My mother is about to turn 61 in August and has decided that she wants to retire after the conclusion of the next school year (2017-2018). She loves her job, but says she just wants to retire (she has alluded that she doesn't like working with technology). She is a widow (my father passed away in 1998) who makes around $70,000 a year before taxes as a teacher of the visually impaired (works for a private company in public schools).
When I asked her how she will fund her retirement, she says she has a pension through the Pennsylvania Public School School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS), investments with New York Life, and that she plans on taking Social Security. I have asked her how much her pension will be, what the value of her investments are, and how much SS she will receive, and she has no idea (she's the type of person who "shuts down" when presented with information she doesn't understand).
My worries are that she won't have enough to retire comfortably. The state of Pennsylvania is in a horrible financial situation and I have read that they might not be able to afford to pay all of the pensions they have guaranteed. Also, there have been indicators in the past that her brother is not very good at his job. Many years ago, an acquaintance from church had gotten a job with a financial company and had come over to the house to review her finances and had suggested some changes. When she talked to her brother about the changes, he said something along the lines of, "I didn't know you wanted to do that. We can do that for you." He knows she is not financially literate, so why he would expect her to tell him how to invest her money is beyond me. She has also alluded to the fact that she is currently pulling money out of her savings to pay for things. I don't know how much, but she she made it seem like it was a regular occurrence.
My two questions are:
1) Where should she go to get advice on retirement? How can she (I) find a reliable source for that?
2) Does anyone have any advice on how to convince her to finally get serious about her retirement? My brother and I have talked to her numerous times about it in the past and have gotten nowhere (we are no BS, straight to the point people, and she is not).
Any and all advice/help is very much appreciated. I apologize for the flood of details, but I wanted to provide all relevant details. If any more information is needed, I will happily provide it.
Submitted May 22, 2017 at 05:29PM by B1G_Jai_Bronson http://ift.tt/2rJH4Zp
