Nine Topics that Can Provide You and Your Parents Peace of Mind
Wednesday, 15 December 2021
As your parents age, you may find yourself tackling new roles and responsibilities in your relationship with them. Perhaps you are helping them around the house, attending appointments with them, distributing their medication, or even managing their finances. In many ways, it may feel as if the parent-child role has inverted itself with you now in the position of caretaker.
Even if you are not yet in this position, you may be in the future as your parents grow older. Having a solid understanding of your parent's financial situation is critical if you are to ensure that they are going to be able to pay for their expenses and receive proper care in their later years.
Of course, this is no easy topic. Discussing finances can be tricky in any relationship – and it can be even more complicated as an adult child trying to broach the subject with your parents. Try using the nine questions below to cover the most critical aspects of your parent's finances, and you’ll be in a better position to provide care for them in the future, should you need to.
It's Important to Consider Financial Matters Before Making this Big Decision
By Kathy Longo, CFP®, CAP®, CDFA
Monday, 24 August 2020
If you’ve got a teen thinking about college, chances are they’re more focused on details like dorm room size and meal plan options than the cost of tuition and fees. Of course, you want your kids to choose a college experience that they’re excited about, but it’s important to remember the financial impact, too. If you’ll be helping with college costs, you certainly have a stake in the discussion. If your child will be relying on student loans, start a conversation about the realities of debt so that they truly understand how much college costs could affect them many years after graduation. While cost certainly isn’t the only factor to consider when choosing a college, it’s not one that can be ignored either.
Try to find opportunities throughout your child’s life to teach them sound money habits. They’ll thank you for it later.
By Kathy Longo, CFP®, CAP®, CDFA
Friday, 31 May 2019
My daughter Grace (13) recently read my book, Flourish Financially. She said the lesson that stood out most to her was a part that explained the cost of delaying your retirement savings. She found it fascinating and a little scary to think that her financial decisions today (at age 13) could actually have an impact on her 65-year-old self. I showed her a tool in the financial planning software that I use for my clients to demonstrate the cost of delaying saving for retirement. We put in her age and an annual savings amount of $1,000 and a desired retirement age of 65. The calculator showed that if she began today she would have $806,563 saved by the age of 65. If she waited until she was 23 to begin saving the same amount, she would only have $350,170. The fact that $1,000 a year and ten years could mean almost half a million dollars blew her mind! While Grace happens to have a financial planner as a mom, the reality is that there are daily opportunities for each of us to teach good financial decision making, and you don’t have to write a book to do it.
Dear Maddy, THE REAL WORLD - It’s Not That Bad…
By Kathy Longo, CFP®, CAP®, CDFA
Monday, 06 May 2019
I am so excited for my oldest daughter, Maddy, to graduate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a corporate finance major and wealth management minor this May. Although she initially thought the financial planning profession would be incredibly boring, Maddy took a psychology course that introduced her to the interesting meaning behind money, plus took an aptitude test that indicated financial planning would be a great fit for her interests and skills. I am excited that she has her first wealth management job and an apartment. I kept telling her about my excitement to see her “launch”. When Maddy asked if I could please stop talking about launching as she was really sad about leaving college. I held back from sending her the cost of her auto insurance rates as I was excitedly ready to take her off our policy and that this was all part of her launching process.
We are in the middle of a massive, $68 trillion-dollar wealth transfer. This epic shift of wealth from Baby Boomers to Millennials will be one of the largest financial transfers of all time.
By Kathy Longo, CFP®, CAP®, CDFA
Tuesday, 23 April 2019
Baby Boomers are the wealthiest generation in history and 45 million households will move trillions of dollars to the next generation. But with that transfer comes worry and fear of spoiling or creating an entitled generation. We’ve all heard sayings about how most wealth is lost in three generations. Interestingly enough, it’s actually often lost in two. In fact, 7 in 10 wealthy families have lost their fortunes by the second generation, and that number goes to 90% by the third. The theories for why this occurs focus on a lack of communication and a lack of financial preparedness for the heirs. In this article, we will go over four different steps to pass your wealth onto descendants without spoiling them or leaving them ill-prepared to manage their newfound wealth.
