My dad is 64. My mom is 57. They immigrated to the U.S. decades ago away from their war-torn country, in search for a better life for themselves and their children. Both have had difficulties with jobs due to their lack of higher education and technical skills. My dad has seen layoffs and long periods of unemployment throughout the years. My mom was a stay-at-home-mom and worked several odd jobs throughout the years, mostly under-the-table. Last year, my dad and mom grossed $34k and $24k, respectively, and are on pace to do the same this year.
My three siblings, now in our 20s, had very little growing up and were in federal assistance programs to get by. We put ourselves through college and never asked our parents for any help for any financial situation. Three of us are working full-time now while still living at home with our parents because it's the best financial situation for us at the moment, but that will eventually change as life goes on. All the while the three of us have all been giving our parents money just to keep up with the expenses from bills, etc.
My parents have:
- no retirement savings
- <$1k cash/liquid savings due to the cost of living and living paycheck-to-paycheck
- ~$170k left on the mortgage, the same house for ~30 years
- two auto loans still in repayment
- little to no credit card debt (brother and I voluntarily paid thousands of their CC debt)
Fact is, they cannot live without the financial support from their children, so we will continue to support them, but I want to work on a better plan. Their retirement plan is the support they'll receive from their children — for the rest of their lives. At this point, they may have to work the rest of their life and it makes sense to do so. But that may be too big of an ask if their age/health compromises their work situation in the future. They are great folks and we love them, and I want them to retire comfortably and with dignity. I could not be the person I am today with their support and sacrifice, so I am committed to plan their retirement.
Once they retire, we want to be as prepared as possible. What more can/should we do now?
My siblings and I are financially literate so we will take care of our finances first (i.e. our retirement funding, paying off debts, and saving up for the future). I have been giving tens of thousands since my university days up to today to support my parents. Our family finances have improved greatly in the past few years the moment my siblings and I got full-time jobs. However, it's still burdening to balance our financial goals with our parent's retirement even though it is voluntary on our part. My brothers and I gross <$60k/year each, so it's a struggle right now.
Here are some of my rough plans for my parents:
- start an IRA for my parents so they can get the Retirement Savings Contributions Credit (Saver's Credit)
- work on reducing their unnecessary spending, build a better budget, keep lifestyle creep in its place
- toying with the idea that we can start a family business to remove my parents from the fatigues of manual labor where they can operate it while in retirement
- look into their Social Security accounts to see what they're able to get in retirement
- investigate their mortgage and auto loans
Thank you for reading.
TD;LR: parents have no retirement savings, have debilitating mortgage debt, and require financial support from their children from now until the rest of their days. What can we do to prepare for their retirement?
Submitted September 24, 2017 at 10:03PM by pf_fi http://ift.tt/2yANdKP
