I'm in my 30's, and financially my wife and I have our act together. My mother is in her early 60's, and financially doesn't. She has been talking a lot about wanting to retire lately, and I have been skeptical about the feasibility. I've made offers to help her figure out if she is ready or not, and she always puts it off. There's nobody else in her life that she can get financial advice from, and it's a completely uninteresting topic for her.
Recently I forced the issue. I sat down with her, started making an income/expenses spreadsheet, and we determined that she will have a $3-600/month budget deficit for essential living expenses, not counting any vacation or other fun retirement stuff. The big problem is that she has little equity in her home due to constant refinancing.
I discussed ways to mitigate this problem: renting out a room, downsizing to a low cost area, etc, but she isn't open to any of that.
Unfortunately now she brushes the topic off with responses like "I'm not planning to retire until the end of the year, so I'll have saved more by then" and "my <non_financial_advisor> guy says it'll be fine!" And is becoming adamant about retiring by the end of the year.
Any ideas on tactful ways to say "YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY!!!" Or otherwise get the point across? I feel like she is in for a rude awakening. But might not realize it until the house needs a new roof in 5 years and she literally cannot pay for it. Or should I move on, having said what I already have?
Submitted February 07, 2024 at 12:26AM by colfaxbowling https://ift.tt/6hWid8Q
