What to Tell Your Aging Parents About Debt Retirement can be an [ideal] time or a struggle depending on how well you’ve prepared. Four in five households approaching retirement hold debt, a ratio that has remained steady for several decades. Debt forces a growing percentage of retirement-aged people to continue working. Reducing or eliminating debt can be an important step in crafting a viable retirement, If you have parents trapped in debt and nearing retirement, now is a good time to look into senior citizen financial planning and have a talk about the future.
Start a Conversation: The first step to helping your parents with debt is to open a line of communication. Choose a time when you can put other obligations on hold and focus on your parents.
Listen To Their Needs: Your top priority in your discussion should be to make sure your parents have the means to cover necessities like food, home costs and health care. Be gentle and calm in your demeanor, and ask how you can help meet these needs or find resources to help them.
Help Create or Manage a Budget: Some people simply need help managing their post-retirement budgets. If too much of your parents’ income is being used to repay debts, it’s wise to consider debt reduction options like debt management, debt settlement and debt consolidation.
Have Siblings? or Other Family: Financially dependent adult children or family can put a further strain on struggling parents. If your parents are struggling to pay their own bills, they shouldn’t have the additional burden of paying their children’s debts and student loans.
Get Outside Help: Churches often provide tax services to older parishioners, as do senior centers, local governments and other social groups. Finding the right financial professionals and building trusting relationships can be as important to the elderly as finding the right doctors.
Thank You to Bill Fay & Debt.org for this article.
www.debt.org/advice/parents