Challenge #15

This is a follow up to last week’s question about who we trust with our health if we can’t make those decisions.  For our aging population, there’s something else that may need management, – their finances.

Older people may have vision problems, or become increasingly forgetful (not every memory lapse is Alzheimer’s), or just not completely understand the invoices they receive. Some bills (in the US, especially medical bills) may be confusing to the best of us.

So, planning for the future – if you became disabled, were travelling for an extended time, or were in the hospital for a while, how would you arrange to have your bills paid?

Have you thought about a Financial Power of Attorney and who  you would appoint? Have you discussed your finances or your long-term financial plan with your children or other family members?

This week’s challenge – If you are (or will soon be) a senior – have you thought about who might help you manage your financial matters if the time comes when you can’t manage them yourself? How would you make that choice?   If you are a younger person with seniors in your life – have they ever discussed their financial futures with you? If not, and if you felt the need to ask, how would you start the conversation?

As part of my retirement theme,  I offer this weekly Thursday “Future Challenge” to get people of all ages thinking in general about their futures and/or retirement. Each challenge goes with a post of my own on the same general topic. Hopefully we’ll start some interesting discussions!

If you’d like to share what you think, or post on it, that’s great – and I’d love it if you’d share those thoughts in a post or comment (please tag posts TRS Future Challenge and link to this post) so others can also see them.

If you choose not to share them, that’s fine too – but with any luck, you’ll still gain some insight on where you’re headed (or would like to be), and how you can get the most out of your own journey.

For my own take on this week’s challenge, see my post Why Everybody Needs a Plan – Part 2, or Where’s Mom’s Checkbook?