Financial Matters

I am grateful for a father-in-law who forced me to learn about investing when he gave our sons their first government bonds, and grateful for my husband who turned the family investment decisions over to me. Though there’s a lot I don’t know, I’m beyond the Investing for Dummies stage.

Thus, I feel fairly confident and competent when it comes to helping my parents with their finances. It’s clear they need help, though my father would be the last to admit it. Not only is he a control freak by personality, his Parkinsons, accompanied by some dementia and paranoia, causes him to look for conspiracies in every piece of mail he receives, including unsolicited credit card offers.

I will not go into private financial matters here, but the important lessons for all of us Boomers are these:

1. Make sure your children are money savvy and know how different investments work, including things like required IRA distributions after age 70 1/2.
2. Keep your financial records in order and give your most money-savvy child a thorough orientation to your affairs before you become incapacitated for any reason.
3. Review all your investment accounts and make sure your secondary beneficiaries are spelled out (while you can still remember their names).
4. Make sure your will, living will, living trust, medical power of attorney, and other documents are up-to-date while you still have your wits about you.
5. Think about how/when and to whom you will turn over your day-to-day financial affairs, including bill paying. Retire from this unpaid responsibility happily. If you have no children (or none who are money savvy), find someone else – family member, friend, or a paid representative – to be ready to help with your financial affairs when the time comes. Don’t assume your spouse will want, or be able, to do this for you forever.
6. Finally, if you find yourself needing to step in to help elderly parents, as I am, ask for advice. You’re not a pioneer; others have experiences to share. And there are good attorneys specializing in elder law who can help, too.

Sue