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I don't have children... or any family for that matter. One of the things that has me concerned is at a more advanced age, when perhaps my thinking is more easily confused, how will I manage my financial decisions?
How are people in this forum making sure that their investments/savings are safe, their bills are being paid?
What do you plan to do if you are older, less sure of your decision making capabilities, and have to make choices about investments?
I don't have children... or any family for that matter. One of the things that has me concerned is at a more advanced age, when perhaps my thinking is more easily confused, how will I manage my financial decisions?
How are people in this forum making sure that their investments/savings are safe, their bills are being paid?
What do you plan to do if you are older, less sure of your decision making capabilities, and have to make choices about investments?
Great question. Personally, I started teaching my 21 year old son, who is majoring in accounting, investment and personal finance concepts starting several years ago. He's a smart kid with aptitude in finance who I trust implicitly. Moreover, he has skin in the game, because he inherits more if he is successful.
The day will come when I can no longer handle financial matters. I hope that day is a long way off.
In this day and age a lot of your finances can be automated. I pay three of 10 recurring bills by check, but could easily do all my bills by auto-pay. My pension and paychecks are auto deposited. Once these things are set in place, they happen until you make the change, so you would never "forget" to pay the mortgage, electric bill, etc.
Once we move to our final home I will set every thing up on an automated pay, and the only potential hiccup is if the mortgage gets sold to another bank before I can get it paid off - obviously I would have to do the changes to the current mortgage holder.
I do not have significant investments, and the management of what I have at this point is pretty routine and mundane, so unless you have a large complex portfolio, or are a very active trader, I think you could do the same as with your automatic banking (I have), and set it up to take deposits or disburse money at recurring intervals depending on your needs and requirements.
I do have children, and will likely designate my oldest son to handle my finances should I need that help, but my father has used the same tax prepare for 30-40 years, my BIL has an accountant he has retained for at least 20 years, so you could start now using professional financial people, so if/when you start to decline, you have "people" in place that are familiar with your finances and could do them without a lot of confusion or problems. Another possibility would be a niece/nephew or younger sibling designated to handle finances should it become a requirement.
Other than that, I would be very careful about powers of attorney.
LaFl, I feel your concern. No kids, although I have two steps that I plan to leave something. I'm going to leave them their father's 401K and set up a little trust.
I will have to go through a trust department at a bank. I am a little leery of a lawyer but I'm sure one will be part of the equation.
LaFl, I feel your concern. No kids, although I have two steps that I plan to leave something. I'm going to leave them their father's 401K and set up a little trust.
I will have to go through a trust department at a bank. I am a little leery of a lawyer but I'm sure one will be part of the equation.
I keep thinking that the bank's fees for trust management are going to be expensive. Vanguard might be a little better. I need to remember to add this cost into my future planning.
^^^Yep, gotta keep an eye on the fees. I hopefully have twenty years or so to get it all into place, so anything I can learn along the way is much appreciated. I have a feeling someday we will be meeting up in Jupiter (FL).
Hope to have much of it on cruise control that my youngest son and his wife can monitor. She is a CPA.
Last edited by TuborgP; 10-15-2015 at 12:25 PM..
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