How to Help Senior Relatives Afford Retirement

As your loved ones get older and start to move towards retirement, there may be a lot of changes in their lives that they need to navigate. While it isn’t something you have to help them with, being there for them and providing them with assistance is a wonderful thing to do. They may be struggling, and you could be their lifeline, especially if they have questions about managing their retirement expenses.

Look Into Investment Options

Investments are best made well ahead of retirement, but they can still be helpful, even if it is a little later in the game. There are plenty of short-term investments that can pay off in 5 years or less that can be helpful to set up for your loved ones. 

While no investment is without risk, you can make more stable choices that will help them see decent dividends. Obviously, their returns won’t be as high as they would, for a long-term investment, but short-term bonds, certificates of deposit, and money market accounts are all low risk with 2-4% returns.

Help Them Sign Up for Aid Programs

If your relatives are low on funds, there are plenty of aid programs that are available to assist them with living expenses and day-to-day needs. These programs are often government-sponsored, but there are also plenty of charities that are focused on caring for retired folks. This is especially true for seniors that have health concerns. 

Medicare and Medicaid can both help pay for hospice care needs. Start by looking into local programs and seeing what they offer that may be useful for your relatives. There is usually a decent amount of paperwork required to get started, so it can be very helpful to your relatives if you can go through that with them.

Help Them Downsize

It takes a sizable amount of money to maintain a large home, especially if you are no longer able to do maintenance or repairs yourself. If your relatives are still living in the family home they had when their children were at home, they may be spending more money than they can afford on upkeep and they may have way more space than they need. Downsizing their home or even just sorting through and clearing out unwanted possessions can go a long way toward saving money on retirement expenses.

Retirement is something that many people are looking forward to, but the changes can be rough, especially if your relatives aren’t financially prepared. Make sure you are working together as a family to support them and to help this become a happy time, rather than a stressful time.

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