What age are you too old to manage your money

[DeborahB]

After looking through the last few posts, I see things that I noticed in my father as he aged. My mother died eight years before my father, at 85. She was the one that handled the finances in the house. My father, at 87, was faced with learning to do that and having no experience with it. He had run a business, but it had been years since he had to manage the day-to-day bills. I think the hardest part is giving up control. I was lucky in that all the powers of attorney were in order but actually having my father let me exercise them was hard. After the gas company tried to take the meter off the house, and we noticed how much he owed on his American Express account, my brother and I automated the bill paying. Luckily we were co-signers on dad’s checking account. There was no issue of lack of funds.

[OAG]

I have a simple financial life. Made it so to benefit DW but since she passed first, it has benefited myself. I am 78+ and will have to manage it myself for a while. Ultimately may have to hand off management to one DD who is more than capable of handling it.

[HI Bill]

I watched my mom try from the early to mid to late stages of dementia. The question is not 'how old', but when is the cognitive function no longer there?

One other thing relates to how prone is the person to being tricked out of their assets? One might fall vicitim to phishing, signing up for unneeded purchase, being careless with checks, door-to-door salesmen, pest control services, insurance salespeople, etc. Once I took over my mom's finances, I breathed a large sigh of relief. I put almost everything on auto pay, and set up account alerts. That way, I could monitor her finances for irregular activities. By then, she had forgotten she had cable TV, although she used it every night. She failed to pay the bill, and they were threatening to disconnect her.

[kgtest]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PatrickA5 including things like accusing me of stealing money and him not wanting to give the grandkids $50 for Christmas "because he won't break even with what the grandkids give back".

Ouch. DF is 68 and he meets with me monthly, sometimes I instigate sometimes he does. He has mentioned similar things about gifting to family not to break even, interesting you mention that.
I help him with tax strategy, and the rules, often times he will make up his own IRS rule and I will need to cut/paste or walk him through the irs.gov websites language setting him straight.


My only fear with my DF is he gets into legal trouble somehow, by ignoring something or not doing something or doing something he shouldn't as he isn't one to really follow common-law rules.



I know what his pensions are, I know what his social security check amounts to and we tally up his accounts once a month so I can see if he is going backwards, then I'd have to dig deeper. I have access to his insurance information and tax info as well so there is some transparency. I presume once RMD comes and he pays uncle sam a couple years in a row he might just try and get me to help him or do his taxes for him in some automated form. I know he won't be happy cutting one big yearly check, so I'll have to automate it to lessen the sting.
None of his sibling are counting on DM being around but she never concerned herself with finance is on an allowance, so if luck should be on HER side, I would just set up a monthly automatic transfer to her checking account for the money she needs for all household stuff, At some point you stop buying things and only grocery shop, at that point I will bring them to get there groceries. That's when I update my signature at ER to full-time chauffeur.

[ExFlyBoy5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HNL Bill I watched my mom try from the early to mid to late stages of dementia. The question is not 'how old', but when is the cognitive function no longer there? One other thing relates to how prone is the person to being tricked out of their assets? One might fall vicitim to phishing, signing up for unneeded purchase, being careless with checks, door-to-door salesmen, pest control services, insurance salespeople, etc. Once I took over my mom's finances, I breathed a large sigh of relief. I put almost everything on auto pay, and set up account alerts. That way, I could monitor her finances for irregular activities. By then, she had forgotten she had cable TV, although she used it every night. She failed to pay the bill, and they were threatening to disconnect her.

The taking advantage of the elderly is much too common. When my Dad got into his late 80's, he started buying a lot of "snake oil". Thankfully, we had a very open relationship when it came to money and he allowed me to monitor what was going on. As he approached 90, it was agreed that I take over since he was making some dubious purchases and couldn't really explain why he was doing it. It was sad to see, because he could recognize that he wasn't making good decisions, but he continued to do it. He admitted that once I took over, he felt the financial stress leave his mind...even though he never had to worry about doing without, I think he very much respected money and the lack of it always concerned him.

Even in the last couple of days of his life when he was bedridden and having issues with delirium, he would ask on occasion, "do I need to sign anything? Am I good to go?".

Nonetheless, in his situation, he could have easily been taken advantage of even though he was still pretty sharp for his age.

[LXEX55]

When you start trusting your brother in law with your money.

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brett My father managed his right up to his passing at 87. My SIL is 60 years old. She has mismanaged her finances for just about all of her adult life.

Bingo!

Age is certainly a significant factor in managing our finances, but it is still only one. We all know 40 year olds who, if we gave them $1,000,000 tax free today, in five years we could come back and the money would be gone with nothing to show for it except perhaps vague memories of high living.

And we all probably know some 20-something who already has two rental properties and maxes out her 401k contributions every year.

Then there are the old codgers on this site, who have so much money they can spend hours every week bragging about how they "Blough that Dough".