Coup?

If you notice that your loved one(s) are having trouble keeping up with their finances, don’t barge in and take over. Your parent(s) are adults with a host of experiences and education behind them. It’s understandable that they might see your involvement as an intrusion.

If you think that your parent(s) may require your help, talk with them about it. Do they think that they need help? If so, what kind of help would they like? The goal is to help your parent(s) in whatever way they might need, not to barge into their lives and make them feel like children.

Some helpful websites:

Medication Donut Hole – If you have Medicare Part D, you may be at risk of falling into the coverage gap, or “doughnut hole.” Follow this four-step tool and save money!

AARP Quicklink – Need financial help for a parent or grandparent, but not sure where to begin?

Social Security Estimator – Find out how much money your parent will be able get from Social Security with this easy calculator.

Medicare – Have questions about Medicare coverage?

National Foundation for Credit Counseling  – Need help paying off a parent’s debt?

Federal Trade Commission – What to do when parent(s) are scammed.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – Report financial fraud. Get help!

AARP Tax Help – Tax preparation for low income seniors.

Tips for helping a parent with personal finances:

• Make a list of everything that needs to be monitored (primary home, rental property, vehicles, checking and saving accounts, investment accounts, pensions, valuable personal property and any items in a safe deposit box.
• Keep their assets separate from yours.
• Keep clear records of everything that you’re doing.
• Include all stakeholders in the information loop.
• Consider hiring professionals to help. Ex: accountant, financial advisor, insurance agent, etc.

 

Remember, you’re there to help your parent(s) in whatever way that you can. Let them lead the conversation but pay attention to their behaviors.

Good luck!

 

Latina Mom Survey

Since I’ve been writing for Mamiverse.com, more and more people have started contacting me about common concerns about money. One of the themes that continually emerges is retirement. How much money is needed? How does one invest? What’s the difference between retirement tools?

To get a better handle on what’s going on with Latina moms, I thought I’d conduct an informal and completely unscientific survey. Please answer the 9 multiple-choice questions and share the survey with a friend!

This information will really help me write better articles and (hopefully) reach more Latinas around the country.

 

Retirement Survey

I’m working on a new article on retirement savings and I’d love to have your help. I’ve put together a really short (9 questions) anonymous survey on retirement planning. Please take a moment and share your experiences.

Also, I’d love it if you would pass it on. The more data, the better.

=)

Thanks!

Do Individual Development Accounts Work?

Individual Development Account (IDA) are one of the tools that encourage people to save. These accounts are managed by community organizations in every state in the US. and usually offer a monetary “match” to those that save a specific amount of money. For example, if you open an IDA with the promise to save $1,000 to open a business the community organization will promise to contribute an extra $3,000 giving you a total of $4,000 to open your business.

Community organizations claim that IDAs are great ways to help low income families save, but I’m not so sure. The motivation behind the IDAs is that low income families will be able to save money quickly and, hopefully, start making some long-term behavioral changes. My concern is that the matching is what motivates people to save. What motivates people to save when there is no matching? Everyone working in financial education understands that giving people more money isn’t the answer to ending poverty. Unless people decide to make different decisions they will be just as broke as they were before they received the money.

Click here to locate an IDA program in your city.

Default – The Student Loan Documentary Needs Your Help!

We totally support the making of this documentary and right now they need our help.

From Default’s Facebook:
“Default: the Student Loan Documentary is competing to win $10,000 on www.ideablob.com
In order to qualify for the monthly showdown, we have to win one weekly sprint. We have decided to compete from July 8th to July 14th. If we get more votes than any other ideas during that week, our votes get reset to 0 and everybody will have to vote again for us to win at the end of the month. Please vote now.”

To hear the full interview with Aurora Meneghello click here.