My mom is nearly 50 and refuses to start a retirement account. She's been self employed her entire life so she doesn't have a 401k either. She believes her house is her retirement account, but the mortgage and other housing costs eat up well over half her income. Last week she told me she was going to buy a brand new Lexus and my heart sank.
I'm really worried for my mother's financial future and I've tried explaining to her why I feel that way, but she gets really defensive each time. She's a vain person and the appearance of wealth is important to her, even at the cost of her actual wealth. I saw this coming when the rest of her siblings who have similar spending habits all bought luxury cars within the past few years.
I've decided to sit down with her and show her some hard calculations so she can see the numbers involved. Is this going too far? Are there good instructional materials or core concepts that I should cover that you would recommend? English isn't her first language so any tips on how to explain things in a simple way would be much appreciated.
Submitted October 15, 2018 at 09:59PM by GinSita https://ift.tt/2RR0BnR
