One big worry. The stability of the U.S. with all this fighting and deficit spending by both Republicans (I am one) and Democrats. If we collapse into in-fighting then the only thing to invest in is gold bricks and shotguns.
I’m worried I will not be able to manage our finances in the future due to gradual cognitive decline. My husband has no interest in it and relies on me. How do I get him more involved?
This situation seems to be the reason many HumbleDollar readers not only simplify their finances as they age, but also look to involve a younger family member or a financial advisor.
1. Medical insurance and costs. 2. Radical politicians who don’t understand the stability of the world financial system relies on the full faith and credit of the USA and that “regulated” before “capitalism” is essential. 3. Hacking or other widespread computer glitch. (Another comment mentioned identity theft; it’s a subset of a larger universe of weakness of the financial system.)
My top financial worry is for the future of someone I love very much — my young adult son who has autism, who will probably be unable to live independently and has no siblings, close friends or others who will likely step up to take him in or care for him when I’m incapacitated or gone one day. It’s a huge life favor to ask someone to be your back-up and agree to forever be responsible for loving and caring for your child if something should happen to you, especially when your child isn’t likely to ever leave home or create a life of his own separate from theirs. I suppose this is first a life worry (about the right someone), but it’s also a financial worry since my son who’s healthy, in his 20’s, could easily live 80 years plus with life spans increasing as they are. Either way, this is what I think about as he and I continue to live now and prepare for the future.
As we grow older, we become much more susceptible to falling under the influence of someone who does not share our desire to bequeath our estate to our kids.
I have seen several cases of new spouses and “trusted” relatives essentially stealing inheritances because someone was able to manipulate the surviving spouse.
I worry about identify theft. We’ve had our credit cards knocked-off three times in the last two years. Each time, the fraud has been low dollar and we’ve not incurred any cost ourselves. That said, as fraudsters get more sophisticated, I worry they can get at our assets and potentially cause serious financial damage.
My son’s financial future. He is living paycheck to paycheck due to a divorce, child support and a general lack of understanding of real world finances.
LTC. This has taken too much thinking and analysis from me. I’m only 51 but want to set things so I don’t have to worry about them later. I guess I’m lucky that this is one of the last things to sort through before calling it quits from a career standpoint.
Re: LTC….Assuming you’re healthy, have you looked into a life insurance policy with a LTC rider (I’m sure there’s a name for this product but I don’t know what it is). Essentially works like this: You buy a life insurance policy, let’s say death benefit is $250,000. If you need LTC, instead of your beneficiaries getting the $250K when you die, you can draw on the $250K death benefit to pay for LTC expenses. If you have an existing whole life policy, you can do a 1035 exchange to pay for some or all of the new policy.
Having left the corporate 9-5 world a few months ago, this area is on my mind. I worry about my new profession being so tightly correlated with how the stock market performs. If the market tanks, my portfolio drops and I will likely lose consulting work. That’s one thing.
Another is health care. A significant issue can obviously hurt one’s financial situation, but even a lot of small things each year can run-up medical costs to the deductible in an HDHP and result in a material annual health care expense.
I’m also worried I’ll find the special gal who will cause my annual expenses to double. A little tongue-in-cheek here, but it’s something I must plan for. Let alone the possibility of having mouths to feed later in life.
Finally, I worry about my parents. My mother is 70 and pops is 65. Both are in so-so health at best and already struggle with stairs. There’s no plan among my family about who will take care of them, which I think is coming sooner or later. That too has a financial impact.
If that gal is special, what your annual expenses will be will not even cross your mind, see what a couple of kids do to those expenses. FI has a new meaning 🤑
I’m worried that global growth will continue to be tepid or may be even slower than it has been in the past few decade (2%+/-), which will negatively impact stock performance, and thusly inhibit my ability to retire.
The cost of college, followed by the cost of college and the cost of college. It’s endlessly frustrating that college generally delivers a positive ROI, so it’s not an option to not want to send my children to college. But colleges have pushed the cost relentlessly higher, making that ROI harder and harder to justify.
Here’s what I discovered about college expenses with my 3 children: if you have some flexibility, you can find a college that will heavily (or completely) subsidize the cost of college, including room & board. The catch: You need to figure out what attribute your son/daughter has that will make the college to cough up all that money. One example: I was talking to the admissions director trying to decide if my oldest should apply to the 2 or 4 year mechanical engineering program (he wasn’t the most studious guy in high school). During this discussion I mentioned that I noticed they did not have any students from NY (there was a graphic in their brochure that showed the breakdown by state). I could feel him sit up in his chair (over the phone). The conversation immediately changed: Now, he asked if my son was set on mechanical engineering because they had petroleum engineering scholarships that went unclaimed, and the 2 engineering programs were identical for the 1st 2 years. I have other similar stories that greatly reduced the total cost of college.
I’m planning a few articles coming on the cost of college, financial aid, and an analysis of whether or not a 529 is a good savings tool. I have a high school freshman and a middle schooler and it’s amazing how much uncertainty there is regarding how much we will pay for this highly likely near-term expenditure.
For many kids, a sensible path is to send them to a community college to complete general education credits there while getting an associates degree, before paying for a bachelor’s from a four-year school. The credits usually transfer easily. And if it happens that your son or daughter isn’t yet mature enough or academically ready for college, the tuition for learning THAT lesson will be far cheaper.
Might I recommend the book “The Price You Pay For College” by Ron Lieber? Despite my own experience and expertise in higher education, I found this book fascinating and useful.
I’m very worried about what seems to be an excess of speculation in financial markets. We’ve already seen one hedge fund blow up, badly hurting a couple of banks because of the huge leverage involved. Then we have retail investors buying stocks touted on message boards, red-hot fund managers becoming celebrities. We have a market pricing in a great future, and returns over the next 10 years, until my retirement, may be much lower. And I’m worried about potential conflict between the major powers, perhaps over Taiwan. If you think semiconductors are in short supply now, just wait until the island is under attack. I am slightly trimming my stock positions.
One big worry. The stability of the U.S. with all this fighting and deficit spending by both Republicans (I am one) and Democrats. If we collapse into in-fighting then the only thing to invest in is gold bricks and shotguns.
I’m worried I will not be able to manage our finances in the future due to gradual cognitive decline. My husband has no interest in it and relies on me. How do I get him more involved?
This situation seems to be the reason many HumbleDollar readers not only simplify their finances as they age, but also look to involve a younger family member or a financial advisor.
1. Medical insurance and costs.
2. Radical politicians who don’t understand the stability of the world financial system relies on the full faith and credit of the USA and that “regulated” before “capitalism” is essential.
3. Hacking or other widespread computer glitch. (Another comment mentioned identity theft; it’s a subset of a larger universe of weakness of the financial system.)
A bigger- and longer-than-expected financial downturn in my retirement years.
My two son’s financial security.
I think / hope my wife and I are in good shape.
My top financial worry is for the future of someone I love very much — my young adult son who has autism, who will probably be unable to live independently and has no siblings, close friends or others who will likely step up to take him in or care for him when I’m incapacitated or gone one day. It’s a huge life favor to ask someone to be your back-up and agree to forever be responsible for loving and caring for your child if something should happen to you, especially when your child isn’t likely to ever leave home or create a life of his own separate from theirs. I suppose this is first a life worry (about the right someone), but it’s also a financial worry since my son who’s healthy, in his 20’s, could easily live 80 years plus with life spans increasing as they are. Either way, this is what I think about as he and I continue to live now and prepare for the future.
As we grow older, we become much more susceptible to falling under the influence of someone who does not share our desire to bequeath our estate to our kids.
I have seen several cases of new spouses and “trusted” relatives essentially stealing inheritances because someone was able to manipulate the surviving spouse.
I worry about identify theft. We’ve had our credit cards knocked-off three times in the last two years. Each time, the fraud has been low dollar and we’ve not incurred any cost ourselves. That said, as fraudsters get more sophisticated, I worry they can get at our assets and potentially cause serious financial damage.
My son’s financial future. He is living paycheck to paycheck due to a divorce, child support and a general lack of understanding of real world finances.
LTC. This has taken too much thinking and analysis from me. I’m only 51 but want to set things so I don’t have to worry about them later. I guess I’m lucky that this is one of the last things to sort through before calling it quits from a career standpoint.
Re: LTC….Assuming you’re healthy, have you looked into a life insurance policy with a LTC rider (I’m sure there’s a name for this product but I don’t know what it is). Essentially works like this: You buy a life insurance policy, let’s say death benefit is $250,000. If you need LTC, instead of your beneficiaries getting the $250K when you die, you can draw on the $250K death benefit to pay for LTC expenses. If you have an existing whole life policy, you can do a 1035 exchange to pay for some or all of the new policy.
Having left the corporate 9-5 world a few months ago, this area is on my mind. I worry about my new profession being so tightly correlated with how the stock market performs. If the market tanks, my portfolio drops and I will likely lose consulting work. That’s one thing.
Another is health care. A significant issue can obviously hurt one’s financial situation, but even a lot of small things each year can run-up medical costs to the deductible in an HDHP and result in a material annual health care expense.
I’m also worried I’ll find the special gal who will cause my annual expenses to double. A little tongue-in-cheek here, but it’s something I must plan for. Let alone the possibility of having mouths to feed later in life.
Finally, I worry about my parents. My mother is 70 and pops is 65. Both are in so-so health at best and already struggle with stairs. There’s no plan among my family about who will take care of them, which I think is coming sooner or later. That too has a financial impact.
Lots to consider.
If that gal is special, what your annual expenses will be will not even cross your mind, see what a couple of kids do to those expenses. FI has a new meaning 🤑
I’m worried that global growth will continue to be tepid or may be even slower than it has been in the past few decade (2%+/-), which will negatively impact stock performance, and thusly inhibit my ability to retire.
The cost of college, followed by the cost of college and the cost of college. It’s endlessly frustrating that college generally delivers a positive ROI, so it’s not an option to not want to send my children to college. But colleges have pushed the cost relentlessly higher, making that ROI harder and harder to justify.
Here’s what I discovered about college expenses with my 3 children: if you have some flexibility, you can find a college that will heavily (or completely) subsidize the cost of college, including room & board. The catch: You need to figure out what attribute your son/daughter has that will make the college to cough up all that money. One example: I was talking to the admissions director trying to decide if my oldest should apply to the 2 or 4 year mechanical engineering program (he wasn’t the most studious guy in high school). During this discussion I mentioned that I noticed they did not have any students from NY (there was a graphic in their brochure that showed the breakdown by state). I could feel him sit up in his chair (over the phone). The conversation immediately changed: Now, he asked if my son was set on mechanical engineering because they had petroleum engineering scholarships that went unclaimed, and the 2 engineering programs were identical for the 1st 2 years. I have other similar stories that greatly reduced the total cost of college.
I’m planning a few articles coming on the cost of college, financial aid, and an analysis of whether or not a 529 is a good savings tool. I have a high school freshman and a middle schooler and it’s amazing how much uncertainty there is regarding how much we will pay for this highly likely near-term expenditure.
For many kids, a sensible path is to send them to a community college to complete general education credits there while getting an associates degree, before paying for a bachelor’s from a four-year school. The credits usually transfer easily. And if it happens that your son or daughter isn’t yet mature enough or academically ready for college, the tuition for learning THAT lesson will be far cheaper.
Might I recommend the book “The Price You Pay For College” by Ron Lieber? Despite my own experience and expertise in higher education, I found this book fascinating and useful.
I’m very worried about what seems to be an excess of speculation in financial markets. We’ve already seen one hedge fund blow up, badly hurting a couple of banks because of the huge leverage involved. Then we have retail investors buying stocks touted on message boards, red-hot fund managers becoming celebrities. We have a market pricing in a great future, and returns over the next 10 years, until my retirement, may be much lower. And I’m worried about potential conflict between the major powers, perhaps over Taiwan. If you think semiconductors are in short supply now, just wait until the island is under attack. I am slightly trimming my stock positions.