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Last week, my family hosted my wife’s niece and family from California. The parents in this family are both in their 40s.
Prior to their visit, we resolved to ask them what plans they had made for their retirement. On their first evening with us, we were encouraged to learn they each had a pension, and were also saving additional money for retirement through their employer-sponsored plans. That was as far as the financial conversation got, except that they commented they “needed to think more about retirement.”
I didn’t have a chance to follow-up on the comment, but my wife found out the young couple knew they needed to learn more about personal finance and take action to put some plans in place. They just hadn’t yet pulled the trigger.
Yesterday, I sent them an email complimenting them on making a start and offered a few suggestions on moving forward. I added a few HumbleDollar links, including the Two-Minute Checkup.
I told them my wife and I are nosey about the finances of the people we care about, but to honest, I’m pretty curious about nearly everyone’s plans for retirement, and ready to offer suggestions if they are as lost as I was a few decades ago. I look for opportunities to bring up the topic.
What about you? Do you poke your nose into other people’s money life?
No, the only person I get involved with is my son, that I would call parental obligation, more a chore that has to be done.
No. I enjoy the topic but do not raise it.
I’m with you Mike. Some will bring up the subject with me, and I enjoy the conversations, though I don’t know how often they act on my input.
I have written before about our son still coming to me for financial advice on occasion. But I let him come to me. Spouse was not interested in our finances and left it all to me. They had no idea about anything. I had to start leaving the bills at their place after I paid them. I am making them do some of the online bill pay now. Our daughter is a CPA and knows more than I do. Chris
I tend to throw out feelers such as forwarding articles that I think may be appropriate for my children. I have written about being quite involved in my daughter’s finances since her divorce almost a decade ago. She shares all her finances including salary, bonuses, as well as an annual review of her financial situation in the months after the new year before she does her taxes.
My son and his wife, have a fairly high income as she is a Physician’s Associate (new professional designation) and makes a very good salary. I have not mentioned anything more than general outline of financial concepts. A few years ago I mentioned to my son that it would be important to obtain additional life insurance on her as, they have a significant mortgage, and their incomes are not balanced at all and she has type 1 diabetes. I believe he referenced something about doing that, but I’m not sure.
I told my children growing up that in all aspects of life you have to live with all of your life’s decisions, both good and bad.