My folks at no time EVER talked about finances with me. If I get marrried and have children, I will not make that kind of mistake. Fortunately in my late 20's a friend of mine started talking to me about retirement, 401k, reccomended this forum, etc. I owe him an enormous debt of grattitude. Without the flash of inspiration I would not be in the much better situation that I am today.
To this day, I still have no idea what my folks financial situation is. But I gather it is probably not too good. When I mentioned to my father that he should have around 1 million for retirement his eyes got really big, and he confessed, he had no where even near that much (he is currently 62). Sadly my folks seem to live (and have lived for most of their lives) in a permanent state of denial, and wishful thinking. My mother has taken on the attitude that she is retired already, and that all financial stuff is my fathers job. So I bought a few retirement books for my father, which I guarantee will sit on a shelf and never be read.
I truly believe the reason why so few parents talk to their children about the financial situation, is lack of planning for, or thinking about the future. There are so many people that I have met that view retirement as something that just sort of "magically" happens, without any planning or forethought on the part of the retiree. I can remember mentioning to my mother that I am currently saving for retirement. Her reaction was, "You are far to young to even think about that right now". Some people still believe that somehow the job, govt, children, will be taking care of them completely one day, so why bother. They live blissfully unaware that sooner or later reality will make a comeback into their lives, and it will probably not be too pleasent.
Just a question to the forum. I personally beleive that my folks will be heading for a complete financial train wreck in the next 10-15 years. (This is when the reality of their situation will finally dawn on them). I realize that I will prbably have to financially save the day at some point (still considering how much I will want do or not). Can I start some sort of tax defered fund if I want to help offset this eventuality? I have the standard 401k, roth IRA, bank savings, etc. I was just wondering if there was some sort of (save your parents in 20 years because they left their future to chance) fund out there somewhere. Probably not... but I thought I would ask anyway...