Frivolous, ageing parent - financial advice

charoniv

>> She can be very shortsighted/tight and doesn’t seem to understand what benefits and peace of mind she’ll get from getting advice.

Seems that she has piece of mind at the moment.
Be careful that you don't end up causing her to worry about this and are you sure it's not your own piece of mind that you are concerned about.

I have friends that have spent their lives living beyond their means - but something always seems to happen to get them out of a jam. In the meantime they have a lot of nice holidays.
I have other friends who deny themselves luxuries because they aren't sure they can afford it - sure they have more money that they are lending to banks but who is to say what is best.
Note: I have other friends who have lived like the first lot and who haven't been as "lucky" so I'm not advocating it - just saying it is a choice and there's not a lot you can do about it unless they want to change.

My first mortgage was repayment because I was worried about debt. Had I taken out an interest only I could have used the extra money at the time and now that mortgage could have been paid off from petty cash.

pjcox2005

Fledgling40 wrote: »

Thanks all, so the consensus is there’s no professional/private body who can advise her or help her map out a retirement plan? I’ve been searching and found SOLLA, but not sure if they’re reputable.

Not investment advice but citizens advice bureau may be worth a try:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/pensions/nearing-retirement/preparing-your-finances-for-retirement/

Will have experience on budgeting, working out what pensions she’s got and mapping it out etc. Could be a good starting point so that she is thinking of how she’ll cope in retirement.

Alexland

Realistically if she is going to have an adequate retirement then it's going to be a 3 pronged strategy of private pension (what has she got, could she add more and how will she draw it?), state pension (has she got a forecast and could she buy more?) and releasing money from the property.

An IFA or Citizens Advice could help or you could spend time getting really clued up in these areas to help her get the best outcome.

A property is usually a substantial asset so great care must be taken in arranging the release of money.

I assume you are not expecting an inheritance.

Alex

117pauline

Hi

My first question would be - does she see this as a problem? Does she actually want your help?

As a woman of her age, I would suggest you should be very careful at the way you offer your "help" as your thread title of"frivolous, ageing parent.. financial advice" is extremely patronising.

Have you just tried talking, rather than thinking "She can be very shortsighted/tight and doesn’t seem to understand what benefits and peace of mind she’ll get from getting advice".

I do understand your concerns but I ask you to think about the choice of words which will reflect your beliefs about your mum. You are being very judgemental as well as patronising.

PasturesNew

Here are the facts:
- if she runs out of cash before she retires she'll have to sign on or get a job. Tough, but she'll live.
- if she spends all her money and is at retirement age she'll get the old age pension and will have to cut her cloth. Many thousands live on that, she'll live.

While I can see you're worried about her blowing all her cash on frivolous things .... it is actually her money/life and she is making that choice.

ermine

Fledgling40 wrote: »

Thanks all, so the consensus is there’s no professional/private body who can advise her or help her map out a retirement plan? I’ve been searching and found SOLLA, but not sure if they’re reputable.

The problem is your mother doesn't have enough money to retire. End of story. Though she may be able to run down her assets in the home. Depends where it is. Her liquid assets of 50K is nowhere near enough. That's all you need to know, sadly.

OTOH there aren't any pockets in a shroud...

badmemory

Do you know for certain how much money she has? Can you be sure she hasn't for once in her life set aside some fritter money? If she is used to being 'tight' she isn't going to throw it all away overnight. As for ageing parent, if she still has 10 years to go to retirement so mid 50s, how condescending!

Sarastro

Why do you think she needs support? People are allowed to be stupid with their money. Sounds more like she's not living by your values so there must be something wrong with her? Maybe this is the first time in her life she's not had to worry about managing day to day and she just wants to be irresponsible for a while? Maybe she's always been irresponsible? Maybe she just doesn't mind. Who knows...clearly you don't because you haven't bothered to ask her.

justme111

ermine wrote: »

The problem is your mother doesn't have enough money to retire.

The above seems very wrong- if she all her life were close to minimal wage and managed to bring up a child and pay a mortgage she will probably be very happy on a SP.
OP, as someone mentioned citizen advice could be helpful but if she does not think she has a problem then your suggestion of it may be not exactly welcomed and futile. Besides , from what you are saying it is unclear whether she actually has a problem. I would advise to familiarise yourself with her financial situation (if she welcomes your nonjudgemental and nonintrusive interest) and then give her some pointers if you think her affairs could be managed better. In order to be able to fo it you would have to learn about it yourself- do it for both yours and mother's sake.
I am not sure what you mean "no contingency for illness" - she has money in the bank- what ither contingency you would expect? Besides she does not work anyway now so it is not as if her income suddenly dropped due to illness.
There is nothing wrong with a belief that as long as one can cover the bills one will be fine - why do you disagree with it ?

p00hsticks

Perhaps more appropriate than citizens advice would be the Pensions Advisory Service -a government initiated service that provides free information about pensions

https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/